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Verbs

The verbal system of moder Figo language is based on the combined use of a participial form with an auxiliary or modal verb, in order to build the different verbal tenses or moods. Only the auxiliary and modal verbs have a proper conjugation, while every other verb is conjugated through its participial forms.

The verbal system displays the following features:

• tense: present, imperfect, past, pluperfect, future, anterior future, future in the past
• mood: indicative, subjunctive, conditional
• participle: active, passive
• diathesis: active, passive

There is, moreover, an additional extratemporal and extramodal form, known as resultative, built with a special resultative participle.

Only in the indicative mood verbs can express all tenses. In other moods only a part of the tenses are expressed.

The citation form of verbs is the present active participle, marked by the ending -jid. As much as the verbal root can be usually inferred from this form, this is not always possible. The verbal root usually has a CVCVC structure.

The verb agrees with the clause subject in person and expresses two numbers, singular and plural.

Participles

There are three participial forms, the active participle, the passive participle, and the resultative participle. Only the passive participle can be additionally used with an adjectival function, while the active and the resultative participle are used only in the verbal conjugation

The active participle and the passive participle have a present form and a past form, being the latter usually derived from the former. Past participle are thus formed in different ways:

• Most disyllabic verbal roots derive their past root from the present one through an introflexive process of vowel switching::

CV1CV2C → CV2CV1C

• A limited subgroup of disyllabic roots adds the prefix a-, as well as the vowel switching. By adding this prefix, irregularities may arise.

CV1CV2C → aCV2CV1C

In some dialectal forms, the prefix e- can be found in the past root of some verbs. This forms are regarded as obsolete in most dialects and in the standard language. It originates from the metaphonic effect on the original prefix, which has been restored to its original form since long by analogy.

• Multisyllabic verbal roots are usually formed through morphological derivation by adding prefixes or suffixes or both of them. These morphological affixes are usually not involved in the switching process. The vowel involved are those belonging to the original disyllabic root.

CV3CV1CV2C → CV3CV2CV1C

CV1CV2CV3C → CV2CV1CV3C

CV3CV1CV2CV4C → CV3CV2CV1CV4C

• A significant part of multisyllabic and also disyllabic verbs derive their past root from the present one by adding the suffix -aɣ-.

CV3CV1CV2C → CV3CV1CV2Caɣ

• Monosyllabic verbal roots and the modal verbs are usually regarded as irregular and they can took on each one of the previous strategies.

The participle endings are:

• active participle: -jid (pl. -jidũ)
• passive participle: -ug (pl. -uɣĩ)
• resultative participle: -aža

The -jid ending often causes palatalization of the preceding consonants, being shortened to -id:

fin- + -jid → fiňid
to come

This ending may cause, when added to the root, several vowel irregularities. Thus, it is often difficult to recognize the past root from the citation form, and, consequently, in dictionaries the past form is always cited together with the present verbal root.

šwodiǧid (šeduǧid, šwodeɣ-)
to govern

Moreover, the suffix -aɣ always changes when the ending -jid is added:

-aɣ- + -jid → -eǧid

This vowel irregularites are due to the metaphony process, which causes the following effects on the vowels preceding the ending:

• a → e / ji, ã → ẽ / jĩ
• e → i, ẽ → ĩ
• o → u, õ → ũ
• wo → u, wõ → ũ

This process, conversely, does not affect neologisms and modern loanwords.

The passive participle ending, -ug-, does not noticeably affect the root and it usually does not cause peculiar irregularities.

Both participial forms always agree with the clause subject in number, when used in the verbal conjugation.

The resultative participle ending, -aža-, does not noticeably affect the root and it usually does not cause peculiar irregularities. It is generally added to the past form of the verbal root, resulting often in from which are substantially different from the citation form. It lacks different temporal forms, being thus deemed as an indeclinable form.

Example of a verb with many irregularities, fušid, to put, to place:

	root
present	fwos-
past	abwos-
	active		passive
	singular	plural	singular	plural
present	fušid	fušidũ	fwosug	fwosuɣĩ
past	abušid	abušidũ	abwosug	abwosuɣĩ
resultative	abwosaža