yabúk

Verb v.

Translations

Français: Être sur le point de ; être sur le point de faire
English: to be about to (do)
العربية: يوشك أن يفعل

Source : Christiansen-Bolli (2010), p. 188 ; p. 6, ex. 14 — French and Arabic meanings translated from English, to be checked by the community

Cite this word

Reference

Hamadine AG MOCTAR (n.d.). yabúk (to be about to (do)). Tadaksahak–French–English–Arabic dictionary. https://hamadine-services.net/en/dictionnaire/1811-yabuk (accessed 2026-10-18)

BibTeX

@misc{moctaryabuk,
  author = {Hamadine AG MOCTAR},
  title = {{yabúk (to be about to (do))}},
  howpublished = {Tadaksahak–French–English–Arabic dictionary},
  url = {https://hamadine-services.net/en/dictionnaire/1811-yabuk},
  urldate = {2026-10-18}
}

This word in the works

Pages of the library’s works where this word appears.

188 (106) a₌húur(u) á-ʃʃaɣal. 3s₌go.into SG-work he began to work. ‘be at the point of’ yabúk (107) ǝs-kár a₌yyabúk maybe-when 3s₌be.at.point.of arǝ₌n 1p₌GEN when he is at the point of hitting us.... kár... hit.VN So far only yabúk ‘be at the point of (doing)’ has been found with a verbal noun complement marked with dative. Compare the examples below with (107) above, where the same matrix verb has a verbal noun complement from an action verb and then does not mark it with da …

Christiansen-Bolli (2010), A Grammar of Tadaksahak, a Northern Songhay Language of Mali, p. 206
… IMPERF-eat she began to eat (first time or again after e.g. sickness). b) a₌ss-ǝntá 3s₌CAUS-begin s(a) a₌ŋŋá COMP 3S₌eat she began to eat. ‘be at the point of’ yabúk (162) gǝlǝk hunger a₌yyabúk 3s₌be.at.point.of s(a) a₌tǝ-wí₌i COMP 3S₌FUT-kill₌3p hunger was at the point of killing them. The verb hurrú, ‘look for’, can be translated ‘try’ when it is followed by a complement clause. (163) aɣa₌b-hurrú s(a) aɣ₌tǝ-kár 1s₌IMPERF-look.for COMP 1s₌FUT-hit a₌ka 3s₌LOC I try to make fi …

Christiansen-Bolli (2010), A Grammar of Tadaksahak, a Northern Songhay Language of Mali, p. 229
… P-PERF-be.in He asked her for a place (where) people were (living). The following example uses the sa-strategy. (14) Maħamad intaynawt, da aɣay he adi sa [ni-Ø-yabuk ’]. NAME jackal do 1S thing DET COMPZR 2S-PERF-be.about.to.do Mohamed jackal, do to me that thing which you were about to do. If the following example of the sa-strategy were in English, the indirect object would be relativized. However, the structure in Tadaksahak indicates that in fact a direct object has been …

Christiansen & Levinsohn (2003), Relative Clauses in Tadaksahak, p. 6
… e, the head noun is definite, so the relative pronoun strategy might have been expected (compare (71) and (72)). (64) Maħamad intaynawt da aɣay he adi sa [ni-Ø-yabuk ’]. Mohamed jackal do 1S thing DET COMPZR 2S-PERF-be.about.to.do Mohamed jackal, do to me that thing which you were about to do. We conclude that clauses relativized by sa are non-restrictive provided they could stand by themselves were sa not present. The precise motivation for relativizing with sa when the clau …

Christiansen & Levinsohn (2003), Relative Clauses in Tadaksahak, p. 15

yabúk

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