kuri

Just Now: Kuri

Level 3

Kuri says “I know this myself”: oúkuri merkádogui “he just came back from the market”.

How It Works

Kuri does two jobs. It puts the event in the past, usually a short time ago, and it says that the speaker knows it first-hand. Use it for what you saw or lived through yourself.

It is unstressed, so the stress stays on the verb. The verb takes an accent when the stress is not on the last syllable: akarúkuri “I ate a little while ago”.

PersonForm
Iakarúkuri
yourekarúkuri
he, she, theyokarúkuri
we (you included)jakarúkuri
we (you not included)rokarúkuri
you allpekarúkuri

Compare -vaʼekue, which reaches further back, and ndaje, which says that you heard the news from someone else.

Examples (4)

  1. Oúkuri merkádogui.

    He just came back from the market.

    Ou “he comes” plus kuri. The speaker knows it first-hand. Merkádogui is “from the market”.

  2. Akarúkuri.

    I ate a little while ago.

    Karu “eat” plus kuri. The accent on ú shows that the stress stays on the verb.

  3. Peteĩete kuatia ajuhúkuri.

    I found just one paper a little while ago.

    Ajuhúkuri is “I found” plus kuri, and the speaker found it first-hand. Peteĩete is “just one”.

  4. Hetaiterei karai oúkuri.

    Very many men came a little while ago.

    Karai means “sir” or “gentleman”. Kuri tells the listener that the speaker knows this first-hand.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving out the accent.

    Akarukuri.
    Akarúkuri.

    Kuri is unstressed, so the accent marks the stress on rú.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

kuriLevel 3Just Now: Kuri

Learn This First

Kuri is added after the plain verb to say that it just happened.

Words in This Pattern

kuri