Tulu Lesson 4: Negative and Interrogative in Simple Present Tense

Hello everyone! Welcome back!

Today we are going to learn negative and interrogative form of sentences in Simple Present tense. Before we start, let me tell you how to conjugate auxiliary verb ‘ippu/uppu’ (Infinitive: ippuni/uppuni – To be). There are two forms of this verb exist in the Simple Present tense: ‘uppu/ippu’ and ‘ul’.

1^st form: ‘uppu’

yAn uppuvae – I am

I uppuva – You are

Aye/imbe uppuve – He is

Al/mOlu  uppuval – She is

au/undu  uppuNDu – It is

nama/enkulu  uppuva – We are

Ir/nikulu  uppuvar – You are

akulu/mokulu/Ar/mEr uppuver – They are

undekulu/aikulu uppuva – They are

This form is used in simple present tense and future tense.

Example:

Tulu: yAn Epola mUlu uppuvae
English: I am always here.

Kannada: nAnu yAvAgalU illi irtEne

Tulu: Aye ellae aulu uppuve
English: He will be there tomorrow.
Kannada: avanu nALe alli irtAne

2^nd form: ‘ul’

yAn ullae – I am

I ulla – You are

Aye/imbe ulle – He is

Al/mOlu  ullal – She is

au/undu  uNDu – It is

nama/enkulu  ulla – We are

Ir/nikulu  ullar – You are

akulu/mokulu/Ar/mEr uller – They are

undekulu/aikulu ulla – They are

This form mainly used to tell about existence.

Tulu: yAn ullae
English: I am there (I am present)
Kannada: nAnu iddEne

Tulu: dEver uller –
English: God is there (God exists)
Kannada: dEvaru iddAre

Tulu: yAn mUlu ullae, I Olu ulla? –
English: I am here, Where are you?
Kannada: nAnu illi iddEne, nInu elli iddIya

tulu: maroTu manga uNDu
English: There is a monkey on the tree.
Kannada: maradalli kOti ide

Tulu: niNDa mast kAs uNDu
English: You have a lot of money
Kannada: ninnalli tumbA duDDu ide

Tulu: aklena illaD raDD nAyilu ulla
English: They have 2 dogs at there house.
Kannada: avara maneyalli eraDu nAyigaLu ive

Tulu: encha ulla?
English: How are you? (Informal)
Kannada: hEge iddIya?

Tulu: encha ullar?
English: How are you? (Formal)
Kannada: hEge iddIra?

Tulu: yAn ushAr ullae
English: I am fine.
Kannada: nAnu chennAgiddEne

So ‘uNDu’ means ‘it is’ and its opposite is ‘ijji’ which means ‘it is not’ or just ‘no’. 

yAn ijjae – I am not

I ijja – You are not

Aye/imbe ijje – He is not

Al/mOlu  ijjal – She is not

au/undu  ijji – It is not

nama/enkulu  ijja – We are not

Ir/nikulu  ijjar – You are not

akulu/mokulu/Ar/mEr ijjer – They are not

undekulu/aikulu ijja – They are not

This form mainly used to tell about non-existence.

Tulu: Aye ijje
English: He is not there. (He is absent)
Kannada: avanu illa

Tulu: dEver ijjer
English: God is not there (God does not exist)
Kannada: dEvaru illa

Tulu: eNDa kAs ijji
English: I don’t have money.
Kannada: nannalli duDDilla

Tulu: yAn UruDu ijjae
English: I am out of town.
Kannada: nAnu Uralli illa

Tulu: au sAdya ijji
English: It is not possible.
Kannada: adu sAdya illa

Now let us look at the personal endings for negative form of sentences in Simple Present tense.

		Singular			Plural
		Pronoun	Ending	Example: pO	Pronoun	Ending	Example: pO
First Person		yAn	ujae	pOpujae	nama/enkulu	uja	pOpuja
Second Person		I	uja	pOpuja	nikulu/Ir	ujar	pOpujar
Third Person	Masc.	Aye/imbe	uje	pOpuje	akulu/Ar/mokulu/mEr	ujer	pOpujer
	Fem.	Al/mOlu	ujal	pOpujal
	Neut.	au/undu	uji	pOpuji	aikulu/undekulu	uja	pOpuja

Note: You may see some people use ‘uji’ ending for first person singular, ‘yAn pOpuji’ instead of ‘yAn pOpujae’ though grammatically it is wrong.

For Class A verbs the rules are same as explained in the previous lesson to conjugate the verbs in Simple Present tense, but all you need to change the personal endings to make it negative.

Root verb + p+ personal ending 

pO + p + ujae = pOpujae – I don’t go

bar+ p + ujae = barpujae – I don’t come

For Class B verbs, we don’t have to add ‘uv’ sound since personal ending starts from ‘u’ sound. We have to add personal endings directly to root verb.

