Grammar
There are eight (8) parts of speech;-
(1) Verbs
There are up to five forms for each verb;-
i) Root,
ii) third-person singular,
iii) present participle,
iv) past,
v) past participle.
i) Root
Lango | English |
---|---|
Bwonyo | Smile |
Koko | Weep/Crying |
Woto | Walk/go |
Yubo | Improve/repair |
Wero | Singing |
Olo | Caugh |
Kwanyo | Taking/removing |
Pwonyo | Teaching |
Myelo | Dance |
Nyero | Laugh |
Ngwec/Ringo | Running |
Lwio | Whistle |
Ryeko | Clever/smart |
Dwar | Hunting |
Pyem | Competition |
Okok | Termite |
Bido | Soaking |
Lak | Creeping/teeth |
Bur | Cave/hole |
Ret/awano | Bruise/wound |
Gadigadi | Cart |
Mude | Brittle |
Biacara | Business |
Bwoo | Foam/fishing net |
Puyo | Churn |
ii) Third Person Singular
Third Person Singular Form of a Verb in Lango are words that end with o.
English | Lango |
---|---|
watches | neno/Cawa |
shrinks | jungo |
does | timo |
walks | woto |
visits | limo |
iii) Present Participle
They are identified by the word tye a.
Lango | English |
---|---|
Tye a bino | he/she is coming. |
Tye a tuko | he/she is playing. |
Tye a woto | he/she is going / walking. |
Tye a ngwec | he/she is running. |
iv) Past
They start with O or A. When O is used it means that it is he/she but when A is used it means I/me.
English | Lango |
---|---|
played | otuko/Atuko |
Talked | Oloko/Alok |
Baught | Owilo/Awil |
Came | Obino/Abino |
Ran | Ongweco/Angwec |
v) Past participle
They are formed by adding ed or d to the end of the root form of the verb.
For example;
Present | Past participle | Present (Lango) | Past participle (Lango). |
Raise | Raised | Ting | Tingo |
Has | Had | En | En |
Kick | Kicked | Gwe | Gweo |
Pass | Passed | Kat | Kato |
Play | Played | Tuk | Tuko |
An action
English | Lango |
---|---|
Run | Ngwec |
Hit | Dongo |
Travel | Wot/capwal |
Slap | Bap |
Bring | Kel |
An event
English | Lango |
---|---|
Rain | kot |
Occured | otimere |
Occupied | Tic odio |
Ryeny | Shining |
Koyo | Cold |
A situation
English | Lango |
---|---|
be | bed/bedi |
seem | nen calo |
have | tye/gam |
A change
English | Lango |
---|---|
become | Bedo |
grow | Dongo |
develop | Dongo |
(2) Adverbs
Adverbs in Lango are words that are repeated.
In English, they are the words that end with -ly.
English | Lango |
---|---|
Slowly | momot |
quickly | oyotoyot |
powerfully | tetek |
truthfully | ateteni |
Adverbs in Lango can also be joined by the word and (kede).
English | Lango |
---|---|
Yearly | Mwaka kede Mwaka |
Hourly | Kare kede kare/cawa kede cawa |
monthly | Dwe kede dwe |
daily | Nino kede nino |
carefully | diro kede diro |
(3) Adjectives
Are words that describe the qualities or state of being of nouns.
For example:
enormous, doglike, silly, yellow, fun, fast.
They can also describe the quantity of nouns:
For example:
many, few, millions, eleven.
English | Lango |
---|---|
Many | Ngeny/pol |
Much | dwong |
More | pol |
Gigantic | Twone |
Good | Ber |
strong | tek |
fat | ocwe/cwe |
fast | dwir |
foolish | ming |
bad | rac |
weak | goro |
slow | momot |
clever | ryek |
Adjectives in the past.
English | Lango |
---|---|
Lokang loved his job. | Lokang nwongo maro tic mere. |
Lokang is bored. | Lokang ool. |
Atyeno is interested in politics. | Atyeno maro wi bye |
Everybody was surprised that he passed exam. | Joo ducu owuro ni en okato peny. |
I was shocked when I heard the news. | An nwongo awuru cawa me a winyo kwena. |
Adjectives in present continuous.
English | Lango |
---|---|
Lokang is loving his job. | Lokang tye amaro tic mere. |
Lokang's job is boring | Tic a Lokang obedo aoli. |
Atyeno thinks that politics is interesting. | Atyeno tamo ni wibye mit/yot. |
It was surprising that he passed the exam. | Nwongo me wura ni en okato peny. |
The news was shocking. | Kwena no nwongo wure. |
(4) Nouns
A noun is a word that names something: either a person, place, or thing.
a) Singular nouns.
Lango | English |
---|---|
Akuru | Dove |
Anyeri | Edible rat |
Ngat/dano | person |
Ot | house |
b) Plural nouns.
Lango | English |
---|---|
Anyira | Girls |
Awobe | Boys |
Otino | Children |
Odonge/odito | Elders |
Otic/opakica | Employees/workers |
Ogedo | Builders |
Okwena | Messengers |
Udi | Houses |
c) Countable nouns.
Countable nouns are added with;- gi, me, and joo to it to sound many.
In English,it is adding words like a, an, and some.
English | Lango |
---|---|
Blacksmiths | Otet |
A South Sudanese | Dano me Cauth Cudan |
A farmer | A pur |
Preachers | O lego/ Otuc jiri |
d) Uncountable nouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
ant hill | Bye |
Earth | Lobo/piny |
electricity | mac |
(5) Pronouns.
