Chapter 11: Nominalization and Pronouns / Boqonnaa 11: Maqaaleyyii fi Bamaqaawwan
ምዕራፍ 11፡ ስም መፍጠር እና ተውላጠ ስሞች
Nominalization
Maqaaleyyii (Maqaa Uumuu) / ስም መፍጠር
Nominalization is the process of creating a noun from a verb or an adjective, often by adding a suffix. / Maqaaleyyiin jechuun gochima ykn ibsituu irraa maqaa uumuu dha, yeroo baayyee xumura jechaatti qubee dabaluudhaan. / ስም መፍጠር ማለት ቅጥያ በመጨመር ከግስ ወይም ከቅጽል ስም መፍጠር ነው።
Gerunds (-ing) / Gerundii (-ing)
The simplest way is adding "-ing" to a verb. / Karaa salphaan xumura gochimaatti "-ing" dabaluudha.
- “Walking is very pleasant.”
- “I enjoy reading.”
Nouns of Agency (-er, -or) / Maqaalee Hojjettootaa (-er, -or)
Represents the person who performs the action. / Nama gocha sana raawwatu bakka bu'a.
- “My fiancée is an actor.”
- “I’m training to be a teacher.”
Nouns of Action (-tion, -ment, etc.) / Maqaalee Gochaa (-tion, -ment, kkf.)
Describes the action itself. / Gocha mataa isaa ibsa.
- “His acceptance of the position was received warmly.”
- “Thank you for the invitation!”
- “I was surprised by my enjoyment of the play.”
Pronouns
Bamaqaawwan / ተውላጠ ስሞች
Pronouns are words used in place of nouns to avoid repetition. The noun being replaced is known as the antecedent. / Bamaqaawwan jechoota irra deddeebii hir'isuuf bakka maqaalee bu'anii tajaajilanidha. Maqaan bakka bu'amu sun dura-deemaa bamaqichaa jedhama. / ተውላጠ ስሞች ድግግሞሽን ለማስወገድ በስሞች ምትክ የሚያገለግሉ ቃላት ናቸው። የሚተካው ስም የተውላጠ ስሙ ቀዳሚ በመባል ይታወቃል።
“John said that he wants to use the computer that belongs to him.”
A personal pronoun is a pronoun that represents a grammatical person within a sentence. While personal pronouns often do indicate an actual person, they can also refer to animals, inanimate objects, or even intangible concepts. For instance, the word they in the previous sentence is a plural third-person neuter (gender neutral) pronoun representing the words “personal pronouns” as a grammatical person. Here are some other examples:
Bamaqaan dhuunfaa bamaqaa nama seemlugaawaa hima keessatti bakka bu'udha. Bamaqaawwan dhuunfaa yeroo baayyee nama dhugaa agarsiisanis, bineensota, wantoota lubbuu hin qabne, ykn yaada hin qabamne illee agarsiisuu danda'u. Fakkeenyaaf, jechi isaan hima darbe keessatti bamaqaa danuu nama sadaffaa saalaan adda hin baafne kan jechoota "bamaqaawwan dhuunfaa" akka nama seemlugaawaatti bakka bu'udha. Fakkeenyota biroo kunooti:
- “As soon as John comes home, I am going to give him back his hat.”
- “My team lost again. We really stink this year!”
- “He spoke to the boss yesterday and already got her approval.”
Which personal pronoun is used in each instance varies depending on four grammatical elements: number (singular or plural), person (first, second, or third person), gender (male, female, or neuter/neutral), and case (subjective, objective, or possessive). This shifting of form is called inflection.
Bamaqaan dhuunfaa kam akka fayyadaman wantoota afur irratti hundaa'a: lakkoofsa (kallattii ykn danuu), nama (nama duraa, lammaffaa, ykn sadaffaa), saala (dhiira, dubartii, ykn saalaan adda hin baafne), fi sadarkaa (matimaa, aantimaa, ykn abbummaa). Boca jijjiiruun kun rukkina jedhama.
Personal Pronoun Inflections / Rukkina Bamaqaa Dhuunfaa
| Person | Number | Gender | Subjective | Objective | Possessive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Person | Singular | Masculine/feminine | I | Me | My |
| First Person | Plural | Masculine/feminine | We | Us | Our |
| Second Person | Singular/Plural | Masculine/feminine | You | You | Your |
| Third Person | Singular | Feminine | She | Her | Her |
| Third Person | Singular | Masculine | He | Him | His |
| Third Person | Singular | Neuter | It | It | Its |
| Third Person | Plural | Neuter (Gender Neutral) | They | Them | Their |
Number (Singular vs. Plural) / Lakkoofsa (Kallattii fi Danuu)
Grammatical number in English simply means whether something or someone is singular or plural. Personal pronouns have specific inflections depending on whether they are singular or plural. For the most part, only the first-person and third-person personal pronouns have plural forms.
Lakkoofsi seera-afaan Ingiliffaa keessatti wanti ykn namni tokko kallattii (tokko) ykn danuu (tokkoo ol) ta'uu isaa agarsiisa. Bamaqaawwan dhuunfaa kallattii ykn danuu ta'uu isaanii irratti hundaa'uun rukkina addaa qabu. Yeroo baayyee, bamaqaawwan nama duraa fi sadaffaa qofatu boca danuu qabu.
Examples:
- “I (first-person singular) am meeting my (first-person singular) writing club this afternoon. We (first-person plural) always meet on Wednesdays after class.”
