Aspects of Grammar

Noun Classes in Swahili

m	mtoto mzuri	A good child	wa	watoto wazuri	Good children
m	mti mzuri	Good tree	mi	miti mizuri	Good trees
-	tunda zuri	Good fruit	ma	matunda mazuri	Good fruits
ki	Kisu kizuri	Good knife	vi	visu vizuri	Good knives
n	nyumba nzuri	Good house	n	nyumba nzuri	Good house
-/n	radio nzuri	Good radio	-/n	radio nzuri	Good radio
u/m	ukuta mzuri	Good wall	-/n	kuta nzuri	Good walls
ku	kucheza kuzuri	Good playing

The Swahili Verb

The Swahili verb contains lot of grammatical information that is signaled by an affix.

For example:

Mtoto	a	-na	-cheza
child	he/she	is	play
‘The child is playing’

Mtoto	a	-li	-cheza
child	he/she	was	play
‘The child was playing/played’

Mtoto	a	-ta	-cheza
child	he/she	will	play
‘The child will play’