Prerequisite: Lesson 3.
New words
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| suda | past marker — put it before the verb |
| saufa | future marker — put it before the verb |
| kemarin | yesterday |
| besok | tomorrow |
Two of them are the entire tense system of Amadunia. The other two are the words that say when, and this lesson kept its name for twenty lessons without them: kemarin used to arrive in Lesson 24 and besok in Lesson 18, so a learner met the past marker twenty lessons before the word yesterday. Corrected on September 4, 2026.
There is no word for today. It is din ini, this day, and ini arrives in Lesson 15 — so of the three words in this lesson’s title, two are here and the third is a phrase you can build later.
The verb never changes
Take any sentence you already know and drop one word in front of the verb.
| Amadunia | English |
|---|---|
| Mi kula pan. | I eat bread. |
| Mi suda kula pan. | I ate bread. |
| Mi saufa kula pan. | I will eat bread. |
kula stayed kula. It will always stay kula.
Everyone, every time
| past | present | future | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | mi suda go | mi go | mi saufa go |
| you | yu suda go | yu go | yu saufa go |
| she / he | ta suda go | ta go | ta saufa go |
| we | kita suda go | kita go | kita saufa go |
Read down any column: the verb is identical in every row. Read across any row: only the particle moves.
Where the particle goes
Directly before the verb, after the subject. Nowhere else.
- Rafiki suda lai. — The friend came.
- Anak saufa nomu akua. — The child will drink water.
- Doktor suda kan ta. — The doctor saw her.
Saying when
The particle says whether it has happened; the time word says when. They sit at opposite ends of the sentence — the particle before the verb, the time word at the end.
| Amadunia | English |
|---|---|
| Mi suda kula pan kemarin. | I ate bread yesterday. |
| Mi saufa kula pan besok. | I will eat bread tomorrow. |
| Rafiki suda lai kemarin. | The friend came yesterday. |
| Kita saufa go besok. | We will go tomorrow. |
Both words are optional. Mi suda kula pan is already past; kemarin only says which past.
A conversation
— Yu suda kula? — Ya, mi suda kula pan. Yu? — No. Mi saufa kula. — Ok. Mi saufa beri ca.
Did you eat? — Yes, I ate bread. You? — No. I will eat. — Ok. I’ll give (you) tea.
Not repeating yourself
Once the time is set, you may leave the particle off until the time changes:
Mi suda go dom. Mi kula pan. Mi nomu ca. Mi kan rafiki. — I went home. I ate bread. I drank tea. I saw a friend.
Only the first sentence carries suda; the rest inherit it. Putting suda in every sentence is also correct — just longer.
Practice
- Ta suda sema. — She spoke.
- Kita saufa kan sol. — We will see the sun.
- Anak suda nomu akua. — The child drank water.
- Yu saufa lai dom? — Will you come home?
- Mi suda bil nama. — I knew the name.
What you can already say
Four lessons in: greet, ask, want, eat, drink, come, go, give, see, speak, know — in past, present and future, for any subject, without a single verb ever changing shape.
Plurals are covered in Lesson 5, possession in Lesson 6, questions in Lesson 7.