Pluralizing nouns, Negative & Perfect Tenses

Fakyε me (forgive me) because this entry is a day late. "Fakyε me," or "Mo mfa nkyε me" in long form, implies that you're guilty and you're asking for the people you kept waiting to forgive you.

At the end of yesterday's session, we learned the Twi words for day, week, month, and year. Today, we'll learn how to transform them into plural forms. It's very tricky. Our teacher wants us to focus on a few main rules for pluralizing, rather than try to remember all of them. If pluralizing sounds really complicated, it is. Way too complicated! Here are the main rules and several examples:

• Replace beginning vowels with the prefix "a-" for words that begin with e ε o ⊃
• ⊃dan (house) --> adan (houses)
• bosome (month) --> abosome (months)
• ⊃bosom (idol) --> abosom (idols)
• For words that end with "-ni", replace beginning vowels with the prefix "a-" and replace the suffix with "-fo⊃"
• osuani (student) --> asuafo⊃ (students)
• Add "n-" or "m-" to the front of the word when it begins with d p b f m a. I'm not sure exactly when to use "n" or "m".
• da (day) --> nda [nna] (days)
• afe (year) --> mfeε (years)
• abofra (child) --> mmofra (children)
• adamfo (friend) --> nnamfo (friends)
• aduane (food) --> nduane [n-wheanee] (foods of all kinds)
• Note: You can either write the plural form with the original consonant after the new prefix, or you can make it a double "n" or "m". Either way, the plural noun should be pronounced as a double "n" or "m".
• Irregular pluralized nouns- confusing. Sometimes you add "-o⊃" to the end and either "a-" or "m-" to the front. Sometimes you add "-num" to the end. Unfortunately, I think both singular and plural forms of nouns have to be memorized. I'm not sure the rules really make it any easier. It's just one more thing to memorize! Also, if you're really lazy, you can probably just use the singular form and people will understand the meaning anyway.
• ⊃torofo (liar) --> atorofo⊃ (liars)
• owudifo⊃ (murderer) --> awudifo⊃ (murderers)
• ⊃panin (elder male) --> mpanifo⊃ (elder males)
• nana (grandparent or royalty) --> nananum (grandparents or royals)

Let's learn some more tenses! Negative and Perfect- two that we use as often as Progressive and Future.
Negative: It's similar to pluralizing because you add "n-" or "m-" to the beginning of the verb stem. Like above, you can write it with 1 "n/m" at the beginning or with a double "n/m", but you pronounce the word as though it has a double "n/m." Examples:

• di (to eat) --> nni / ndi (to not eat)
• ⊃ba (he/she comes) --> ⊃mma / ⊃mba (he/she doesn't come)
• Mepε (I like) --> Mempε (I don't like)

Perfect: Add the prefix "a-" before the verb stem, but after the subject. Then, contract the words, if possible! Examples:

• Me + a + di --> Madi (I've eaten.)
• ⊃ + a + fa --> ⊃afa [wafa] (She has taken it.)
• Madi abosome εnkron w⊃ ha. (I've spent 9 months here.) This one is confusing, because the verb is "di" which means "eat". In this context, it means consume or spend. Thus, when you're talking about spending or wasting time somewhere, you use "a + di" because you have spent or eaten time up while doing something.
• Kofi adi mfeε ensia. (Kofi is 6 years old.) This is another case when you use "a + di" because you have spent or eaten up a certain number of years with your life. That sounds worse than it should, but that's the only way I can explain it.
• Madi mfeε aduonu ensia.

That's all for this week. I think we learned a lot of really useful and important language tools. I have plenty of homework for the weekend.

Favorite phrase of the day: εi! Maafe fie. (Hey! I'm homesick.) Sounds desperate. Apparently, I'll need this when I finally go to Ghana next summer.