the verb Future ('I will do'): -za- With the past stem: Polite Imperative ('Let me do'; 'please do'): - (no infix) Perfect ('I have done/I did'): -a- Near Past ('I just did'): -ra- (assimilates to -da- when preceded by n) Preterite ('I did'): -ara- Subjunctive ('that I do/did'): -za- Object affixes corresponding to the noun classes of an object may be placed after the tense marker and before the verb stem: The personal object affixes are as follows: Causatives Kinyarwanda employs the use of periphrastic causatives, in addition to morphological causatives. The periphrastic causatives use the verbs -teer- and -tum-, which mean cause. With -teer-, the original subject becomes the object of the main clause, leaving the original verb in the infinitive (just like in English): In this construction, the original S can be deleted. With -túm-, the original S remains in the embedded clause and the original verb is still marked for person and tense: Derivational causatives use the instrumental marker -iish-. The construction is the same, but it is instrumental when the subject is inanimate and it is causative when the subject is animate: This morpheme can be applied to intransitives (3) or transitives (4): However, there can only be one animate direct object. If a sentence has two, one or both is deleted and understood from context. The suffix -iish- implies an indirect causation (similar to English have in "I had him write a paper), while other causatives imply a direct causation (similar to English make in "I made him write a paper"). One of these more direct causation devices is the deletion of what is called a "neutral" morpheme -ik-, which indicates state or potentiality. Stems with the -ik- removed can take -iish, but the causation is less direct: {| | -mének- || "be broken" || -mén- || "break" || -méneesh- || "have (something) broken" |- | -sáduk- || "be cut" || -sátur- || "cut" || -sátuz- || "have (something) cut" |} Another direct causation maker is -y- which is used for some verbs: Notes References External links Kinyarwanda.net Kinyarwanda–English dictionary and grammar reference Kinyarwanda phonology case study by University of Texas PanAfrican localisation page on Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Kinyarwanda–English Dictionary by Betty Ellen Cox A Kinyarwanda-English and English-Kinyarwanda Dictionary Languages of Rwanda Languages of Uganda Rwanda-Rundi languages