Thursday 18 August 2011

Si...u... construction

Si quruxsan bey u luqeeysey - She was walking beautifully
Si xun buu u cunayey - He was eating in a horrible way
Si wanaagsan buu u hadlay - He spoke well
Si fudud buu u sameeyey - He did it easily


Si + adjective + focus marker + u + verb


The adjective becomes an adverb, i.e. 'quruxsan' means 'beautiful', but when used with 'Si...u...' it becomes 'beautifully'. So, if you want to describe how someone did a certain action, you can use this piece of grammar.



The expression 'Si...u...'  can also mean 'in order to'. For example,


Si aan u hadli karo af Soomaali, Soomaaliya baan deganahay - I'm living in Somalia so that I can learn Somali


Mareykan si aad u tagto, waa inaad lacag haysato - You need money in order to go to America

'Sida' is 'si' with a definite article. It roughly means 'the way'.


Waa sida - That's right/You're right (lit: 'That's the way')


This is a very useful phrase when having a conversation.



Remember that with nouns like 'ninka'(the man) and 'buugga'(the book), we added the suffix 'ee' to say 'Which...?'


Ninkee? - Which man?
Buuggee? - Which book?


In the same way, we can add 'ee' to 'sida'. It becomes 'Sidee?' ('In which way/How?')


Sidee buu u sameeyey - How did he do it? (lit:'In which way did he do it?')

The word 'sidee' is also used to ask people how they are,


Sidey tahay? - How is she? ('sidey' is a fusion of 'sidee' and 'ay'(she) )
Siduu yahay? - How is he?
Sideed tahay? - How are you?
(lit: 'In what condition are you?') 



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