Grammar: Adjectives

In Igbo, adjectives can immediately precede or follow the noun or pronoun to which it belongs. Most commonly used adjectives are:

öma	good, beautiful
öcha	white, clean
oji	black
öjöö	ugly, bad
ukwu	big
obele	small
niile/dum	all, each, every

Examples:

ö bü akwükwö öcha	it is white paper
ewu dum nö ebea	all goats are here

If the adjective is not directly preceding the noun or pronoun, the noun form of the adjective is used:

adjective	noun form
öma	mma
öcha	ücha
öjöö	njö

Examples:

akwükwö dï ücha	the paper is white
ewu dum dï mma	all goats are good

The same principle as described above, applies to demonstrative adjectives, they can only follow or precede the noun immediately:

-a	this, these	ahü	that, those
ülöa	this house, these houses	ülö ahü	that house, those houses

These adjectives also form the demonstrative pronouns:

nkea	this	nke ahü	that
ndïa	these (group)	ndi ahü	those (group)
ihea	this (thing)	ihe ahü	that (thing)
ebea	here (place)	ebe ahü	there

Examples:

nkea dï mma	this is good
nke ahü dï njö	that is bad
ndia di mma	these are good
ihe ahü dï njö	that (thing) is bad
ebe ahü dï njö	there is bad

Note:
The verb ‘to be’ can be translated by three different verbs: bü, dï and nö. The verb bü is most commonly used for ‘to be’; dï is used with a noun and not adjectives and indicates the quality or location of something ; nö is used for the presence of someone in a location:

ö dï mma	it is fine
ö dï n’elu akpati	it is on top of the box
ö nö ya?	is he in?
ö nö ebe ahu?	is he there?

 

Grammar: Tense and Suffixes

In Igbo language, verbs do not distinguish between present and past tense. The meaning of the verb is generally changed by the suffix that specifies the action in the present or past. Some of these suffixes harmonise with the verb stem, others do not, and sometimes multiple suffixes can follow each other in a combination.

The most commonly suffixes used are:

-tara/-tere -ra/-re action in the past (he did) -la/-le completed action (he has done) -bü/-bu a past continuous action (he used to do) -ri past completed action (he did) -ba continue doing, starting an action (start doing) -go already completed the action (have done) -bago already completing the action (already doing, already done) -lu to indicate an intensification of the action of the verb -ta brings an action to completion -kwazi also, as well -re present continuous action (is doing)

Examples:

ö zütara anü	he bought meat
o butere ya	he brought it
ï bïara?	did you come?
o gwüla	it is finished
o rule	it is time
ana m azübü anü	I used to buy meat
o biri ebea	he lived here
o riri anü	he ate meat
o bigo ebe ahü	he has lived there
o rigo anü	he has eaten meat
o ribago nrï	he has already started eating
anabago m	I am already going
ö nabago	he has already gone
chelu	wait!
weta ego	bring money
abukwazi m Mike	I am also Mike
Olee ka i mere?	How are you doing?