Ndebele time

Salibonani bangane ( Hello friends). I know it has been a while since I put up a post. Today I'll talk about time, since it is fitting. As usual, if you are new, please start right at the bottom of the blog page and work up to this newest post today. (Siyabonga for any corrections for any typos).

Yisikhathi bani? -What's the time? ("Time what")
Usually you would reply in English because exact numbers like 12:42 are not used in isiNdebele that much.
kusasa- tomorrow  e.g. sizakubona kusasa - we'll see tomorrow
izolo - yesterday 
ekuseni - in the morning (the "e" means "at/ in the" i.e. at morning etc)
There was a song that we used to hear on the radio in the mornings that went "Cockadoodaldoo (rooster noise) vukani madoda seksile" (wake up men, it is morning)
emini - in the afternoon
ntambama - in the evening 

There is a gesture that is normally used which is to cup your hand with your palm facing down and then make a curved movement with that hand like a dolphin porpoising. If you do this forwards, it can mean, tomorrow (kusasa) and if you do it backwards by your shoulder, it means yesterday (izolo). It follows that if you want to show that something will happen 4 days in the future, you can use the gesture with a curved movement forwards 4 times to show in 4 days. If you do it backwards many times, this can show that something happened a long time ago i.e. kudala (old times/ long time ago). Also, stretching the word out helps to show it was a very long time ago i.e kudaaaaaaaala.

Ok, I'll try to include more sentences from now on, since you hopefully have the basics from the previous posts below.

Today's sentence:

Usitshelile ukuthi uzahamba kusasa - He told us that he is going tomorrow

kusasa, you now know is "tomorrow". Hamba, you know is "to go", with the u= he/you and the za showing future tense i.e. will go. Ukuthi is a very nice joining word to use to say "that" e.g. if you say ngicabanga ukuthi... I think that...(remember the "c" soft click here). Tshela is the verb- to tell, so usitshel ile is "he told us".

Another useful phrase is: ngubani? - Who is it?

Ok bangane (my friends) sizakubona kusasa, sahle kahle (we'll see you tomorrow, stay well)

1 comment:

  1. This is fun for sure. What about different types of weather? Could you please compile a lesson on that. Great stuff

    ReplyDelete

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