ina / kana / kina / yana / tana

Ongoing Actions

Level 1

Ina is I; kana/kina distinguish listeners; yana/tana distinguish third-person gender.

How It Works

Plain continuative serves ordinary statements and yes/no questions. It can describe ongoing or recurring activity, and context can locate that activity in the past or future.

Compare Musa ya huta “Musa rested” with Musa yana hutawa “Musa is resting”. The latter has a verbal noun. Non-wa verbal nouns link noun objects, as in shan ruwa and cin doya. Wa verbal nouns lose wa before an object.

Action nouns such as aiki can follow directly, with verbal-noun yin optional before them. Wanting and certain senses of feeling or understanding also use continuative; it need not describe visible movement.

After an overt subject, the agreement portion may be omitted, leaving na: Maryam na cin doya. Fronted questions and focus generally require relative continuative rather than these plain forms.

Examples (5)

  1. Ina karanta jarida.

    I am reading a newspaper.

    First-person continuative with a noun object.

  2. Kana shan ruwa?

    Are you drinking water?

    Male singular listener; linked verbal noun shan.

  3. Kina aiki a gida.

    You are working at home.

    Female singular listener; action noun directly follows.

  4. Musa yana hutawa.

    Musa is resting.

    Wa verbal noun without an object.

  5. Maryam tana cin doya.

    Maryam is eating yam.

    Feminine subject and linked non-wa verbal noun.

How It Connects

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

ina / kana / kina / yana / tanaLevel 1Ongoing Actions

Learn This First

Identify the participant and lexical predicate before learning the continuative frame and its locally introduced verbal-noun shapes.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

yanaKina