Pronouns are used in place of nouns.
a) Personal pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
I | An |
me | an |
you(sgl) | in/yin |
you(pl) | gin/wun |
he | en |
she | en |
it | en |
we | wan |
they | gin |
them | gin |
b) Possessive pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
mine | Mega/mera |
yours | Megi/meri/megwu |
his | mege/mere |
hers | mege/mere |
ours | megwa |
theirs | meggi |
c) Relative pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
which | mene |
who | nga |
that | maca |
d) Demonstrative pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
this | man |
that | cani/maca |
these | magi |
those | mago/jono |
e) Emphatic pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
myself | an ikoma |
yourself | in ikomi |
himself | en ikome |
herself | en ikome |
itself | en ikome |
ourselves | wan ikomwa |
f) Reflexive pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
myself | an ikoma |
yourself | in ikomi |
himself | en ikome |
herself | en ikome |
itself | en ikome |
ourselves | wan ikomwa |
g) Indefinite pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
none | petye |
several | adwong/pol |
many | adwong/pol |
some | mogo/moro |
any | moro |
somebody | ngat moro/dano moro |
nobody | petye |
h) Interrogative pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
which | mene? |
who | nga? |
what | ngo? |
i) Reciprical pronouns.
English | Lango |
---|---|
each other | Lubere/karacel |
one another | Lubere/Ngat acelacel |
(6) Articles
Articles are words that define a noun as specific or unspecific. There are two types of Articles e.g. definite and indefinite.
The articles
English | Lango |
The | en,me |
a, an | An, a |
a) Definite article
The definite article is the word the (en,me,a in Lango).
The definite article can be used with singular, plural, or uncountable nouns.
Using article the in sentence
Lango | English |
Wan otye ocamo gweno a Ocol. | We are eating the Ocol's chicken. |
Lub yoo a Lokang. | follow the Lokang road/way. |
b) Indefinite Article
The indefinite article takes two forms.
It's the word a when it precedes a word that begins with a consonant. It's the word an when it precedes a word that begins with a vowel.
In Lango,the indefinite words are a and an and they are used interchangeably.
Using article a or an in sentence
Lango | English |
En obedo a pacu. | He/she is a homie |
En obedo a wer. | he/she is a musician |
Nyom dano a kanica | Marry a church person |
b) Article with uncountable noun.
For example
Some is moro in Lango language.
Uncountable nouns are nouns not so easy to count for instance sand, water, light.
Uncountable nouns use the word some in place of the, a and an. In Lango, some is translated as moro.
English | Lango |
Please give me some water. | Konya i mia pii moro. |
Please give me some sugar. | Konya i mia cukari moro. |
(6) Conjunctions/ Junctions
A conjunction is a part of speech that is used to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.
For example; And, As, Because, But, For, Just as, Or, Neither, Nor, Not only, So, Whether and Yet.
English | Lango |
And | Kede |
As | Akaka |
Because | Pi/Pien/pyen |
But | Ento |
Just as | acalo bala |
Or | nyo |
Neither | kadi |
Nor | Onyo |
Not only | pe keken |
So | Kun/wek |
Whether | kadi |
Yet | Pwodi |
Also | dang |
Constructing sentences
English | Lango |
Ouma and Okello | Ouma kede Okello |
He looked right side as he turned | En oneno tung cem kun en lokere |
His name is Lokang because he is a male | En nyinge obedo Lokang pyen en obedo icoo/awobi. |
It is cold but he showered. | Piny ngic ento en olwokere. |
(7) Interjections
An interjection is a word that you throw in between sentences or thoughts to express a sudden feeling.
These words include;-
wow!, what? ooh! etc.
Interjection words in Lango include;-
eeeee!, Wudoo!, ito! Acoo bee, enooo, kur kong,oidooo etc.
(8) Prepositions
Words that join sentences together.
English | Lango |
He will walk to the market | en bino woto i cuk. |
He is a respected person | en obedo dano me wore |
He said he was brave, wow he got it | En okobo ni en nwongo e tek,enoooo en onwongo oko. |
Oh no, I can't believe that it is snowing here again! | Ojoni,pe aromo yeng ni pee tye amako Kan doki! |
The work is too big, phew it will be done today. | Tic tye adwong atek,eeeeee atum tin. |
wait! did you say it is finished? | kur Kong,yin i kobo ni otum. |
Wow! it was big. | Wuuuu, nwongo dit. |
What! did he say that? | Ngo? En okobo kito? |
You know um! I actually don't know much about it. | In I ngeo eee! An ateteni pe angeo apol ikom en. |
Like that, yes! | Kit Mano,eyo! |
You see! He/she turned away. | I Neno! En olokere tenge. |
Preposition
Preposition are; in, on, at, under in English.
They are; i, i ceng, ikare,i te in Lango language.
In (i).
English | Lango |
---|---|
In the morning. | I odiko |
In the afternoon | i otyeno |
In the evening | i obwora |
On (i ceng).
English | Lango |
---|---|
On Monday. | I ceng okiko |
On the weekends. | i ceng cabitweo |
On Christmas | I ceng me nyuale a yecu. |
At (i kare)
English | Lango |
---|---|
At the weekends | I kare me cabitweo |
At night | I kare me iwor |
At the same time | I kare acel/mano/nono |
On Christmas | I kare me nyuale a yecu |
Under (i te)
English | Lango |
---|---|
under a tree. | ite yat. |
under a table. | ite meja. |
Under a chair. | ite kom. |
Under a law. | ite cik. |