Chapter 3: Being, Having and the Present

"To Be" and "To Have" in Dholuo

Dholuo has no verb "to be". Learn how to say where someone is with -tie, and how gi and kod express "to have".

📚 Theory: The verb ‘to be’.

There is no Dholuo equivalent of the verb ‘to be’. Thus to say, ‘The food is tasty’, you would simply say, ‘chiemo mit!’, which is ‘food tasty!’. To get around this, dholuo uses the verb ‘tie’ which means to be present. This verb is odd in that it takes the full pronouns instead of their derived prefixes (eg. ‘antie’ instead of ‘atie’), and if there’s an overt subject, it takes the form ‘nitie’. The opposite of ‘tie’ is ‘onge’ which means ‘to be lacking’.

Dholuo	Literal	English	Notes
An + tie = Antie	I + present = I present	I am present
In + tie = Intie	You + present = You present	You are present
En + tie = Entie	He/She + present = You present	He/She is present
Wan + tie = Wantie	We + present = You present	We are present
Un + tie = Untie	You (plural) + present = You present	You (plural) are present
Gin + tie = Gintie	They + present = They present	They are present
Chiemo nitie.	Food + present = You present	There is food.	Since there’s an overt object, the verb takes the form ‘nitie’.
Mary nitie	Mary is present	Mary is present	Since ‘Mary is called by name, the verb takes the form ‘nitie’.
Aonge	I + not present	I am not here.	The pronoun suffixes are used instead of the full pronouns.
Mary onge	Mary + not present	Mary is not present
Chiemo onge	Food + not present	There is no food

📚 Theory: To Have

The words ‘gi’ and ‘kod’ are used to express the verb ‘to have’. They literally mean ‘with’. The word ‘kod’ is interesting because it can be followed by a pronoun suffix. For example, you can say, ‘Abiro kode’ which means ‘I am coming with him/her’, but you can’t say ‘Abiro gi en’.

Dholuo	Literal	English	Notes
An gi chiemo	I + with + food	I have food
En gi pesa	He/She + with + money	He/She has money
Wan gi guok	We + with + dog	We have a dog
Ochieng’ nigi nyithindo	Ochieng’ + with + children	Ochieng’ has children.	When the subject is overt (eg. ‘the dog’, ‘the policeman’, or ‘Ochieng’ but not ‘I’ or ‘We’ or ‘You’, then the copula ‘ni’ is added before ‘gi’ like in the example above.
John nigi kalam	John + with + pencil	John has children.	When the subject is overt (eg. ‘the dog’, ‘the policeman’, or ‘Ochieng’ but not ‘I’ or ‘We’ or ‘You’, then the copula ‘ni’ is added before ‘gi’ like in the example above.
En kod ot	He/She + with + house	He/She has a house
Gibiro kodwa	They are coming + with us.	They are coming with us.

💬 Conversation Practice

Yambo

Ikelo ango?

You bring + what?

What have you brought?

Akinyi

Akelo rabuon gi gweno.

I bring + sweet potatoes + with + chicken

I’ve brought sweet potatoes with chicken

Yambo

Antie gi mo

I am present + with + oil.

I have oil

Akinyi

Ibiro chielo chiemo mamit

You will + fry + food + tastily

You will fry the food tastily

Yambo

Ee, abiro chiemo gi owada.

Yes + i will + eat + with + my relative.

Yes, I will eat with my relative.

📚 Vocabulary from the Conversation

Dholuo	English	Type	Notes
Ikelo	You bring	Verb
Mo	Oil	Noun
Owada	My relative	Noun	Could be used to refer to a sibling or cousin.

✍️ What do you have?

Let’s practice: what do you have? List 5 things in Dholuo.

Example: An gi buge ariyo (I have two books).

Check your surroundings. What’s near you?

Suggested length: up to 1000 words.

🎯 Practice Exercises

Practice is free: just sign in

Create a free account to unlock the interactive exercises for this lesson and track your progress. The lessons stay free to read, always.

Speak on Echo

Answer the daily Dholuo prompt or post your own recording on Echo. Other learners listen, and a native Luo speaker reviews how you sound.

Practice speaking on Echo

← Chapter 2 Review More Noun Plurals: -the, -che, -ye →