Two Kinds of Serial Verbs

Level 5

A chained series tells steps in order: Ama akɔ Kumase aba (Ama has gone to Kumasi and come back). An integrated series is one action: Tɔ aduane ma me (Buy food for me).

How It Works

1. Chained series: one step after another
Each verb is its own event, and the order of the verbs is the order in which things happened. A chain can be long.

  • Ama akɔ Kumase aba. (Ama has gone to Kumasi and come back.)
  • Ɔkɔɔ dwam kɔtɔɔ nam. (She went to the market and bought meat.)
  • Yɛbɛkɔ fie akɔdidi. (We will go home and eat.)

2. Integrated series: one event
Two verbs work together as a single action. One of them has lost its everyday meaning and only adds a role.

  • Ɔde sekan twaa nam no. (He cut the meat with a knife.) De adds the tool.
  • Tɔ aduane ma me. (Buy food for me.) Ma adds the person who benefits; nothing is handed over as a separate step.
  • Ɔde sika no maa me. (He gave the money to me.) See de ... ma.
  • Fa nsuo bra. (Bring water.) See fa ... bra.

3. How to tell them apart
Ask whether each verb could stand as its own sentence. Ama akɔ Kumase and Ama aba both make sense alone, so that series is chained. In Ɔde sekan twaa nam no, de only means with, so that series is integrated. Integrated series usually have just two verbs, while chains can keep going.

4. What they share
Both kinds follow the same rules for inflection: the past goes on every verb (Ɔtɔɔ aduane maa me) except de, which never changes (Ɔde sekan twaa nam no), after a future only the first verb takes bɛ- and later verbs take consecutive a-, and a negative appears on each verb.

5. Where the names come from
Johann Christaller's 1875 grammar of Twi called these accidental and essential combinations. Linguists today often call them clause chaining and integrated serial verb constructions.

Examples (6)

  1. Ama akɔ Kumase aba.

    Ama has gone to Kumasi and come back.

    Word by Word: Ama has-gone Kumasi has-come

    Chained: two separate movements, in the order they happened.

  2. Ama kɔɔ Kumase baeɛ.

    Ama went to Kumasi and came back.

    In the past both verbs take the past form; the last one ends in -eɛ because nothing follows it.

  3. Yɛbɛkɔ fie akɔdidi.

    We will go home and eat.

    Chained: after bɛ- on the first verb, the later step takes a-.

  4. Ɔde sekan twaa nam no.

    He cut the meat with a knife.

    Word by Word: he-take knife cut meat the

    Integrated: de adds the tool to one cutting event.

  5. Tɔ aduane ma me.

    Buy food for me.

    Word by Word: buy food give me

    Integrated: ma means for here, not a second act of giving.

  6. Ɔde sika no maa me.

    He gave the money to me.

    Word by Word: he-take money the gave me

Common Mistakes

  • Joining verbs with ne, like English and.

    Ama kɔɔ Kumase ne baeɛ.
    Ama kɔɔ Kumase baeɛ.

    Ne joins nouns, not verbs. In a chain the verbs simply follow each other. To start a new clause instead, use na with a subject: Ama kɔɔ Kumase na ɔbaeɛ.

  • Leaving the second verb of an integrated series in the plain form.

    Ɔtɔɔ aduane ma me.
    Ɔtɔɔ aduane maa me.

    Ma looks like a small word for for, but it is still a verb in the series, so it takes the past as well.

How It Connects

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

Two Kinds of Serial VerbsLevel 5

Learn This First

The two kinds of series refine serial verbs.