ń

The marker follows the subject and precedes the lexical verb. An object follows the verb. Neither the marker nor the verb acquires person or number endings; there is no English-style '-ing' suffix.

• Bísí ń gé ata. — Bísí is cutting peppers.
• Àwọn ọmọ ń kọ orin. — The children are singing a song.
• Èmi ń fọ àwo. — I am washing plates.
• Nígbà tí Délé dé, Kẹ́mi ń sè ẹ̀wà. — When Délé arrived, Kẹ́mi was cooking beans.

The first three examples describe activity underway in a present setting. The past reference event in the fourth places the ongoing cooking in the past. An imperfective frame can also describe a habitual action when the surrounding context supports that reading.

Short subject pronouns can have different surface tones before ń. These examples use noun subjects and an independent pronoun, so the aspect marker is easy to see. Keep the high tone on the nasal in ordinary spelling: ń.

Compare an ongoing event with a reached event marked by ti. Omitting ń removes explicit imperfective marking; it does not automatically make every predicate past. Neighboring markers and context distinguish a habit from a single ongoing event.