The Epic List of All Swahili Verbs
| English verb | Swahili verb | English sample sentence (s) | Swahili sample sentences |
| to be (past/future) | -kuwa | I will be a student next year. I was hun ... | Mwaka ijayo nitakuwa mwanafunzi. Nilikuw ... |
| to be (in a place) | -kuwa po/ko, kuwa po/ko | Is he there? No, he’s not here. Where ar ... | Yuko hapa? Hapana, hayupo. Funguo zangu ... |
| to be fine, or suitable | -faa | It’s good, it works (describing a thing) ... | Inafaa Haifai Siwapendi wafanya kazi wen ... |
| to happen, to occur | -fanyika | What’s happening now? The party will hap ... | Nini inafanyika sasa? Sherehe itafanyika ... |
How do you conjugate pronoun in Swahili?
Pronouns (like “I”, “you” etc.) do exist, but usually are only for emphasis or more complex sentences. People usually just use a pronoun prefix. These are: The second part of conjugating Swahili verbs is the tense marker. The tense marker goes between the pronoun marker and the verb stem.
Where is Swahili spoken?
Swahili is a Bantu language of the Sabaki subgroup of Northeastern Coast Bantu languages. Swahili is spoken by an estimated 50 million people and, after Arabic, is the most widely understood language in Africa. It is the official language of Tanzania and Kenya and is used extensively in Uganda and the eastern provinces of Zaire.
How long did it take to learn these verbs in Swahili?
We learned these verbs (and others) while studying Swahili in Tanzania and Kenya for two months. It went pretty well — see our final speaking videos here. So these are from our own personal notes.
Where can I find a good Swahili grammar guide?
A pretty good reference for Swahili grammar is the Kansas University website. It may take a while to go through it all… We’re putting together a full grammar guide to Swahili, covering using verbs in Swahili as well as many other cases.
What are the example of verbs?
A verb is a word that we use to refer to actions (what things do) and states of being (how things are). For example, the words describe, eat, and rotate are verbs.
How are verbs constructed in Swahili?
In the last unit, we introduced the rules of Swahili verb conjugation, focusing on the concept of verb “construction” using the S-T-V-E blocks: Subject prefix, Tense marker, Verb Root, and verb End....NEW CONTENT.TenseTense MarkerSimple Past-li-Past Participle-me-Future-ta-Conditional/Continuing-ki-2 more rows•May 16, 2013
What are adverbs in Swahili?
Adverbs List in SwahiliAdverbsSwahiliAlonepekeeCarefullykwa makiniQuicklyHaraka/HarakaharakaReallykweli26 more rows
Does Swahili verb conjugation?
The first advanced tense we will cover is the "-me" tense. This is often referred to as the "Present Perfect" tense. Something we don't exactly have in English. *NOTE: This is always used with the positive verbs....Active verbs:TenseSwahiliEnglishFuturenitasomaI will study.Past PerfectnimesomaI have studied.2 more rows
What is grammar in Swahili?
sarufi. More Swahili words for grammar. sarufi noun. grammar.
What is pronoun in Swahili?
English to Swahili Meaning :: pronoun. Pronoun : kiwakilishi. noun : kiwakilishi nomino.
What are adjectives in Swahili?
Swahili vocabulary :: AdjectivesNoisy Mwenye kelele.Quiet Kimya.Strong Mwenye nguvu.Weak Dhaifu.Hard Ngumu.Soft Laini.More Zaidi.Less Kidogo zaidi.More items...
What is conjunction in Swahili?
Conjunctions translate to Swahili meanings: kuhusianisha. In other words, kuhusianisha in Swahili is Conjunctions in English.
What is article in Swahili?
makala. So, this is how you say "article" in swahili.
How many tenses are there in Swahili?
Introduction. Swahili has the following major tenses: past, present, future, past perfect, and habitual tense. Each of these tenses has a marker that is attached to the verb.
Is SVO a Swahili?
Swahili is an SVO language in which the verbal clause has the following order of morphemes in an affirmative indicative sentence: Subject Agreement – Tense/Aspect – (Object Agreement) – Verb Root – (derivational suffixes) – Mood Vowel.
What is the present tense in Kiswahili?
-na-In Swahili, a particular tense marker denotes each tense. The present tense marker is -na- and the future tense marker is -ta-. The hyphens (-) before and after the tense marker indicate that something has to be added before and after the tense marker.
How many tenses are there in Swahili?
Introduction. Swahili has the following major tenses: past, present, future, past perfect, and habitual tense. Each of these tenses has a marker that is attached to the verb.
How do you negate in Swahili?
You'll see an obvious pattern here: to negate nearly all subject prefixes, you simply add “ha-” before the affirmative subject prefix. The only true exception is the first person singular (mimi), where the subject prefix “ni-” turns to “si-”.
Does Swahili have cases?
It has no grammatical case marking on the noun. Nominal roles are indicated by a combination of word order and agreement markers on the verb, with no change to the nouns themselves.
What is the second part of a Swahili verb?
The second part of conjugating Swahili verbs is the tense marker.
Is there a grammar guide for Swahili?
We’re putting together a full grammar guide to Swahili, cover ing using verbs in Swahili as well as many other cases. It’s in draft form right now (as of early 2020), but if you join our mailing list, we’ll let you know when it’s published ( we’re not sure but we might just give it away).
Do you use pronouns in Swahili?
Pronouns (like “I”, “you” etc.) do exist, but usually are only for emphasis or more complex sentences. People usually just use a pronoun prefix. These are: The second part of conjugating Swahili verbs is the tense marker. The tense marker goes between the pronoun marker and the verb stem.
Is it easy to conjugate Swahili verbs?
Conjugating Swahili verbs is pretty easy, but of course it takes a lot of practise — and there’s a lot of nuance. A pretty good reference for Swahili grammar is the Kansas University website. It may take a while to go through it all….