Learn Yoruba for Beginners – Lesson 7 : Pronouns in Yoruba — Intensive pronoun

Introduction

Hello everyone! This post’s focus is intensive pronouns. Some of these are myself, yourself, themselves etc. These types of pronouns emphasise the antecedent. In the Yoruba language, based on my very quick research, these pronouns are expressed in the following format :

ara + subject pronoun

If you want to know more about subject pronouns, please click this link.

This was a bit difficult to draft up because, although I could find resources for some pronouns, I had to resort to google translate and assumptions to figure out the last two pronouns. So please take this grammar lesson with a grain of salt. I hope Yoruba language experts see this and provide their own corrections and suggestions in the comments.

Lesson

Myself

ara mi

Example

I buy food for myself.

Mo ra oúnjẹ fún ara mi.

Yourself (singular)

Ara rẹ

Example

You buy food for yourself.

Ẹ ra oúnjẹ fún ara rẹ.

Himself/Herself/Itself

Arárẹ̀, alarẹ̀

Example

He buys food for himself.

Wó̩n ra oúnjẹ fún ará rẹ̀.

Ourselves

ara wa

Example

We buy food for ourselves.

A ra oúnjẹ fún ara wa.

Yourselves (plural)

ara yín

Example

You buy food for yourselves.

O ra oúnjẹ fún ara yín.

Themselves

ara wọn

Example

They buy food for themselves.

O ra oúnjẹ fún ara wọn.

Hope you enjoyed this very informal post. Please, every suggestion or correction is welcomed and appreciated. Thank you! See you in the next post.

Editor notes

As I am also a beginner in Yoruba, my sentences will be very short and boring. So please bear with me.

References

• Colloquial Yoruba: The Complete Course for Beginners
• Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns
• Google Translate (for yourselves and themselves)