SUKA wena, kanti umenzani umntwana? Mekele azidlalele.
Sulokhu umhlupha nje ingathi udleni yakho. The speaker has made two mistakes which unfortunately are very common in everyday speech. If you are unable to pick out the mistakes you have a long way to go to polish up your Ndebele.
The two errors are mekele and sulokhu. The verb mekele comes from the vowel-verb stem –ekela, which gives yekela, hence muyekele and by usage the –u- of mu- is dropped to my-, thus myekele, luyekele, kuyekele. Note also the –i- in siyekele, liyekele, ziyekele and so on.
The following mistakes are common:
Amatshe lawo ngiyawafuna, ekele khonapho, bekela imbuzi zangena esivandeni sami, wekeleleni ukumlandisela indaba enjalo? bonela ukwekela umsebenzi base beqalisa ukuntshontsha and kangixotshwanga ngazekelela sengidiniwe.
Notice the verbal noun ukuyekela and not ukwekela. Kubi ukuyekela izinto zisonakala.
We say: Uboyekela nxa ungafuni, and not ubokwekela. Notice also, Uboyekela nxa ungafuni, and not ubokwekela
Notice also: Uyekeleleni ukungitshela sengize ngayekela ukuhamba laye? It is wrong to say, Wekeleleni and to say ngekela.
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The frequency with which this error occurs is forcing us to remind our readers about the other errors that have vowel-verb stems, like: -osa, -enza, -eqa, -enwaya, -ebula, -akha, -ona, -elusa, enaba, -opha, etc. The reader will quickly realise that these verbs are used wrongly in the following sentences:
- Wawosa inyama elutsthwana (not enlutshwana because nl does not occur in Ndebele. Hence izilwandle, izilimi/ izindimi. Inkobe zami zilutshwana not zinlutshwana) The verb wawosa should be wosa. Bafana, ake lose umumbu wami lowo, but not ake liwose. Use the semi-vowel y with –osa > yosa, -ona > yona, -opha > yopha.
But: Wopha igazi laze lageleza
Umntwana wona yikho unina wamtshaya
Ngizakosa amazambane la ngidle
Kuthangi ngosa inyama kababa
All these are correct sentences which should be copied in everyday speech. Remember that there are no such words as ukuyeqa, ukuyebula, ukuyenza, ukuwona, ukuyelusa and so on. The correct forms are ukweqa, ukwebula, ukwenza, ukona, ukwelusa.
Once again remember -azi > ukwazi. The word ukubakwazi does not exist in Ndebele. We say: Ngiyakutshela ukuze ukwazi ukuthi ngifunani. Ubefuna ukwazi ukuthi ngifunani.
Please never say ukuze ubekwazi. Ubefuna ukwazi ukuthi lokhu ukutshelwe ngubani. Abantu kumele bakwazi/bazi ukuthi uNkulunkulu uyabathanda.
- Our opening statement has sulokhu in the second sentence. What is missing is the subject concord u-> usulokhu. We say ulokhu uhlezi (not the conversational lokhu hlezi lapha). Zilokhu zilele esibayeni. Ngilokhu ngimlindile. Amanzi alokhu egeleza.
It is not correct language to say: Lokhu ngihlala koZwimba although it is common in conversational speech. Rather Ngihlala koZwimba. One of the wrong sentences above reads: Bonela ukwekela umsebenzi base beqalisa ukuntshontsha.
The word ukuntshontsha may be contentious. Some people say ukutshontsha. This is a Nguni term from intshontsho, hence ntshontsha. Umfana wantshontsha imali kayise yonke watshaya amakhasi. To conclude the discussion compare each set of sentences below and decide which is the correct one:
- Nxa unjalo ngizakwekela uhlupheke wedwa. Kanti bayekelelani amasimu abo elaluka bengawalimanga?
- Imbuzi zakoSazini zantshontshwa ngabafana bakoMagwili. Ungatshiyi imali esikhwameni bazakutshontshela.
- Amankazana ayenza iqhinga elibi abaleka ekhaya. Bamenzela umphungo olula ngoba wayelamalonda emlonyeni.
- Angiyifuni imali yakho, bisa eyami kuphela. UMadade bambuyisela kibo ngoba esehlupha.
- Sathatha umkhumbi eBheyira (Beira) sawela izinlwandle sayengena eNgilanda ngemva kweviki. Izilimi ezikhulunywa elizweni lase -Indiya zinengi kakhulu.