Difference between revisions of "Possessives"

Revision as of 09:43, 21 May 2007

Aim - be able to describe ownership using possessive markers (my/your/our etc).

Possessive expressions are formed using a possessive marker, which depends on the noun class of the thing possessed.

The possessive markers are formed by taking the subject marker and adding "a" as follows:

When a name or kinship term is used with a possessive, the word "ga" is added before the name

ngwana wa ga Neo	Neo's child
ke mosese wa ga Nthati	it is Nthati's dress
re bonye dikgomo tsa ga Dikeledi	we saw Dikeledi's cattle
ba badile dibuka tsa ga Shakespeare	they read Shakespeare's books
dinsta tsa gago di bolaile dipodi tsa ga maolme	your dogs have killed my uncle's goats

=== Descriptive Possessives

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 | Class 3 || Molomo || o + a || wa
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 4 || mesese || e + a || ya
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 5 || legodu || le + a || la
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 6 || makgowa || a + a || a
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 7 || Setswana || se + a || sa
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 8 || dimumu || di + a || tsa
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 9 || koloi || e + a || ya
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 10 || diphologolo || di + a || tsa
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 11 || lorole || lo + a || xxx
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 12 || dikgong || di + a || tsa
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 14 || borotha || bo + a || xxxx
 |-
-| x || x || x || x
+| Class 15 || go ithuta || go + a || xxxx
-|-
-| x || x || x || x
 |}