Yoruba Sentence Structure: Subject, Verb, Object

Good news for English speakers: Yoruba uses subject, verb, object order, as English does.

The basic order

Yoruba	English
Mo jẹ ìrẹsì.	I eat rice.
Ó ra ìwé.	He or she bought a book.
Wọ́n kọ lẹ́tà.	They wrote a letter.

Adjectives follow the noun

Unlike English, adjectives come after the noun:

• ilé tuntun, a new house (literally "house new")
• ọmọ rere, a good child
• aṣọ pupa, a red cloth

Possessives follow the noun

• ìwé mi, my book
• ilé wa, our house
• ọmọ rẹ̀, his or her child

The verb does not change

Yoruba verbs have the same form for every person. Mo jẹ (I eat), ó jẹ (he eats) and a jẹ (we eat) differ only in the pronoun.

Time words

Words and particles show tense, covered in the next article.

Questions

A question can be asked by:

• adding a question word: Kí ni èyí? What is this?
• using ṣé at the start for yes/no questions: Ṣé o fẹ́ omi? Do you want water?

Prepositions

• ní (in, at): ní ilé
• sí (to): sí ọjà
• láti (from): láti Èkó

Building up

Start with short sentences: pronoun, verb, object. Then add adjectives and place words.

Tips

1. Subject, verb, object.
2. Put adjectives after nouns.
3. Use the dictionary to check words.

Look up any Yoruba word with English Yoruba Dictionary →