This assignment is part of the grammar sections focusing on verbs, which you can see here.
Use the following chart to make sense of the present tense:
The basic rule of the Simple Present is the following. If your sentence is Positive (a ‘YES’ sentence), then you only have two options, and you can only change things in position 2. You do not add anything in Position 1, and Position 3 is a default -A. But in Position 2, you can either put -YA- or leave it blank.
So which one do you choose, and why?
It all depends on the rest of the sentence. You need to ask a question in order to find it out: is there a word following the verb phrase?
Here’s an example:
| I am eating | [no word following the verb phrase] | ngi-ya-dl-a |
| I eat well | [adverb following the verb phrase] | ngi-dl-a kahle |
| I eat potatoes | [object following the verb phrase] | ngi-dl-a amazambane |
Assignment
Choose which of the columns is the correct one in each sentence, based on the rules above.
| English sentence | isiZulu sentence A | isiZulu sentence B |
| I live. | ngiphila | ngiyaphila |
| You stay at home. | usala ekhaya | uyasala ekhaya |
| We are running. | sigijima | siyagijima |
| It is heavy. | isinda | iyasinda |
| They are returning. | zibuya | ziyabuya |
| It is raining a lot. | lina kakhulu | liyana kakhulu |
| It is hot. | kushisa | kuyashisa |
| You are watching. | ubheka | uyabheka |
| They are meeting today | bahlangana namhlanje | bayahlangana namhlanje |
| It is on fire. | kusha | kuyasha |
Write your answers in the comments on this page, for yourself and other learners!
If you understand this fully, then you are going to want to try one of the assessments for this concept. {coming soon!}