Verbs have always been my weak spot. The verbs themselves I can recognize- cun (eat), cab (drink), ciyaar (play), qor (write), caawi (help).
But actively pulling them out of my head? Don’t piss me off.
So this week I focused on one main thing:
Improving my active recall of verbs
For verbs, I began by focusing on what I believe are the 25 most important. All resources that I used to build this list will be linked at the end.
Additionally, it’s important to note that the root form of all Somali verbs is the command form, so I will be listing those below.
Top 25 Somali Verbs:
- Tag- To go
- Cun- To eat
- Cab- To drink
- Hurud- To sleep
- Fikir- To think
- Ku hadal- To talk
- Important to note that the word “hadal” (speak) ALWAYS uses the word ku before it
- Sheeg- To tell
- Aqri- To read
- Qor- To write
- Xanuun- To be sick
- Socod- To walk
- Arag- to See
- Daawo- To watch
- Ciyaar- To play
- Rab- To want
- Jeclow- To love
- Neceb- To hate
- Caawi- To help
- Karo- To be able to
- Keen- To bring
- Qaad- To take
- Isticmaal- To use
- Qosl- To laugh
- Sameyn- To do
- Orod- To run
Now, the trick to remembering all of these verbs both passively (listening, reading) and actively (writing, speaking) is to practice both recalling the English translation from the Somali word and the Somali word from the English translation.
For this challenge, I’ve been using Anki- an online flashcard app that helps drill information into your long-term memory by using the forgetting curve and spaced repetition. It’s what all of the medical students use- and so far, it’s working! I’ve really seen a huge improvement in both my word recognition and word recall.
Weekly Summary:
- Wins:
- Improved verb recognition and recall
- Room for Improvement:
- Conjugating verbs in a variety of tenses
- Practicing using verbs in sentences
Resources that Helped Me This Week:
- Top 20 Common Somali Verbs to Master – Iftiin Learns
- Iftiin Learns- Fellow Somali blogger sharing her journey learning Somali. Shares her top 20 Somali verbs.
- Somali Verbs- MyLittleWordLand
- Website page has a huge database of Somali verbs and their meanings.
- TOP 10 SOMALI VERBS YOU NEED TO KNOW – YouTube
- A really good video by Sam of Somalia breaking down his top 10 Somali verbs- also provides sentences to practice with.
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