Common Rukiga Adjectives

The following are the common adjectives in Rukiga. These adjectives do a great deal of “work” and cover a large swathe of adjectival description that might be used in Rukiga in everyday life. Each adjective is a suffix that requires being attached to the correct noun class prefix depending on the particular noun they are describing.

Common Adjectives in Rukiga

-bi = bad, ugly

-gufu = short

-hango = big, muscular

-ingi = many

-kuru = old, elder, important (“-kadde” is also sometime used in certain situations)

-to = young

-kye = small, little (“-to” can also work for this in certain situations)

-raingwa = tall, wide, long

-rungi = good, nice, beautiful

-sya = new

-orobi – simple/easy

-gumire = tough, hard, difficult

-ona = all

The following are some example sentences that use the adjectives with the noun class prefix depending on the particular noun they are describing:

Ebikopo bibi – Ugly cups (Ki-Bi class)

Enju mpango – a big house (Enju is in the N-N class but when the n is placed in front of the adjective “n-hango”; it contracts to become “mpango”

Omukazi mukye – a small woman (Mu-Ba class)

Emotoka nkuru – the old car (N-N class)

Amaisho marungi  – good/beautiful eyes (Ri-Ma class)

Some common contractions for adjectives are as follows:

nr = nd

nb = mb

nh = mp

ao = oo

ae = ee

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