When you want to say 'This is a...' or 'That is a ...', you have to make the demonstrative (kan, tan) the subject. In Somali, when a sentence has a subject it always comes at the beginning.
Remember that demonstratives usually come at the end of the noun. For example 'ninkan' (this man), or 'naagtan' (this woman). To make a demonstrative the subject you have to separate it out from the noun and put it at the beginning of the sentence, like in English. Then you add 'i' to the end of the word 'kan' to make 'kani' for masculine nouns, or 'tani' for feminine nouns. For example,
Kan + i = Kani - This (subject word: for masculine nouns)
Tan + i = Tani - This (for feminine nouns
Kaas + i = Kaasi - That (for masculine nouns)
Taas + i = Taasi - That (for feminine nouns)
Kani waa caano - This is milk
Kaasi waa buug - That is a book
Tani waa lacag - This is money
Taasi waa gabadh - That is a girl
No comments:
Post a Comment