- “I (first-person singular) really envy you (second-person singular)!”
- “They (third-person plural) can’t tell you (second-person plural) what it will be like; you (second-person plural) will just have to find out for yourselves (second-person plural reflexive).”
Person (First, Second, and Third Person) / Nama (Nama Duraa, Lammaffaa, fi Sadaffaa)
Grammatical person refers to the perspectives of the personal pronouns used to identify a person in speech and text—that is, it distinguishes between a speaker (first person), an addressee (second person), and others beyond that (third person).
Nama seera-afaanii jechuun ilaalcha bamaqaawwan dhuunfaa kanneen nama dubbii fi barreeffama keessatti adda baasuuf gargaaran agarsiisa—kana jechuun, dubbataa (nama duraa), nama itti dubbatamu (nama lammaffaa), fi kanneen biroo sanaa ol jiran (nama sadaffaa) adda baasa.
First person / Nama duraa
- Singular: I, me, my, mine, myself
- Plural: we, us, our, ours, ourselves
First-person pronouns are used to express an autobiographical point of view. For example:
- “I don’t know where my hat is!”
- “Janet is meeting me in town later.”
- “We brought our own car.”
Second person / Nama lammaffaa
- Singular/Plural: you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves
We use the second-person pronouns to indicate those who are being directly addressed by the speaker.
- “Bill, I was wondering if you could help me with the dishes?”
- “Children, where are your manners?”
Usage note: Generic “you” / Hubannoo Fayyadamaa: "Ati" Waliigalaa
The second-person pronoun "you" is often used to indicate an unspecified person. This is less formal than its counterpart, "one," but more common in everyday speech.
Third person / Nama sadaffaa
Third person is used to talk about someone or something that is not the speaker and is not being directly addressed. When the person or thing is singular, the pronouns used are the different forms of she, he, and it. When there are multiple people or things, we use the ungendered forms of they.
- Feminine singular: she, her, hers, herself
- Masculine singular: he, him, his, himself
- Neuter singular: it, its, itself
- Third person plural: they, them, their, theirs, themselves
Gender / Saala
Personal pronouns are only inflected for gender when they are in the third person and singular. First-person, second-person, and third-person plural pronouns remain gender neutral. Here are the gendered pronouns in English:
Bamaqaawwan dhuunfaa saalaaf kan rukutaman yeroo isaan nama sadaffaa fi kallattii ta'an qofa. Bamaqaawwan nama duraa, lammaffaa, fi sadaffaa danuun saalaan adda hin bahan. Kunooti bamaqaawwan saala qaban Ingiliffaan:
- Third-person feminine singular: she, her, hers, herself
- Third-person masculine singular: he, him, his, himself
- Third-person neuter singular: it, its, itself (used for things or animals)
Examples:
- “I really love Jenny. She is my best friend.”
- “Danny said that he would lend me his jacket for tonight.”
- “The horse galloped by, its hooves pounding the ground violently.”
- “Bill and Samantha told me they were coming over later.”
Usage Note: “Singular they” / Hubannoo Fayyadamaa: "Isaan" Kallattii
When a person's gender is unknown or non-binary, the third-person plural forms (they, them, their) are often used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun. Example: “You shouldn’t judge someone until you know what they are really like.” While this is increasingly common, formal writing sometimes prefers “he or she.”
Case / Sadarkaa
The English language has largely discarded its case system, which is the manner by which a noun is inflected depending on its grammatical function. Personal pronouns are one part of English in which the case system is still active, being inflected depending on whether they function as a subject, object, possessive determiner, or possessive pronoun.
Afaan Ingiliffaa sirna sadarkaa isaa irra caalaa dhiiseera, kunis akkaataa maqaan tokko hojii seera-afaanii isaa irratti hundaa'uun itti rukutamuudha. Bamaqaawwan dhuunfaa kutaa Afaan Ingiliffaa keessaa tokko kan sirni sadarkaa ammallee hojiirra ooluudha, kunis matima, aantima, ibsituu abbummaa, ykn bamaqaa abbummaa ta'anii hojjechuu isaanii irratti hundaa'uun rukutamu.
Subjective Case / Sadarkaa Matimaa
When a personal pronoun is acting as the subject of a verb (that is, it is the person or thing doing the action), it is said to be in the subjective case.
- “I know that she said that.”
- “He told her to be quiet.”
Objective Case / Sadarkaa Aantimaa
A personal pronoun is in the objective case when it is a direct or indirect object of a verb, or else if it is the object or a preposition.
Direct object: “Please send them in straight away.” / “Take him away!”
Indirect object: “Please tell me any news immediately!”
After Linking Verbs (Subject Complements) / Gochima Walqabsiisaa Booda
One confusing area is when a pronoun is a subject complement to a linking verb (like *be*). In this situation, the personal pronoun should be in the subjective case. For example, “It was I who did this” is more correct than “It was me who did this.”
In conversational English, this distinction is less frequently observed, and you will often hear phrases such as “it’s me.” But in formal writing, always use the subjective case.
Possessive Case (Genitive Case) / Sadarkaa Abbummaa
As the name implies, the possessive case changes the inflection of a personal pronoun to mark possession. There are two forms:
- Possessive Determiners: Function like adjectives, modifying a noun. (e.g., “My dad’s glasses...”)
- Possessive Pronouns: Function as nouns. (e.g., “Those glasses are mine!”)