Tigrigna Online - Lessons - Ch 2 - Yes/No Questions: Part 1

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Yes/No Questions: Part 1

Usage in English

A Yes/No Question is a question that can be answered with "yes" or "no." In English a few examples of yes/no questions would be:

"Do you have a phone?" "Is the sky blue?" "Are you okay?"

Usage in Tigrigna

Yes/No questions are formed by simply adding the letter "ዶ" as a suffix to any word in a sentence. Here are some examples on how declarative statements can be changed into yes/no questions:

Statements (without ዶ) Yes/No Questions (with ዶ)

1a) "እታ ከልቢ ወጺአ ነዒራ፡" "The dog was out." 1b) "እታ ከልቢ ወጺአ ዶ ነዒራ፧" "Was the dog out?"

2a) "ክዳውንትኻ አሕጺብኻ፡" "You washed your clothes." 2b) "ክዳውንትኻ አሕጺብኻ ዶ፧" "Did you wash your clothes?"

3a) "ኣበል ኣብ ገዛ አሎ፡" "Abel is at home" 3b) "ኣበል ኣብ ገዛ ዶ አሎ፧" "Is Abel at home?"

4a) "ኣቦኻ ምሳኻ መጺኡ፡" "Your father came with you." 4b) "ኣቦኻ ምሳኻ ዶ መጺኡ፧" "Did your father come with you?"

5a) "ሰራሕ ከትከይድ ኢኻ፡" "You are going to work." 5b) "ሰራሕ ከትከይድ ዶ ኢኻ፧" "Are you going to work?"

6a) "መኪና ኣለትካ፡" "You have the car." 6b) "መኪና ዶ ኣለትካ፧" "Do you have the car?"

7a) "ትምህርት ወዲእካ፡" "You have finished school." 7b) "ትምህርት ዶ ወዲእካ፧" "Have you finished school?"

8a) "ምሳና ከትከይድ ኢካ ናብ ሙቪ፡" "You are going with us to the movie." 8b) "ምሳና ዶ ከትከይድ ኢካ ናብ ሙቪ፧" "Are you going with us to the movie?"

9a) "ምሰ ሕውኻ ተዘርብካ ነርካ፡" "You spoke with your brother." 9b) "ምሰ ሕውኻ ተዘርብካ ዶ ነርካ፧" "Did you speak with your brother?"

10a) "ብሽክለታኻ ተሰይራ እያ፡" "Your bicycle is broken." 10b) "ብሽክለታኻ ዶ ተሰይራ እያ፧" "Is your bicycle broken?"

You will quickly find that there are few rules (and a lot of exceptions) when learning Tigrigna, however here are a few recommendations to help you...

The exact position of ዶ in a sentence is unimportant
The fidel ዶ can be placed in/beside almost any word in a sentence, unlike in English where almost every word/suffix has it's special place, Tigrigna is very flexible in this regard; observe the correct and incorrect examples.

"Was the dog out?"		"Have you finished school?"
Correct: "እታ ከልቢ ዶ ወጺአ ነዒራ፧" "እታ ከልቢ ወጺአ ዶ ነዒራ፧" "እታ ከልቢ ወጺአ ነዒራ ዶ፧"	Incorrect: "እታ ዶ ከልቢ ወጺአ ነዒራ፧"	Correct: "ትማህርት ዶ ወዲእካ፧" "ትማህርት ወዲእካ ዶ፧"	Incorrect: -

When writing Tigrigna, one can use ዶ in a number of ways.
When reading Tigrigna you could see any of these three variations.
a) It can be added as a suffix into a word in the sentence:

"ኣቦኻ ምሳኻዶ መጺኡ፧"
"Did your father come with you?"

b) It can be added (with an apostrophe) as a suffix onto a word in the sentence:

"ኣቦኻ ምሳኻ'ዶ መጺኡ፧"
"Did your father come with you?"

c) It can be added in the sentence without putting it into a word:

"ኣቦኻ ምሳኻ ዶ መጺኡ፧"
"Did your father come with you?"