Imperfect Tense In Twi | Learn Twi With Opoku | Asante Twi
The Imperfect Tense In Twi
The term "imperfect" in english refers to forms much more commonly called past progressive or past continuous.
It combines past tense and imperfective aspect.
That’s it makes reference to a past time(past tense) and also reference to a continuing or repeated event or state – imperfect aspect
It can have meanings similar to the english "was eating" or "used to eat”. As you can see, these are combinations of past tense with specifically continuous or progressive or repeated aspe
let’s see how it is done in the form “was eating/were dancing”
To do that in Twi, we precede the verb with “na” and write the pronoun together with the verb. However, before you add the pronoun to the verb, the verb should be in present continues tense – thus the verb should be prefixed with “re”
For instance, to eat in Twi is di/didi
So using the first person singular pronoun, I’ll say I was eating. To write that in Twi, I will write “na” separately then the pronoun – me (I), and then prefix the verb (didi) with “re”
So we’ll write
Na me + redidi
However, in Twi the pronoun is written together with the verb
So at the end it’s going to be
Na meredidi - I was eating.
But no Twi speaker will say na meredidi when he is speaking with you.
He’ll say
Na meedidi – I was eating.
Besides note this “Na” acts like was/were. So when you take it away the verb will no longer be in imperfect tense/past continuous tense. It will then be in present continues tense.
For instance
Instead of saying na meredidi – I was eating, if I say meredidi, it means I’m eating – present continuous tense. Very well.
Let’s take “wo” that is “you” – the second person singular pronoun and write you were eating.
We will write na wo + redidi prefixed with re
So we will say na woredidi – you were eating
But remember the proper pronunciation is going to be na woodidi
• Imperfect Tense In Twi | Learn Twi With Op...
Link to lesson 2 on imperfect tense in Twi
• IMPERFECT TENSE IN TWI | Part 2 | Learn Tw...