Root verb + personal ending

mAr + ujae = mArujae – I don’t sell.

malpu + ujae = malpujae – I don’t do

Examples:

Tulu: yAn sAleg pOpujae.
English: I don’t go to school.
Kannada: nAnu shAlege hOgalla

Tulu: Aye rAtreD jeppuje
English: He doesn’t sleep at night.
Kannada: avanu rAtri malaguvudilla

Tulu: Al EreDala pAterujal
English: She doesn’t speak with anyone.
Kannada: avaLu yArallU mAtADuvudilla

Tulu: akulu chA parpujer
English: They don’t drink tea.
Kannada: avaru chahA kuDiyalla

Tulu: petta pEr korpuji
English: Cow doesn’t give milk
Kannada: dana hAlu koDuvudilla

Tulu: I dAyae barpuja?
English: Why don’t you come?
Kannada: nInu Eke baralla?

Tulu: yAn ellae barpujae
English: I will not come tomorrow
Kannada: nAnu nALe baralla

Tulu: yAn ninan madapujae
English: I will not forget you
Kannada: nAnu ninnannu mareyalla

Tulu: nama nana Epogla tikkuja
English: We will never meet again.
Kannada: nAvu innu yAvattigU sigalla

To make the interrogative form of sentences, we need to add ‘a’ or ‘na’ at the end. If a word or sentence ends in vowel ‘a’, ‘e’, 'ae' or ‘o’, then add ‘na’. If a word or sentence ends in a consonant (half-u), ‘i’ or ‘u’, then add ‘a’. But what is important here is the way we pronounce the sentence to make it a question.

yAn barpae – I come  

yAn barpaena? – Do I come? 

I barpa – You come

I barpana? – Do you come?

Aye barpe – He comes

Aye barpena? – Does he come?

Al barpal – She comes

Al barpala? – Does she come?

au barpuNDu – It comes

au barpuNDa? – Does it come?

nama barpa – we come

nama barpana? Do we come?

nikulu barpar – You come

nikulu barpara? – Do you come?

akulu barper – They come

akulu barpera? – Do they come?

aikulu barpa – They come

aikulu barpana? – Do they come?

Examples:

Tulu: I sAleg pOpana?
English: Do you go to school?
Kannada: nInu shAlege hOgtIya?

Tulu: and, yAn sAleg pOpae
English: Yes, I go to school.
Kannada: houdu, nAnu shAlege hOgtEne

Tulu: ijji, yAn sAleg pOpujae
English: No, I don’t go to school.
Kannada: illa, nAnu shAlege hOgalla

Instead of saying the entire sentence, we can simply say the verb to answer such questions.

Tulu: Aye ellae barpena?
English: Will he come tomorrow?
Kannada: avanu nALe bartAna?

Tulu: and, barpe
English: Yes, he will come.
Kannada: houdu, bartAne

Tulu: ijji, barpuje
English: No, he will not come.
Kannada: illa baralla

Tulu: ushAr ullana?
English: Are you fine?
Kannada: chennAgiddIya?

Tulu: ellae barpana?
English: Will you come tomorrow?
Kannada: nALe bartIya?

Tulu: akulu barpujera?
English: Will they not come?
Kannada: avaru baralva?

Tulu: chA parpara?
English: Will you drink tea?
Kannada: chahA kuDitIra?

Tulu: onas malpuvara?
English: Will you have lunch?
Kannada: UTa mADtIra?

Tulu: dAla tinpujara?
English: Will you not eat anything?
Kannada: EnU tinnalva?

Tulu: illaDe barpujana?
English: Don’t you come home?
Kannada: manege baralva?

Tulu: illaD mAta ushAr ullera?
English: Is everyone fine at home?
Kannada: maneyalli ellAru chennagiddAra?

Tulu: niNDa kAs uNDa?
English: Do you have money?
Kannada: ninnalli duDDideya?

Tulu: nama patt gaNTeg ettuvana?
English: Will we reach at 10 O’clock?
Kannada: nAvu hattu gaNTege taluptEva?

Tulu: Al kANDae bEga lakkuvala?
English: Will she get up early in the morning?
Kannada: avaLu beLagge bEga ELtALa?

‘and’ means Yes or correct. ‘ijji’ means No or ‘it is not’ or ‘does not exist’. We have another word in Tulu ‘att’ which means No.

‘att’ is used for negating an idea or quality while ‘ijji’ is for actions.  To make it clear, look at the examples below:

I kiraNa? – Are you Kiran?

att, yAn kArtik. – No, I am Karthik.

I pOpana? – Will you go?

ijji – No

undu satyana? – Is this true?

att – No

I Oduvana? – Will you read?

ijji - No

Words used in today’s lesson:

mUlu/mulpa – here

aulu/alpa – there

Olu/olpa – Where

mara/maro – tree

manga – monkey

mast – a lot/very much

kAs – money

nAyilu - dogs 

encha - how

ushAr – Clever/Intelligent

Uru - Village

sAdya - possible

rAtrae - night

EreDa – to/with whom (communicative case)

EreDala – to/with anyone

Er – Who

Erla - anyone

dAyae - why

nana – again/henceforth

nanala – still/yet

Epogla - forever

dAla – anything

mAta – all

patt - ten

bEga – early/soon

Click here to know more verbs.

Click here for Video lessons

All right! If you have any questions, feel free to comment. See you next week!

Solmelu!