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Punctuation
Question mark(?) is used with the interrogatives e.g. who, why, when, what etc. They are used to end the question.
English | Acholi |
What is your name? | Nyingi nga? |
How old are you? | Mwoka ni adi? |
Where do you come from? | I bino ki kany? |
When did you arrive? | I ok a wene? |
Exclamation mark(!) is used for command statements.
English | Acholi |
What happen! | Ngo mo time! |
Why don't you come! | Pingo bong i bin! |
Who was that! | Moni nga! |
Bring it here! | Kel kany! |
Quotation mark('', “”) are either double or single quotes are for quoting statements from another person or reporting something from someone.
English | Acholi |
He said, “I will come tomorrow” | En owaco nia, “ebino diki” |
I said, “what is wrong?” | I waco ni, “ngo marac?” |
according to Obol, 'It was a sad story…" | Kit pa obol, “en ododo marac…” |
it was raining yesterday’, Odul said | kot ocwe laworo’, Odul owaco nia |
Comma(,) is used to mark a breathing point in a sentence. Some sentences are too long to read the whole thing so we put comma to say you can breath here. It is also used to break things.
English | Acholi |
One, two, three, and four. | Acel, ariyo, adek, ki angwen. |
This sentence is too long, we offer a breathing place here. | Coc en ni bor, wa keto ka ywe kany. |
I am lokang, you are Okello, and we are luo writers. | an Lokang, in Okello, ki wan weng lococ Luo. |
Semicon(;) is used to end long sentence which have comma in it.
English | Acholi |
In the morning I eat breakfast, take tea, and wash my face; in the afternoon i cook food and sleep. | ki odiko i camo, mato cai, ki a lwoko wanga; i otieno atedo kwon ki a nino. |
We arrived late; our bus broke down; then they made it run again. | wa ok kwe; bac twua obale; ki gi yibo oweko oringo too. |
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