Welcome back!
In today’s lesson, we will be focusing on how to create sentences in the future tense in Igbo. Remember in one of our previous lessons, we looked at how to create sentences in the simple past tense in Igbo?
This only took a few steps,
The same goes for the future tense in Igbo.
The Igbo Future tense
The future tense as the name implies refers to something that will happen or is going to happen in the future.
For example in English we have:
I will go to school.
He/she will dance.
We will eat.
The examples above show things that will happen in the future and all use the word “will”.
Now, we are going to look at how to make sentences in the future tense in Igbo.
The future tense marker in Igbo is “gà-” . This “gà-’” is essentially the Igbo version of the word ‘will’ in the English future tense.
You just add it to the front of the verb to put it in the future tense.
Let’s take a look at some of the examples below:
Putting verbs into the future tense in Igbo
| Verb | English | Future marker | Future tense | English |
| àgá | go | gà- | gà-àgá | will go |
| èrí | eat | gà- | gà-èrí | will eat |
| èmé | do | gà- | gà-èmé | will do |
| àṅụ́ | buy | gà- | gà-àṅụ́ | will buy |
| àkpọ́ | call | gà- | gà-àkpọ́ | will call |
Now let’s look at some example sentences in the future tense in Igbo
Creating sentences in Igbo in the future tense
Example 1
Chima gà- + àgá ụ́lọ̀ákwụ́kwọ́ = Chima gà-àgá ụ́lọ̀ákwụ́kwọ́
Chima will + go to school = Chima will go to school
Example 2
Ànyị́ gà- + èrí òsìkápá = Ànyị́ gà-èrí òsìkápá
We will + eat rice = We will eat rice
Example 3
Ọ́ gà- + èmé yá = Ọ́ gà-èmé yá
He/she will + do it = He/she will do it
Example 4
Há gà- + àṅụ́ ḿmányá ọ̀tọ́bị́rị́bị́rị́ = Há gà-àṅụ́ ḿmányá ọ̀tọ́bị́rị́bị́rị́
They will + drink soft drink = They will drink soft drink
Example 5
Ńnà ḿ gà- + àkpọ́ ḿ = Ńnà ḿ gà-àkpọ́ m
My father will + call me = My father will call me
The special case of “I” in Igbo
To form future tense sentences in Igbo using the pronoun ‘Ḿ’ which means ‘I’ in Igbo, you use a slightly different method to the one you’ve just seen above.
To form future tense using ‘Ḿ’, the ‘gà-’ which means ‘will’, takes a different shape. A prefix ‘á’ is added to the verb and the hyphen at the end of the ‘gà-’ is removed, then the verb is followed by the pronoun ‘m’ written separately to form ‘I will’.
That might all sound a little confusing but the example below will make it a lot clearer,
Á + gà m = Ágà m
Prefix + will I = I will
Just to be sure that you’ve got it, here are some more example sentences with the special case of “I” in Igbo.
Example 1
Á + gà m àgá ụ́kà = Ágà m àgá ụ́kà
Prefix + will I go to church = I will go to church
Example
Á + gà m èrí ńrī = Ágà m èrí ńrī
Prefix + will I eat food = I will eat food
Example 3
Á + gà m èmé yá = Ágà m èmé yá
Prefix + will I do it = I will do it
Example 4
Á + gà m àṅụ́ ḿmírī = Ágà m àṅụ́ ḿmírī
Prefix + will I drink water = I will drink water
Example 5
Á + gà m àkpọ́ gị = Ágà m àkpọ́ gị
Prefix + will I call you = I will call you
That’s it for today!
Make sure you keep practicing creating Igbo sentences in the future tense, to be sure that you’ve got the hang of it.