IsiNdebele language: Northern Ndebele African language

Asking in isiNdebele May I or Let us with the Subjunctive Mood in Ndebele

Salibonani abangane (Hello friends). If you are new, please read the blogs from the bottom and work your way up to this, more intermediate level isiNdebele one. We hope you are enjoying learning the African language of Ndebele here and on the other tabs on this website.

Kulungile, lamhla let us look at if you may want to know how to ask "May I?" For example if we want to say "May I take this?" we could say "Ngithathe lokhu?". This is using the subjunctive mood and can be used in the future or present tenses in isiNdebele. Another useful expression is adding "Ake" in front of a subjunctive verb, to ask nicely, for example "Ake sihambe" for "Please, let us go". You can read more in the Lessons Tab.

Other uses in the subjunctive mood are:

asihambe "let's go", 

akubuye ungisize "please return to assist me",

Ake uthathe lokhu, budi "please take this, brother",

Ungathathi lokho "Do not take that" (Notice the -nga- as explained in the Lessons tab),

bafana, buyani lingisize "boys, come and help",

gezisa lokhu kodwa ngiyacela, ungagezisi lokho "wash this but please I am asking do not wash that".

We hope you are enjoying learning the isiNdebele language. Remember you can check out the Lessons tab for about 40 more formal isiNdebele beginner lessons there, and answer or ask questions in the Community tab. We are run by volunteers who want to help others learn isiNdebele. If you would like to know how you can join us (we are always happy for more help, bakithi), or for other information or suggestions, or to advertise/ sponsor a page, or if you see a spelling mistake (there is no Ndebele autocorrect unfortunately yet), send us an email at northernndebeleblog@gmail.com. Salani kuhle bakhithi.





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