Negating an Ongoing Action

Level 3

The action forms are ba na, ba ka, ba kya, ba ya, ba ta, ba ma, ba kwa, ba sa, and impersonal ba a.

How It Works

The action construction has long high-toned ba followed by a long low-toned subject form. Ordinary Boko leaves these pronunciation distinctions unmarked. Plural-you action marking is ba kwa. Negative possession has a different paradigm and tonal pattern.

Verbal-noun morphology remains active. A non-wa verbal noun takes a linker before a following noun object, as in cin wake. Habitual denial also uses negative continuation rather than a negative kan paradigm. Liking commonly takes this frame.

The complete action examples here have no closing ba. Compare Suna cin wake ‘They are eating beans’ with Ba sa cin wake ‘They are not eating beans’. Do not infer unrestricted optionality of a final negative particle from this displayed pattern.

Examples (3)

  1. Ba ma hutawa yanzu.

    We are not resting now.

    Yanzu establishes current activity.

  2. Ba kwa cin wake?

    Aren’t you eating beans?

    Ba kwa addresses a plural audience.

  3. Ita ba ta son kofi.

    She does not like coffee.

    Son retains the noun-object linker.

How It Connects

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

Negating an Ongoing ActionLevel 3

Learn This First

Recognize affirmative continuation, predicate negation and tone/vowel length before learning negative action-continuative pronunciation and retained verbal-noun grammar. The displayed complete action frame has no closing ba.

Words in This Pattern

ba