Tense: tense
| Values: | Fut | Past | Pres | RecPast |
In Khoekhoe, Tense is a feature of auxiliaries. It specifies the time when the action took / takes / will take place, in relation to the current moment or to another action in the utterance.
Pres: present tense
The present tense denotes actions that are in progress (or states that are valid) in a reference point; it may also describe events that usually happen. In the prototypical case, the reference point is the moment of producing the utterance. The only auxiliary that takes this value is the present copula a, and the present stative particle a.
Examples
- Mâsa kha a ti ǀhawi? “What is then my fault?”
- Sida ge Fransfonteinsa kaise a ǀnam. “We love Fransfontein very much.”
Fut: future tense
The future tense denotes actions that will happen after a reference point. In the prototypical case, the reference point is the moment of producing the sentence. This includes three auxiliaries: the future auxiliary nî, the imperfective future auxiliary nîra, and the negative future auxiliary tide.
Examples
- Sîsenaon ǀaǁaeb ǃna ǃhoroba nî ǃgao. “The workers will cut the mais soon.”
- Amase mûǃāsa a ǃkhaes ge Amob ǀguitsē kaise nîra gā-aisa. “It is very clear that one day Amos will be very clever.”
- Amasets ǂgom te tide… “You will not believe…”
Past: past tense
The past tense denotes actions that happened long time before a reference point; in the prototypical case, the reference point is the moment of producing the utterance. This includes two auxiliaries: the past auxiliary ge and the imperfective past auxiliary gere.
Examples
- ǃKhōb di tsaudi hoadi ge ge ǃkhoro. “All the wells of Witrand dried up.”
- ǀGôaron ge ǂkhōnxūna ǂhûihe tsî kaise gere ǃgâiaǂgao. “The young children were given sweets and they were very happy.”
RecPast: recent past tense
The recent past tense denotes actions that happened short time before a reference point, often on the same day or the day before; in the prototypical case, the reference point is the moment of producing the utterance. This includes two auxiliaries: the recent past auxiliary go and the imperfective recent past auxiliary goro.
Examples
- ǀGoan di daoǁaeb ge go hā. “The time to brand small stock has come.”
- ǀǁAnǃoe da ge ǂhuwiba omde xu ǃgāsase goro mû. “Yesterday evening we could see the fire clearly from our houses.”
Tense in other languages: [ab] [abq] [aqz] [arr] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [el] [en] [es] [fi] [fr] [ga] [gn] [gub] [ha] [hu] [hy] [it] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [pcm] [ps] [qpm] [ru] [sah] [say] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl]