Takisi

(1): Progressives with -la/na: The progressive tense can be expressed (in particular in Jula) in purely verbal construction where you add the suffix -la/na directly to the verb. For instance, N bɛ na 'I come' → N bɛ nana' ('I am coming'). Or, N bɛ takisi boli'I drive a taxi' →N bɛ takisi bolila'I am driving a taxi'. Keep in mind, that there is also the nominal version of a progressive which uses the postpositionla/na. For instance, N bɛ takisiboli la (lit. "I am in taxi-driving").

(2): Modals constructions followed by the infinitive marker ka: Modal expressions allow you to express your attitude vis-a-vis a proposition. For instance, in an English sentence like "I am afraid to go", the first part ("I am afraid") is the modal expression and "to go" is the main proposition and verb of the sentence. In Bambara, modal constructions are built similarly. We start with a modal expression like N bɛ siran (Lit. "I fear" or "I am afraid") and then we add another verb. But we need to include the infinitive marker ka. For instance, N bɛ siran ka taa (Lit. "I fear to go"). Or N bɛ se ka kuma 'I can speak' (Lit. "I can to speak"). Remember that traditionally the expression used to expression "to want" in Bambara is not verbal (e.g., N bɛ ji fɛ 'I want water' [lit. 'I am near water'). As such, when you want to use this kind of construction in a modal sentence, you generally need to include à, despite the fact that we don't know yet but it refers to. (Linguists call this a cataphor [in opposition to an anaphor].) For instance, N b'à fɛ ka taa 'I want to go' (lit. "I want (it) to go").

(3): Naked infinitives as a potential order: You can use verbs in their "naked" citation form with the infinitive marker ka to ask if somebody would like you to do something. For instance, if you were at an event and someone put out some water, but you wanted to make sure that they wanted people to drink it, you could ask Ka ji ta? (lit. "To water take?"; as in, "Do you want me to take some water?"). Or in a taxi, the driver could ask `Ka fara min?" (lit. "To turn where?; as in, "Where do you want me to turn?")

(4): Conditional with mana: The predicate marker mana can be used to express what in English would be expression by "When/Once X happens...". There is no need to use an explicit word for "when" though. For instance, N mana bamanankan dege, n bɛ taa Bamakɔ 'When I learn Bambara, I (will) go to Bamako". This predicate marker is more prevalent in Bambara than in Jula. In Jula, one tends to use constructions with the explicit word ni 'if/when' instead.