Verbs With an -o Stem

Verbs with an O Stem

Level 3

Booqo, “visit!”, contrasts with finite booqdaa and booqataa. The imperative does not supply every conjugated stem.

How It Works

Booq has booqd- and booqa-. Present forms are booqdaa for I/he, booqataa for you singular/she, booqannaa for we, booqataan for you plural, and booqdaan for they. Infinitive booqan and progressive booqanayaa use the vowel stem; first-person plural has nn.

Compare imperative booqo with feminine booqataa. Word-final imperative o corresponds to the vowel stem’s a before an ending. Masculine booqdaa uses the consonant stem. Internal t or d can belong to the stem rather than mark feminine agreement.

Lexical patterns include qaat-/qaada-, gashad-/gasha-, and socd-/soco-. Socdaa and noqdaa retain o in their vowel stems. Certain derived verbs have -ow imperatives. The -o label identifies a common diagnostic form, not a universal class-three ending. Learn each stem pair and infinitive together.

Examples (3)

  1. Booqo adeerkaa.

    Visit your uncle.

    Singular imperative in -o.

  2. Cali wuxuu booqdaa adeerkiis.

    Ali visits his uncle.

    Consonant stem before -aa.

  3. Maryan waxay booqataa adeerkeed.

    Maryan visits her uncle.

    Vowel stem before -taa.

How It Connects

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

Verbs With an -o StemLevel 3Verbs with an O Stem

Learn This First

Use the class inventory before learning the infinitive and inflection patterns of -o stems.

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Patterns that build on this one.