Aspect: aspect
| Values: | imperfective | perfect | progressive |
In Bambara, aspect is expressed mainly by auxiliaries.
Imp: imperfect
The imperfective auxiliary is bɛ́ (negative equivalent tɛ́).
Example
- _Fàntá bɛ́ dɔ́nkili dá dɔ́n ò dɔ́n. _ “Fanta sings every day”.
Perf: perfect
The expression of perfective aspect depend on transitivity of a verb. If a verb is transitive, an auxiliary is yé (negative equivalent tɛ́).
Example
- _Fàntá yé dɔ́nkili dá. _ “Fanta sang”.
If a verb is intransitive, a suffix -ra is used. In the negation, there is still an auxiliary tɛ́.
- _Fàntá jɔ́ra. _ “Fanta stood up”.
- _Fàntá tɛ́ jɔ́. _ “Fanta did not stand up”.
Prog: progressive
The progressive aspect is used to indicate ongoing processes. There are several ways to express progressive, the most common is with auxiliary bɛ́kà (negative equivalent tɛ́kà).
Example
- _Fàntá bɛ́kà dɔ́nkili dá. _ “Fanta is singing”.
Another way to express progressive is to use a verbal noun with a postposition lá.
- _Fàntá bɛ́ dɔ́nkili dá lá. _ “Fanta is singing (litt. Fanta is in giving of a song)”.
Aspect in other languages: [arr] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [el] [eme] [ga] [gn] [gub] [hu] [hy] [hyw] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [la] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [pcm] [qpm] [ru] [say] [sl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [yrl]