Irregular Verb: To Be

Irregular Verb: to be (ta'uu)

In Afan Oromo sentences, verbs usually come last. If you are comparing sentence structure to English, for example, one would say Beer I drink- or Happy I am. Several irregularly conjugated verbs are most crucial to communicating. Verbs provide the action attached to a noun. Conjugations of the verbs to be (ta'uu/turuu) and to have (jiraachuu) must be memorized to become expressive in the language.

The verb ta'uu is relatively simple, but it is irregular. A few rules make it easy:

• In the present tense (positive), the verb is always conjugated dha regardless of the pronoun.
• In present tense negative, each form is conjugated as miti.
• For past tense negative, all are conjugated as hinturre (meaning not present).
• For sentences that use dha, miti, and hinturre, it is useful to use specific pronoun (Ani, Ati, etc) in the sentence since the conjugations are the same.
• For past tense, conjugate the verb turuu - which can be translated as happened. The positive past tense changes by each pronoun (ture, turte, turtan etc). Since the 2nd person singular and the 3rd person feminine (turte) are the same, it might be helpful to say the pronoun to avoid confusion.

Present Tense

Pronoun	Positive	Negative
I am	Ani... dha	(Ani)... miti
You are (m/f)	Ati... dha	(Ati)... miti
You are (pl)	Isin... dha	(Isin)... miti
He is / It is	Inni... dha	(Inni)... miti
She is	Isheen... dha	(Isheen)... miti
They are (pl)	Isaan... dha	(Isaan)... miti
We are	Nu'i... dha	(Nu'i)... miti

Past Tense

Pronoun	Positive	Negative
I was	Ani... ture	(Ani)... hinturre
You were (m/f)	Ati... turte	(Ati)... hinturre
You were (pl)	Isin... turtan	(Isin)... hinturre
He was / It was	Inni... ture	(Inni)... hinturre
She was	Isheen... turte	(Isheen)... hinturre
They were (pl)	Isaan... turan	(Isaan)... hinturre
We were	Nu'i... turre	(Nu'i)... hinturre

Often, when informally expressing I am / you are/ he is / we are, etc, the word dha is omitted entirely. It is implied. For example, in the following sentences you could end the sentence with dha or leave it off entirely - and you will be understood.

We are tourists. - Nuti daawatoota (dha). - (We tourists (are).)

I am hungry. - Ani beela'aa (dha). - (I hungry (am).)

How are you? - Ati akkam (dha)? - (You how (are)?)

More Examples:

Present Tense	Afan Oromo
I am fat.	Ani furda dha.
You are short (m)	Ati gababaa dha.
Is she beautiful?	Isheen bareeduu dhaa?
She is beautiful.	Isheen bareeduu dha.
We are fine.	Nuti nagaa dha.
Are you fine (well)?	(Ati) nagaa dhaa?
Is he fine (well?)	(Inni) nagaa dhaa?

Past Tense	Afan Oromo
I was a doctor.	Ani hakiman ture.
You were sick.	Ati dhukubsatee turte.
He was happy.	Inni gamadaa ture.
We were brave.	Nuti goota turre.
They were not red.	Isaan diimaa hinturre.

If using dha to express a question, the 'a' sound is extended (dhaa?).

If you want to express a question using the verb to be(ta'uu) one simply adds ii to the end of the conjugated verb to be. So that Is it hot becomes ho'aa dha'ii? You may also see that the ii is left off the sentence sometimes. As in other languages, you can also make a question by raising the tone of your voice at the end of a statement. For example, You like it? You are coming? Etc. Using this raised intonation, it is not necessary to add the suffix ii.

Question	Afan Oromo
Are you sad? (m)	Gaditee jirtaa'ii?
Are you sick? (m)	Sidhukubee'ii?
Are you sleeping? (f)	Rafaa jirtaa'ii?
Is it good?	Gaarii dhaa'ii?
Is she fat?	Furdoo dhaa'ii?
Is he fat?	Furdaa dhaa'ii?
Is he American? (m)	Lamii Ameerikaat'ii?
Is she Ethiopian? (f)	Lamii ityophiyaa t'ii?
Are we in Addis Ababa?	Addis Ababa keessa jiraa'ii?
Were you bad? (f)	Gadhee turtee?
Was it good?	Gaarii turtee?
Were we in Addis?	Addis turree'ii?