Exercises lesson 9

9.E Exercises

Your are advised to print the tables with exercises and to fill in. The exercises form a separate page, therefore only the exercises will be printed. You can check your answers using the Answer book.

Exercise 1. Translate to English
Exercise 2. Translate to Zarma
Exercise 3. Questions with 'mate'
Exercise 4. Questions with 'man'
Exercise 5. Questions with 'ifo'
Exercise 6. Questions with 'marje'
Exercise 7. Questions with 'waati'
Exercise 8. Questions with 'may'
Exercise 9. Questions with 'wofo'

9.E.1 Translate to English

Zarma	English
Ifo se no ni mana wodin bay? Ay man’a bay zama ay mana koy kwaara hunkuna. I mana ci ay se hay kulu mo.
Man Adamu windo (= compound) go? To. Ay g’a cebe ni se.
Ifo no araŋ caw hunkuna? Iri na sanney caw kaŋ yaŋ go Irikoy tira ra. Ay ci i se iri ga koy caw yaŋ fu suba si. Iri si koy jingaray do koyne, zama cin no. Iri go ga maa Irikoy Sanno se.
Ifo se ni go no ga goro ne ni karga boŋ? To. Zama feejey no ay go no ga guna. May feejey no? Iri baaba feejey no.
Hassan di ni ɲa; a go nga fuwo ra. Ifo n’a ne a se? A mana ne a se hay kulu. A mana ba ne fo-fo.
Man hanso din koy? Hansi wofo no? Iri mana di a. Ay wayme hanso no; a ga ba r’a. Cin bindo ra no a zuru.
Bi ay di goroŋgari kwaare fo habo do. I g’a neera dala waranka. Iri g’a day; Isaka no ne nga g’a wi iri se.
Boro kuuku wo ga to kwaara koyo. A ga jingar zama a go ga Mohammadu gana. Zarmey ga jingar ce gu zaari kulu.

back

9.E.2 Translate to Zarma

English	Zarma
Yesterday someone said to me: "If you go into the bush, you will see a lion." I said to him, "Who told you that?" He said to me: "We saw it day before yesterday. It is a red lion."
Every morning we pray, but the religious teacher does not pray; he recites the Muslim "prayers". Do they not all go into the big mosque?
How much is this white kitten? It’s ninety-five Francs. Who killed its mothers? I don’t know. I didn’t even know she was dead (= she died). Who told you that?
I am sitting down at my house. I see your brother. He is running.
Why is it that it is now, this soon (= nda hineydin), that you (p) got up? Well, we didn’t sleep during the night. Why was it you didn’t sleep? Because guests arrived to stay with us (= guests descended upon us).
Which chair did they take that which is green or that which is black? They didn’t tell me, but I know they took both (= all two).

back

9.E.3 Questions with 'mate'

Practise the example questions in the table below to improve your Zarma. Cover first the right hand side of the table and give the English translation. Than change and cover the left hand side of the table and give the Zarma phrase.

Zarma	English
Mate ni ma?	What is your name? (How are you named?)
Mate ni go?	How are you?
Mate ni gahamo?	How is your body? (After illness, for example)
Mate fu borey?	How is your family?
Mate ni te? Mate ni g’a te?	How did you do? How to do it?
Mate iri ga te ga bay?	How shall we know?
Mate ay ga te?	What shall I do?
Mate ni te ga maa r’a?	How did you hear about it?
Mate no?	How about it? (How does that happen to be?)
Mate i ga ne a se?	How do they call it?

back

9.E.4 Questions with 'man'

Zarma	English
Man a go?	Where is (s)he (it)?
Man ni fuwo go?	Where is your house?
Man ay ga du a?	Where shall I get it?
Man a?	Where? Whereabouts?
Man ga ni fun?	Where did you come from?
Man ni koy?	Where did you go?
Man ni du a?	Where did you get it?

back

9.E.5 Questions with 'ifo'

Zarma	English
Ifo se no ni mana kaa?	Why didn’t you come?
Ifo se no ni na wodin te?	Why did you do that?
Ifo se no ni n’a te?	Why did you do it?
Ifo se no ni koy?	Why did you go?
Ifo no?	What is it? What is the matter?
Ifo no ni te?	What did you do?
Ifo n’ay ga te?	What shall I do?
Ifo no wo?	What is this?
Ifo ga ti … ?	What is the meaning of … ? (… = word you wish to be explained)

back

9.E.6 Questions with 'marje'

Zarma	English
Marje?	How many? How much?
Marje no?	How much is it?
Marje-marje?	How much is each one?
nooru marje no ni se?	How much money do you have?
Hari marje go tassa ra?	How much water is in the dish?