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Learn Lingala: The Ultimate Guide

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Lingala is a Bantu language spoken by over 10 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. It is also spoken in smaller communities in Angola, the Central African Republic, and the Republic of Congo. Lingala is a tonal language, meaning that the meaning of a word can change depending on the tone of voice used. There are three main tones in Lingala: high, low, and falling.

Pronunciation

Lingala has 26 letters, including the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 21 consonants. The consonants are: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z.

Learn Lingala - The Ultimate Guide

by Tracey Nyemba

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Language	:	English
File size	:	695 KB
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Enhanced typesetting	:	Enabled
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The following table shows the pronunciation of each letter in Lingala:

Letter	Pronunciation
a	ah
e	eh
i	ee
o	oh
u	oo
b	b
c	k
d	d
f	f
g	g
h	h
j	j
k	k
l	l
m	m
n	n
p	p
r	r
s	s
t	t
v	v
w	w
y	y
z	z

Grammar

Lingala is a subject-verb-object language. This means that the subject of a sentence comes before the verb, and the object of a sentence comes after the verb. For example, the sentence "I eat rice" would be "Ngai kekya mpunga" in Lingala.

Lingala has two tenses: the present tense and the past tense. The present tense is used to describe actions that are happening now, while the past tense is used to describe actions that happened in the past. To form the past tense, the suffix "-aki" is added to the verb. For example, the verb "to eat" is "kekya" in the present tense, and "kekyaki" in the past tense.

Lingala also has two aspects: the perfective aspect and the imperfective aspect. The perfective aspect is used to describe actions that have been completed, while the imperfective aspect is used to describe actions that are ongoing or habitual. To form the perfective aspect, the suffix "-idi" is added to the verb. For example, the verb "to eat" is "kekya" in the imperfective aspect, and "kekyidi" in the perfective aspect.