66/ The verb -w- 'be, become' differs from all other Swahili verbs in that certain of its present tense forms are, in most of their uses, drastically abbreviated.
67/ The forms ni 'is, are, am' and si 'is, are, am not,' which we have described as optional abbreviated forms of -w- 'be' (par. 66 ), are usually called respectively the affirmative and the negative 'copu1a.' Swahili has a construction that is like these copular constructions except that it is emphatic.In this construction, instead of ni or si, we find ndi- or si- with the relative affix (par. 42 ).
68/ Swahili has a very handy and very logical way of making time relationships more precise by using inflected verb phrases with two words (par. 28). In any such phrase, the first of the two words sets the time generally: past, present or future; the tense of the second verb is relative to the time established by the first. 69/ If the second verb is future in relation to the first, then the noncommittal tense (par. 36 - 41) is used, and not the ta tense (par. 29 ). 70/ In the construction of these phrases, certain things are always true: (1) the first word is a form of -w- 'be, become;' (2) the second word may contain any root, including -w- ; (3) no other word may stand between the two; (4) the subject prefixes of the two verbs are identical. when the second verb in this construction is also a form of -w-, it may turn up as the abbreviated form ni (par. 66-7). But parallel to each of these sentences is another, identical except for the absence of ni, which is virtually synonymous with it.
71/ A two-word inflected verb phrase in which -w- 'be' has its stem form -li (cf. par. 46 ) preceded by the
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