“I, me, this and myself”: The basics
“I, you, she”: Pronouns
You can use a pronoun to start a sentence, although you usually use a verb prefix. You can see this in action in the verbs section below.
Bear in mind that you also need a tense marker after a prefix. The basic verb structure for Swahili conjugation is: prefix-tense marker-verb stem.
| English | Pronoun | Verb Prefix |
|---|---|---|
| me | mimi | ni |
| you | wewe | u |
| he/she | yeye | a |
| us/we | sisi | tu |
| you (pl.) | ninyi | m |
| they | wao | wa |
“This, that, these and those”: Demonstratives
Shortcut: You can get away with never learning the demonstratives. Unfortunately, you do have to learn the rest of things in this book!
There are three kinds of demonstratives:
- Near. E.g. “This is my dad”
- Far. E.g. “That is my friend”
- Something that was just referred to. E.g. “We’ll get fish from that lake” (when discussed earlier)
Demonstratives have to agree with the nouns they qualify, like in Spanish (“este gato”) or in German (“diese Katze”).
Rules for demonstratives:
- Near demonstratives: h + vowel from concord + concord. E.g. So h + yu = huyu, h + i = hii.
- Far demonstratives: concord + le. E.g. yule, ile.
- Demonstratives of reference: h + concord + o. E.g. huyo, hilo.
Here’s a summary table of demonstratives:
| Class | Concord | Near demonstrative | Far demonstrative | Demonstrative of references |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-Wa (1/2, sing/plu) | yu wa | huyu hawa | yule wale | huyo hao |
| N (3/4, sing/plu) | i zi | hii hizi | ile zile | hiyo hizo |
| Ji-Ma (sing/plu) | li ya | hili haya | lile yale | hilo hayo |
| M-Mi (sing/plu) | u i | huu hii | ule ile | huo hiyo |
| Ki-Vi (sing/plu) | ki vi | hiki hivi | kile vile | hicho hivyo |
| U | u | huu | ule | huo |
| Pa-Ku-Mu | pa ku mu | hapa huku humu | pale kule mle | hapo huko humo |
Examples of demonstratives in action:
| English | Noun & class | Distance | Demons. from table | Swahili |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This is my father. | baba (m-wa) | Near | huyu | Huyu baba wangu |
| Who are those people? | watu (m-wa) | Far | wale | Watu wale ni nani? |
| These fruits | matunda (ji-ma) | Near | haya | Matunda haya |
| That house | nyumba (m-mi) | far | ile | Nyumba ile |
| These breads | mikate (m-mi) | far | ile | Mikate ile |
| This city | mji (m-mi) | near | huu | Mjii huu |