Swahili Grammar Guide

“I just got here” tense: -me, the perfect tense

This is the verb to express “I have done this”, or “I did this”. It’s always positive, never to express not having done, which is covered below.

For active verbs, it’s like having done something. For example, with “-soma”, to study:

Tense Swahili English
Present ninasoma I am studying.
Past nilisoma I studied.
Future nitasoma I will study.
Perfect nimesoma I have studied.