Nouns for Ideas

Level 5

Turn a verb or feeling expression into a noun with a prefix: dɔ → ɔdɔ (love), ani gye → anigyeɛ (joy).

How It Works

1. From feeling expressions

  • ani gye (be happy) → anigyeɛ (joy)
  • bo fu (be angry) → abufuo (anger)
  • werɛ ho (be sad) → awerɛhoɔ (sadness)
  • ho yɛ den (be strong) → ahoɔden (strength), and aso yɛ den (be stubborn) → asoɔden (disobedience)

2. From plain verbs

  • dɔ (love) → ɔdɔ (love)
  • wu (die) → owuo (death)
  • ware (marry) → awareɛ (marriage)
  • gye ... di (believe) → gyidie (faith, also spelled gyedie), one of the few with no prefix

3. Why the vowels vary
Prefixes and final vowels follow vowel harmony, so you see ɔdɔ but owuo, and -ɛ in one word but -o in another. Learn each noun as a whole word.

4. Using them
These are ordinary nouns. They take possessives and articles and can be subjects or objects: n'anigyeɛ (her joy), Onyame, ma me ahoɔden (God, give me strength).

5. Related patterns
A verb with an object makes a different kind of noun, with the object first: adwumayɛ (work) from yɛ adwuma. Two nouns can also join as compound nouns.

Examples (6)

  1. Anigyeɛ ahyɛ m'akoma ma.

    Joy has filled my heart.

    Word by Word: joy has-filled my-heart full

  2. Ɛyɛ ɔdɔ nko ara.

    It is all love.

    Word by Word: it is love only

  3. Onyame, ma me ahoɔden.

    God, give me strength.

  4. Awareɛ kwan wa.

    Marriage is a long road.

    Word by Word: marriage road is-long

  5. Abufuo nni mfasoɔ.

    Anger does no good.

    Word by Word: anger not-have benefit

  6. Ne gyidie yɛ den.

    Her faith is strong.

    Word by Word: her faith is hard

Common Mistakes

  • Using the feeling sentence as a noun.

    M'ani agye yɛ dɛ.
    Anigyeɛ yɛ dɛ.

    M'ani agye is a full sentence, I am happy. To talk about joy as a thing, use the noun anigyeɛ.

  • Using the bare verb as a noun.

    Dɔ yɛ dɛ.
    Ɔdɔ yɛ dɛ.

    Dɔ is the verb to love. The noun love needs its prefix: ɔdɔ.

How It Connects

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

Nouns for IdeasLevel 5

Learn This First

Abstract nouns are built from verbs and body-part feeling expressions.

Words in This Pattern

ɔ--eɛ-deɛ