Afaan Oromo/Chapter 02

Chapter 2: Word Order

Greeting Conversation
Girma: Tariku, akkam bulte? ''Tariku: Akkam bulte? Fayyaa dha?'' ''Girma: Fayyaa, galata Waaqaa. Akkam jirta?'' ''Tariku: Nagaa, galata Waaqaa. Eessa deemta?'' Girma: Amma gara mana barumsaan deema. Tariku: Har'a galgala maal goota? Girma: Edana qo'achuun qaba. ''Tariku: Tole. Wal agarra.''

[For translation see here]

Basic Sentence Structure
Afaan Oromo follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) format. But because it is a declined language (nouns change depending on their role in the sentence), word order can be flexible, though verbs always come after their subjects and objects. Typically, indirect objects follow direct objects. Oromo has both prepositions and postpositions, though postpositions are more common.

SOV ok, but what about

Anan namicha arga = I see the man Namicha anan arga = I see the man

Both ok?

Examples:

“I threw the ball to you” → “I ball to you threw” → “Ani kubbaa siif nan ha'e”

“She came from America” → “She America from came” → “Isheen Ameerikaa irraa dhufte”

Modifiers
Adjectives come after the nouns they modify. Adverbs that modify adjectives go before the adjective. Adverbs that modify verbs, adverbial clauses, and relative clauses tend to go at the beginning of the sentence before the subject.

Examples:

“your blue pen is in my room” → “pen blue your room my in is” → “biirii dooqee kee kutaa koo keessa jira”

“I don't know where it is” → “Where that it is I don't know” → “Eessa akka ta'e ani hin beeku”

“How far is the post office” → “How post office is far?” → “Hagam manni postaa fagaata?”

“What are you doing tonight?” → “Tonight what will you do?” → “Edana maal gotta?”