The narrative tense in Zulu

Abstract

The study of the narrative tense in Zulu has been neglected in the past. At times it has been called the ‘consecutive mood’ or ‘past subjunctive’. This study shows that there are different forms of narrative tenses. The narrative tense with -a- in the subject concord belongs to the indicative mood. There is also a narrative tense with the form of the subjunctive. The subjunctive per se has no past tense since it is a mood reflecting unreality.