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Lesson 18

Verb of Presence or Existence




     1.  The verb of presence or existence, (he) is present/ there is,
        is expressed by "hala".

      The person, gender and number is generated from hala, the base
      element, by adding a suffix to it:

      hala          he is present/there is
      halet         she is present
      haleka        you(m,s)


      haleki        you(f,s)
      haleko        I
      halekum       you(m,p)
      halekn        you(f,p)
      halena        we
      halewu        they(m,p)
      haleya        they(f,p)

     This verb of existence is placed at the end of the sentence.

Example 18.1

      et suq adam bzuH hala 	There is a lot of people in the market.
      abuyie et Ad hala         My father is (present )at home.
      et beHar Asa bzuH hala 	There is a lot of fish(present) in sea
      et lebeHar Asa bzuH hala  There is a lot of fish(present)in the sea.
      dib bietna gasha bzHam    There are a lot of guests (present)
      halewu                     in our house.
      mn asmera lemeS'aya ans 	Where are the women who came from Asmara?
      aya haleya ?

      2. The verb hala is also used to express action in progress:


Example 18.2

       legashay  sekb hala         The guest is sleeping.
      (le gashay)
      mtwede haleka ?               What are you doing ?
      egeys haleko                  I am going.
      leHSan beke hala              The child is crying

      3. This verb of existence also has a past form Ala.

      Ala        he
      Alet       she
      Alka       you(m,s)
      Alki       you(f,s)
      Alko       I
      Alna       we
      Alkum      you(m,p)
      Alkn       you(f,p)
      Alewu      they(m)
      Aleya      they(f)


Example 18.3

      amayr et biet Alet              Amayer was at home.

      4. This past form is also used to express an action that was in
         progress at some point in the past:


Example 18.4

       arhiet jewab ketb Alet          Arhiet was writing a letter
       nawud ltelhe Ala                Nawed was playing


***********************************************
     In this lesson we learned the following new words:

      suq          market
      adam         people
      Asa          fish
      gashay       guest
      gasha        guests
      bkay         crying(noun)
      beke         cry   (verb)
      jewab(Arb.)  letter
      tlhya        playing (noun)
      ltelhe       playing (verb)
***********************************************
End of Lesson 18
This material is for dehai use only; thus, it can not be distributed in any form.
© Omar M. Kekia. All Rights Reserved.
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