Present tense negatives with monosyllabic verb stems
Note that present-tense negatives for the monosyllabic verb stems allow for the
dropping of the ‘ku-’ infinitive prefix.
This is the first time we have seen this, and note that it can be difficult at first to
identify the verb.
For example,
Sili nyama – I don’t eat meat / I am not eating meat (verb stem -la – eat)
Musa haji – Musa is not coming / Musa doesn’t come (verb stem -ja – come)
Hawafi? – They are not dying? / They don’t die? (verb stem -fa – die)
Hatunywi pombe! – We don’t drink beer! / We are not drinking beer! (verb stem nywa – drink)
Note that there is sometimes ambiguity in present tense negatives as to whether they
are truly present tense, or in fact tenseless, in the sense that they may be considered
generally true, regardless of the time of the statement.
Hence, for example, ‘hawasemi Kiswahili’ could be translated as ‘they are not
speaking Swahili (at the moment)’ or as ‘they don’t speak Swahili (at all)’.
Each of these alternative interpretations has been given in the above examples, and
can apply to almost any present tense negative.
While there are ways of distinguishing such statements in the positive, the above is
the only negative formation for these varied meanings.
However, such distinctions are usually made clear by context or common sense.
N class nouns
N-class nouns are a large mish-mash of all kinds of words, many (but by no means
all) of which are borrowed from other languages. (Conversely, not all borrowed words
are in the N class, although the chances are fairly high of this being the case.)
Noun prefixes
Recall how we label the animate beings class M/WA to show how the noun prefixes
differ between singular and plural. The N class is named with only one letter because
there is no difference between the noun prefixes of singular and plural, i.e. singular
and plural nouns are identical. (However, they don’t necessarily begin with N!)
N class nouns have prefixes in some, but not all, cases (N stands for Nasal prefix and
these differ depending on the noun stem) but there is not often a need to understand
this, since singular and plural are identical. (Only when using adjectives with N-class
nouns is it necessary to understand the complicated rules for varying nasal prefixes.)
Counting
We have seen that certain numbers (the Bantu number stems) need to take prefixes to
match their nouns (mtu mmoja, walimu wawili, etc.). However, the counting numbers
(moja, mbili, tatu, nne, etc.) are already in the N class, and so require no change when
counting N-class nouns:
kompyuta moja, benki mbili, barua tatu, teksi tano, nyumba sita, daladala nane,
ngoma kumi, ndizi ishirini na mbili, etc.
The stem -ngapi is also in the N class, so again requires no prefix for these nouns:
shilingi ngapi?
Verb prefixes
While there are six possible verb subjects (and hence verb prefixes) for people – and
so for M/WA class nouns – ( 1st, 2nd and 3rd person in both singular and plural), there
is no need for 1st and 2nd person forms (I, you, we) for non-living or inanimate beings.
(In fact, 1st and 2nd person forms are not necessary for speaking about animals either,
but these animates still use the 3rd person prefixes (a- and wa-) associated with the
M/WA class.)
For all other classes there are therefore only two associated verb prefixes, one for
singular (‘it’), one for plural (‘they’).
For N-class nouns:
Singular verb prefix: iPlural verb prefix: zi[Note that, unlike the nouns themselves, these prefixes make a distinction between
singular and plural. Due to the widespread use of verb prefixes in Swahili, there are
therefore very few realistic contexts where ambiguity might exist as to whether an Nclass noun is singular or plural.]
For example, with the verb ‘to have’:
nyumba ina madirisha – the house (it) has windows (madirisha – windows)
nyumba zina madirisha – the houses (they) have windows
simu ina pesa – the phone (it) has credit (money)
posta zina stempu – post offices (they) have stamps
chai ina sukari – the tea (it) has sugar (in)
Recall that most of the negative M/WA prefixes were formed by adding ha- to the
‘positive’ prefixes. This is the general rule for all other classes:
simu haina pesa – the phone has no money
matatu hazina magurudumu – the matatus have no wheels (magurudumu – wheels)
kalamu haina wino – the pen has no ink (wino (N) – ink)
chai haina chumvi! – the tea has no salt (in)! (chumvi (N) – salt)
Note that mass or uncountable N nouns (like chai and wino), as well as abstract N
nouns (like njaa – hunger) always take a singular verb prefix, as they do in English.
Other verbs
Many verbs are helpful only for talking about people, but here are a few which are
useful for talking about things:
faa – to be suitable fitting, proper, acceptable, to ‘do’ (as in ‘it will do’)
tosha – to be sufficient, enough
haribika – to be damaged, broken down (use with -me- stative tense marker)
vunjika – to be broken (smashed, snapped, etc.) (use with -me-)
isha – to be finished, used up
pendeza – to be pleasing, attractive
itwa – to be called
daladala itafaa – a daladala will do
ndizi tano zitatosha – five bananas will be enough
chapati zimeisha – the chapatis are finished
pilau imeisha – the pilau is finished (pilau is a mass noun)
gilasi imevunjika – the glass is broken (gilasi (N) – glass, tumbler)
kompyuta zimeharibika! – the computers have broken down!
N-class animates
Remember that there are plenty of words for people (ndugu, bwana, etc.) and a
majority of words for animals (twiga, tembo, mbwa) which are in the N class.
However, in nearly all contexts they operate as M/WA class nouns, i.e. they will use
M/WA prefixes rather than those introduced above for the N class.
Examples...?
Finally, here is the expanded table of noun classes with their prefixes. I can’t
emphasise how important it is to learn these (if you wish to be grammatically correct)!
Class name
Noun prefixes
Singular
Plural
Verb prefixes
Singular
Plural
M/WA
N
m[Nasal - varies]
wa[Nasal -varies]
ni-, u-, ai-
tu-, m-, wazi-