UNDERSTANDING VERBS IN THE GA LANGUAGE

In every language, verbs are very crucial for making good sentences. There is no language which has no usage of verbs in its grammar. The same applies to the Ga language. In the Ga language, we have two types of verbs. Those are the verbs with the "mɔ suffixes" and likewise those without the "mɔ suffixes."

That aside, we have verbs that are very simple in nature and those that are complex. The complexity of verbs in the Ghana language is just like it is in German. Let us take German for example we have the separable affixes, which are inflected in sentence formations example ich kaufe Brot ein. The verb is einkaufen but in the sentence formartion, "kaufe" came before "ein."

The same applies to the Dutch language. For example I am going out of the home, which translates as Ik ga het huis uit.  The verb is uitgaan which has been inflected in the sentence formation.

This same grammatical rule also applies to the Ga language. When you take a verb in its complex form, you realize that the beginning part of the verb would go to the end when forming the sentence. What do I mean?

Let's take, for example, nihemɔ. We say miihe nii. The verb is made of 2 parts,

ni - postposition 

hemɔ - verb 

Literally "thing to buy." With this understanding, we can say that the post position went to the end when forming the sentence, whereas the verb will usually be conjugated together with the pronoun.

Let's take more examples, 

                    sanenaajiemɔ - to interpret

This is made up of

sane - issue (noun)

naa - postposition 

jiemɔ - verb 

so, when we put this in a sentence, miijie sane naa (postpositions end sentences in Ga). 

[you can learn about postpositions on Huniah-yourhighness tv]

That is the same situation we are seeing here. Then the verb was conjugated together with the pronoun "Mii" 

for more examples,

- oojie sane naa - you're interpreting an issue/statement

- eejie sane naa

- wɔɔjie sane naa.....

 

Another example that we can consider is the verb miyii - to play a drum.

We can break them up mi - drum & yii - to play

So, we have miiyi mi - I am playing a drum,

- Nii m'yi mi amrɔ nɛɛ - Nii is playing drums at the moment.

 

Let us take this verb wɔŋmɔmɔ - to worship a deity

In this case, the mɔ ending in the verb wɔŋmɔmɔ is eliminated as explained in the Ga verbs 2 video. Then, the remaining parts wɔŋmɔ is expressed in the usual way i.e. mɔ wɔŋ.

 

Let us take some complex verbs examples at this moment

Nikwɛmɔ - kwɛ nii

Adafitswaa - tswaa adafi

wanejee - jee (he) wane

buulufeemɔ feemɔ buulu

EXAMPLES OF VERBS WITH MƆ SUFFIXES

1.     Teremɔ/Telemɔ - To carry load on head

2.     Gbalamɔ - To pull

3.     falamɔ - to make full appear well

4.     kpalamɔ - to dust

5.     feemɔ - to do

6.     toomɔ - to iron

7.     saamɔ - to arrange/to repair

8.     kwɛmɔ - to look/to see

9.     filikimɔ - to fly

10.  hoomɔ - to cook

11.  fitemɔ - to ruin/to spoil

12.  kwamɔ - to reject

13.  kpoomɔ - to abandon

14.  nyiɛmɔ - to walk

15.  ninaabuamɔ - to stock up something

16.  naamɔ - to step on/to stamp

17.  bɔlɔmɔ - to shout

18.  talamɔ - to pile up

19.  jaramɔ - to rectify

20.  hemɔ - to take/to collect/to receive/to buy

21.  shɔɔmɔ - to scratch something on a wall

22.  shoomɔ - to sweep water away

23.  taomɔ - to look for/to search

24.  sɔɔmɔ - to catch

25.  loomɔ - to collect liquid from the ground/pile of grains or human excreta

26.  shamɔmɔ - to urinate

27.  kumɔmɔ - to break into pieces

28.  damɔmɔ - to stand on something

29.  tsumɔmɔ - to clean

 

EXAMPLES OF VERBS WITHOUT MƆ SUFFIXES

There are 2 groups in this section and we take some examples.

 

GROUP 1 (KLƐŊKLƐŊ KU)

·       yɛ - to have/to be positioned at/to be

·       ba –to come/come

·       yaa –to go/go

·       ye – to eat

·       ŋmaa – to write/write

·       tuu – to jump/jump

·       joo – to dance/dance

·       fɔ - to give birth/to wash

·       saa – the usage of herbs to wash one’s stomach

·       lá – to sing

·       fɔɔ - to throw/to throw away

·       shãa – to burn

·       fãa – to remove from the earth/to pluck out/to dig out

·       bu – to put on (a hat)

·       wo – to wear a cloth or an attire

·       foo - to cut

·       sha – to capture with a camera/to take a video or photo of someone

 

GROUP 2 (KU NI JI ENYƆ)

·       Ta shi (tãi) – to sit down

·       Hii shi – to stay

·       bɛɛ shi – to calm down/to be cool (colloquial)

·       joo foi – to run/to run away

·       jee kpo – to come out of a room

·       bɔɔ mɔdɛŋ – to do well/to try hard