Subject Agreement

In isiZulu there exists a certain relationship between the subject and the verb of a sentence. This is by means of a subject concord that is prefixed to the verb stem. The subject concord always closely resembles the class prefix of the noun which is the subject of the clause. (Refer to table on subject concord).

THE PRESENT TENSE

In isiZulu there is distinguished between in the 'present tense' between two types: the short present tense and the long present tense.

The Short Present Tense
The present tense followed by an object (or some other part of the predicate), is called the short present tense. The subject concord of the class concerned is simply prefixed to the verb stem,
for instance:

• Abafundi bafunda incwadi. (The learners read a book)
• Inja iluma ikati. (The dog bites the cat)
• Umfazi upheka manje. (The woman cooks now)
• Abafana bagijima kakhulu. (The boys run fast)

In addition, an adverbial form may also appear in the short present tense:

• Abafundi bafunda incwadi lapha. (The learners read a book here)

The Long Present Tense
This form of the present tense is marked by the long present tense formative -ya-which follows the subject concord:

• U-ya-sebenza (He/She is working)
  

The long present tense is used when the verb appears at the END of a sentence, as in the following examples:

• Umlilo uyashisa. (The fire is hot) vs. Umlilo ushisa kabi (The fire is very hot)
• Amadoda ayasebenza. (The men work) vs. Amadoda asebenza kakhulu (The men work hard)
• Umfana uyapheka. (The boy cooks) vs. Umfana uyapheka ukudla (The boy cooks food)

The English can also be translated as "The boy is cooking", "The fire is burning", etc.

When a verb is followed by an adverbial form indicating time or locality, the verb may appear in the long present tense as well:

• Ngiyahamba manje. (I am going now)
• Uyavakasha ekhaya. (He is visiting at home)

The Present Tense Negative

The negative form is as folows: negative formative ka- or a- + the verb which ends in -i. The k- of ka- is optional, the verb consists of the subject concord + the verb stem:

• Abafana (k)abathandi ukusebenza. (The boys do not like to work)

The following is a full list of the negative form with the verb stem -hamba (go, walk):

Singular		Plural
1st p.s.	angihambi	1st p.p.	asihambi
2nd p.s.	awuhambi	2nd p.p.	anihambi
umu:	akahambi	aba:	abahambi
umu:	awuhambi	imi:	ayihambi
ili:	alihambi	ama:	awahambi
isi:	asihambi	izi:	azihambi
in:	ayihambi	izin:	azihambi
ulu:	aluhambi
ubu:	abuhambi
		uku:	akuhambi

Note that the subject concord of the umu- class (singular third person) is -ka-. In the nasal cases (where the subject concord consists of a vowel only) juxtaposition of vowels is prevented by the insertion of a semi-vowel between the negative a- and the subject concord:
umu-: -wu-
imi-: -yi-
ama-: -wa-
in-: -yi-


Enclitics

In conclusion for this chapter, there will be a short discussion of enclitics. An enclitic is neither a proper suffix nor can it be used independantly. The following enclitics exist in isiZulu:

• -ke (then) which is written with a hyphen
• -bo which is used with the imperative to express insistence
• nje (just, simply)

Enclitics usually follow a verb. They may, however, also follow other parts of the sentence. Some examples:

• Siyahamba-ke! (And so we go now)
• Hambani bo! (Do go now!)
• Siyakhuluma nje. (We are just talking)
• Isela likhuluma mahhala nje. (The thief is just talking nonsense)
• Hambani-ke. (So go now)
• Hambani manje bo! (Go now!)
• Bheka izimoto bo! (Look out for the cars!)