Afaan Oromo/Chapter 07

Chapter 7: Past Tense Verbs

An Oromo History (Seenaa Oromoo)
[Adapted from Ali and Zaborski (1990)] Bara dheeraaf sabni Oromoo nagayaan aadaa, diinagdee fi polotikaa isaa oofuu ture. Yeroo kana keessatti diinagdeen biyya Oromoo akka gaariitti guddatte. Akkasumattiis aadaa fi sirni of bulchiinsaa bal'ate.

Haa ta'u malee, toora jaarraa 15 irratti duulli Habashaa fi Mootummaa Islaamaa o'aa deeme. Kuni saba Oromoo yaada keessa seensise. Sabni Oromoo diina jajjabaa kana ofirraa dhorkuuf suuta-suutaan humna lolaa guddisuu jalqabe. Duulaaf sabni Oromoo hin jarjarre. Obsa wajjin duula Habashaa fi Mootummaa Islaamaa akeekatani eegan. Habashaa fi Mootummaan Islaamaa lafa Oromoo irratti wal lolan.

Imaam Ahmed biyya Habashaa akka hamaatti cabse. Magaalota Habashaa tokko-tokkoon gube nama hedduus fixe. Akkuma ta'eti, duultuun Portugaal bara 1543 dhufani Habashaa gargaaran. Imaam Ahmed lola Portugaal wajjin godhame irratti kufe.

Kana booda Amir Nur 1559, duultuu fi meeshaa duulaa fudhate Habashaa rukute. Amir Nur mootii Habashaa Galaawdiyos kan jedhamu ajjeese nama hedduus fixe. Amir Nuriif waan hafte biyya Habashaa of jala bulchuu. Kanaaf biyya isaatti deebi'e namaa fi meeshaa barbaachis qopheessuuf karaa galaana deemuu ture.

Akka olitti jenne, sabni Oromoo duula Habashaa fi Mootummaa Islaamaa eegaa ture. Hoggaa Amir Nur Hasaloo ga'u duultuun Oromoo duultuu isaa rukutte. Hasalootti duultuun Mootummaa Islaamaa hedduu dhume. Amir Nur lubbu isaa baafate nama xiqqoo wajjin. Adaree-biyyoo gale. Hasaloo booda sabni Oromoo lafa isaa Habashaa, Mootummaa Islaamaa fi saba biraarraa suuta-suutaan haga jaarraa 18 harka isaa seensifate.

[For translation see here]

Verbs in the Affirmative
To express actions completed in the past, verbs are conjugated in the simple past tense. Verb groups described in Chapter 4 remain the same independent of verb tense. That is, if one knows the present-future conjugation pattern for a verb, one can accurately conjugate that verb in the simple past (or any other tense, for that matter). Compared to the present-future affirmative conjugation, only the final vowel changes to form the simple past. The table below shows how to change a verb conjugated in the present-future to the present negative and simple past affirmative.

So that “you learn” is baratta, “you don't learn” is hin barattu, and “you learned” is baratte.

The exceptions to this rule are the “to be” verbs: dha and jiruu. These verbs are only used in the present-future tense, and in the past tense are replaced by the verb turuu, which in the present tense means “to stay/wait”. To say “it is present” is jira, but “it was present” is ture. This verb is regular, as shown in the conjugation table below.

The preverbs nan (or -n suffix) and ni are used in the past tense just as they are in the present-future tense (see Chapter 4 for use of nan and ni).

Verbs in the Negative
Verbs in the simple past negative use the hin preverb (as in the present-future tense negative) and the simple past form from the 2nd person plural. The simple past negative is therefore the same for all persons. Context or a pronoun are required to clarify the person to whom the verb is referring. To say “I didn't know” is “ani hin beekne”, “you didn't know” is “ati hin beekne”, “they didn't know” is “isaan hin beekne”, etc.

Like dha, miti is only used in the present-future tense. In the past tense, it is replaced by hin turre, meaning “was/were not”.

Verbs from the main conjugation groups are shown below for present affirmative, present negative, past affirmative, and past negative.