Mhoroi vakomana ne vasikana. | Hello boys and girls.
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PART 8.1 | Things you need to know
If you speak Spanish, French, Portuguese and etc. You probably have noticed words have a gender. There is a way to speak to a woman or to a man. I know French better so I'll give you a French example.
In French Un means "a" or "one".
Men would say 'un' but women would said 'une'
Again to say 'the' in French is (le) for men and (la) for women.
So French words are mostly either masculine or feminine. And then English, while it is not a gender centered language it still has ways to distinguish a man and a woman through language. Shona on the other hand, while yes you can distinguish a man and a woman with the language, it's not done in an obvious way.
What do I mean?
Shona does not have 'he' or 'she'. It has girl (musikana) and boy (mukomana), however you cannot go around repeating these words a million times to make a point.
Look at this English sentence.
She took her into her room herself because she didn't think she wasn't allowed to do so.
Since there is not 'She' in Shona let's try using girl (musikana).
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TAKE ONE| she/her
Musikana took musikana into musikana room musikana ega because musikana didn't think musikana wasn't allowed to do so.
How painful was it to read that?
Okay how would we say it in Shona? Here goes everything!
Akamupinza mukati mechumba chake pachake nekuti haana kufungidzira kuti anga asinga bvumidzwe kudaro.
Where is She, and Her?
Akamupinza mukati mechumba chake pachake nekuti haana kufungidzira kuti anga asinga bvumidzwe kudaro.
She took her into her room herself because she didn't think she wasn't allowed to do so.
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TAKE TWO| He/him
Let's use the same sentence.
She took her into her room herself because she didn't think she wasn't allowed to do so.
First let's use boy (mukomana):
Mukomana took mukomana into mukomana room kumomana wega because mukomana didn't think mukomana wasn't allowed to do so.
Real chiShona sentence:
Akamupinza mukati mechumba chake pachake nekuti haana kufungidzira kuti anga asinga bvumidzwe kudaro.
Where is He, his and Him?
Akamupinza mukati mekarumi yake pachake nekuti haana kufungidzira kuti anga asinga bvumidzwe kudaro.
He took him into his room himself because she didn't think she wasn't allowed to do so.
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TAKE THREE | Spot the difference.
USING: HER/SHE/
Akamupinza mukati mekarumi yake pachake nekuti haana kufungidzira kuti anga asinga bvumidzwe kudaro.
USING: HE/HIS/HIM/
Akamupinza mukati mekarumi yake pachake nekuti haana kufungidzira kuti anga asinga bvumidzwe kudaro.
YUP, there is no difference. So then, how can you distinguish gender? It's through name, when you first start having the conversation you say who you are talking about. This is a natural thing in all languages.
Example, let's create a context. In this case, Maenda (Mae) and Taona (Tao) are having a conversation about their mutual friend Alice and her friend Patience.
TAO: Alice was telling me about how she got in trouble with Patience's mum because of what happened yesterday.
MAE: Did she? What happened?
TAO: You know how Patience got hurt, and Alice wanted someone to take her into her room but no one knew which one it was?
MAE: Yeah, I was surprised since Patience's mum doesn't like the two of them being together. Wait no, don't tell me that -
TAO: She took her into her room herself because she didn't think she wasn't allowed to do so.
Now that you have a context you know they are talking about Alice taking Patience into her room. Let's put names in the scenario where they matter to make it clearer.
Alice took Patience into her room herself because she didn't think she wasn't allowed to do so.
Alice aka pinza Patience mukati mechumba chake pachake nekuti haana kufungidzira kuti anga asinga bvumidzwe kudaro.
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In our next Lesson we learn Sentence Structures and a bit of Grammar. Hope you are all there. Have a nice day y'all.
I bid you adieu.
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