State whether the words in each pair differ according to NEGATION, (Dimension 1) or as to MOOD (Dimension 2):
| bágeenda, bátageenda | [NEG.] |
| bageenda, ntibageendá | [NEG.] |
| bageenda, bageendá | [MOOD] |
| zítaziimvye, zitazíimvye | [MOOD] |
Dimension 3: Time relations. This is treated in Meeussen's tables as a seven-way distinction. The morphs which represent the members of the contrast are prefixes made up of vowels and consonants except that the hodiernal-hesternal distinction depends on tone. These prefixes stand just before the object prefix or before the stem if there is no object prefix. All 60 sets are committed on this dimension. The meanings have to do with matters some of which are usually classified as 'tense', some as 'aspect and one as 'mood' (in a sense different from that in which we have named our 'Dimension 2'). The tenses have to do with the placement of an action along the time axis. Kirundi distinguishes four of these: immediate (past, present or future), past-today (also called the 'hodiernal'), past-before-today (also called the 'hesternal' tense) and non-immediate future.
The aspectual time relations are those which have to do with the shape of an action in time. One of these is the inceptive, which is used for an action that is just beginning; the other is the persistive, which calls attention to the fact that an action is still going on.
The form with modal meaning that is included in Dimension 3 is the conditional, which is roughly equivalent to English verb
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