Lingala dictionary · browse all
ya
YA
of (genitive / connective particle)
French: de (particule de liaison)
Mwana ya mwasi azali na ndako.
The daughter (child of woman) is in the house.
La fille (enfant de femme) est dans la maison.
Ya — the bridge word of Lingala. The genitive particle that links one thing to another: mwana ya mwasi (child of woman = daughter), mai ya mbila (water of palm = palm wine), nzela ya ndako (road to the house). Every Lingala speaker uses ya a hundred times a day without thinking, the way English speakers use "of." If you only ever learned one Lingala particle, this is the one that opens the most sentences.
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