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	Zulu	English
#7	Zulu by Qinisela
	Uthando lufana nenyonyana emafukufuku, umfokazana wazi ukudumaza inhliziyo yalo ethule. Uma isikhathi asisona isixazululo esidlula sonke, lufuna ukuqeda ukulungile. Uthando lufana nomntwana waseBohemia, lungeke lulandele imithetho. Uma awuzithandi, angazi ukukuthanda, uma bala ngiyakuthanda, ngifuna ukuba yisisekelo sakho.	Love is like an unruly little bird, nobody can let its calm heart down. When time is not the best solution, it wants to stop being good. Love is like a Bohemian child, it will never follow the rules. If you don't love yourself, I cannot love you, when I truly love you, I want to be your support.

uthando (n. 11) - love
ukufana (v.) - to be alike, to be similar
inyoni (n. 9/10) - bird
-mafukufuku (rel.) - disorderly, messy
umfokazana (n. 1/2) - nobody
ukwazi (v.) - to know, to be able to...
ukudumaza (v.) - to disappoint
inhliziyo (n. 9/10) - heart
-thule (rel.) - calm, quiet
uma (conj.) - if, when
isikhathi (n. 7/8) - time
sona (pron. 7) - it
isixazululo (n. 7/8) - solution
ukudlula (v.) - to pass
-nke (quant. stem) - all
ukufuna (v.) - to want
ukuqeda (v.) - to complete, to end
ukulungile (v.) - to be okay, to be alright
umntwana (n. 1/2) - child
Bohemia - Bohemia
-ngeke (v. aux.) - will never
ukulandela (v.) - to follow
umthetho (n. 3/4) - rule, law
ukuthanda (v.) - to love
bala (adv.) - truly
ukuba (v.) - to be
isisekelo (n. 7/8) - support
-kho (poss. stem) - [2nd person singular possessive]

Miscellaneous affixes:

na- (prefix) - with, and
-yana (suffix) - [diminutive]
y- (prefix) - [copulative prefix (to be)]
so- (prefix) - [class 7 quant. concord]
sa- (prefix) - [class 7 possessive concord]

Zulu is an agglutinative language with an SVO word order. It is fairly regular, but sometimes prefixes and suffixes combine in weird ways causing changes in consonants and/or vowels.

Nouns:

Nouns in Zulu are always part of one of 14 noun classes, indicated by a prefix on the noun. Some noun classes are singular and some are plural, and the plural of a noun is formed by changing the noun class of the noun to its corresponding plural noun class. The noun class paradigm is shown below:

Class	Singular	Plural
1/2	um(u)-	aba-
1a/2a	u-	o-
3/4	um(u)-	imi-
5/6	i-	ama-
7/8	isi-	izi-
9/10	iN-*	iziN-
11/10	u-	iziN-
14	ubu-	ubu-
15	uku-	uku-
17	uku-	uku-

*N means either n or m

A locative (at, to, from) form of a placename can be formed by prefixing e-. When more prefixes attach in front of that, it become se-.

Verbs:

The basic verbal paradigm is subject-tense-object-stem-suffix(es). Every verb has to have a suffix, and the default suffix is a meaningless -a. The only other verbal suffix used here is the subjunctive -e. There are both personal and nominal subject and object prefixes. The tricky thing with subject prefixes is that they can attach to things that aren't verbs. Present tense verbs as well as anything non-verbs with a subject prefix can be negated with the negative prefix a-. When present tense verbs are negated, the last vowel also changes to -i. The only tense prefixes used here are present ya-, past a-, and infinitive uku-. The present tense prefix is optional. The only object prefixes used here are ku- (2nd person singular) and zi- (reflexive). The subject prefix paradigm is below:

Person	Singular	Plural
1	ngi-	si-
2	u-, wu-*	ni-
3	u-, ka-	ba-

Class	Singular	Plural
1/2	u-, ka-	ba-
1a/2a	u-, ka-	ba-
3/4	u-, wu-	i-, yi-
5/6	li-	a-, wa-
7/8	si-	zi-
9/10	i-, yi-	zi-
11/10	lu-	zi-
14	bu-	bu-
15	ku-	ku-
17	ku-	ku-

*Where forms appear in pairs, the second is the form that appears after the negative prefix a-.

Relatives:

Relatives are a type of adjective used in Zulu. They agree with the noun that they modify, and their agreement concords are similar to the noun prefixes or subject prefixes. Relatives can also be formed from verbs. For example, forming a relative of "eat" would be like "eating" as in "I saw the eating man."