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Compound tenses

1 min read · 193 words

Simple future

Just add "beeş" before the simple present verb and there you have it; the simple future:

Neşrio
buy.PRESENT.1pl
carhbe
car

‘We buy a car’

Beeş
will.nigh
neşrio
buy.PRESENT.1pl
carhbe
car

‘We will soon buy a car’

Distant Future

Add "taú" before the simple present:

Nemşio
go.PRESENT.1pl
l
to
es
the
Sueed
Sweden

‘We travel to Sweden’

Taú
will.distant
nemşio
go.PRESENT.1pl
l
to
es
the
Sueed
Sweden

‘We will eventually travel to Sweden (at some point in the future)’

Conditional and Emphatic

Before the past simple, the prepositional pronoun "Raa" signifies the conditional present perfect.

Keen
if
qreit
study.PAST.2sg
akŧer,
more,
raa=k
COND=2sg
jebt
bring.PAST.2sg
noot
grade

‘If you had studied harder, you would have passed [the exam]’

Before the simple present, it signifies either assertion or "would + bare infinitive + today" construction:

Raa=o
COND=3sg.ms
yofter
lunch.PRESENT.3sg.ms

‘He's [actually/literally] having lunch ’

Keen
if
investit
invest.PAST.1sg
f
in
el
the
bitcoin,
bitcoin,
raa=ni
COND=1sg
ğni
rich

‘If I had invested in bitcoin, I would have been rich [as of this instant]’

Before simple future it signifies emphasis

Raa=ni
COND-1sg
beeş
will
nnaħilek
remove.PRESENT.1sg
et
the
teliphoun
phone

‘[I swear] I will take away your phone’

Progressive tense

For present tense, use the particle "fi" after the verb and before your object (if it's a transitive verb) to imply progressiveness of the action:

  1. Ttaíeb gatto?

  • "Do you cook cake?"

  1. Ttaíeb fi gatto?

  • "Are you cooking a cake?"

  1. Noşreb teei

  • "I drink tea"

  1. Noşreb f et teei

  • "I am drinking [a cup of] tea"

(You can remove 'et'. Just wanted to illustrate how to use 'fi' in different biomes in a sentence)

For other tenses, you need to conjugate the auxiliary verb "keen" in that very tense and then follow your main verb in the simple present. Otherwise you're not allowed "fi".

  1. Simple past:

Rit
see.PAST.1sg
qattous
cat

‘I saw a cat’

Kont
be.PAST.1sg
nraa
see.PRSNT.1sg
fi
PROG
qattous
cat

‘I was seeing a cat’

  1. Simple future

Beeş
will
naqraa
study.PRESENT.1sg
math
math

‘I will major in math’

Beeş
will
nkoun
be.PRESENT.1sg
naqraa
study.PRESENT.1sg
f
PROG
el
the
math
math

‘I will be majoring in math’

Note for past tense, progressive aspect can also signify past habbit

Kont
be.PAST.1sg
nastaad
hunt.PRESENT.1sg

‘I used to hunt/fish ~ I was hunting/fishing’