Maxa ... What ...

In Somali when you want to find out what something is, you can just point to it and say,


Kaasi waa maxay? - What is that?


But if you want to ask someone what they ate/did/wore/wrote etc. then you have to use 'maxa' combined with the verbal pronouns. So,


Maxa + aan = Maxaan (What did I ...?)
Maxa + aad = Maxaad (What did you ...?)
Maxa + uu  = Muxuu   (What did he ...?)
Maxa + ay  = Maxay   (What did she...?)
Maxa + aanu = Maxaanu (What did we (excl)...?)
Maxa + eynu = Maxeynu (What did we (incl.)...?)
Maxa + aad =  Maxaad  (What did you(pl) ...?)
Maxa + ay   = Maxay   (What did they...?)


Then combine the above words with the appropriate verb conjugation, and you can start to ask What ? questions. We haven't learn the present or future tenses yet, but we can make sentences about the past.


Maxaad sameesey?  - What did you do?
Muxuu  cuney ?        - What did he eat?
Maxay cabbey?        - What did she drink?
Maxay kariyeen?      - What did they cook?
Maxaan qorey?         - What did I write?
Maxaad akhriseen    - What did you(pl) read?
etc.