Intended and Directed Actions

Level 3

Ordinary spellings include in, ka, ki, ya, ta, mu, ku, su, and impersonal a.

How It Works

Subjunctive forms have short vowels and low tone. Singular second person distinguishes masculine ka and feminine ki; third person distinguishes ya and ta. Plurals do not divide by gender. Ordinary Boko does not mark the grammatical tone.

Desire, necessity, appropriateness, purpose, commands, exhortations, and wishes can license this construction. A dependent subject need not match the main subject: one person can want another to act. In a single future action sequence, subsequent actions can use subjunctive marking without repeated za.

Negative directions use kada. Choosing subjunctive rather than singular imperative does not inherently make a command polite. Wording, delivery, and social context matter. The lexical verb retains its own object-conditioned morphology.

Examples (4)

  1. Dole ka dawo.

    You must return.

    Ka addresses a male listener.

  2. Ina so ta karanta littafin.

    I want her to read the book.

    The desired action has a different subject.

  3. Bari in huta.

    Let me rest.

    In marks the requested first-person action.

  4. Za su dawo su yi aiki.

    They will return and work.

    The subsequent action uses subjunctive su.

How It Connects

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

Intended and Directed ActionsLevel 3

Learn This First

Recognize subject and TAM contrasts, their pronunciation and established-reference noun objects before expressing a desired action with its separate subject and subjunctive forms.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.