“I was, it is, she’ll be” using “to be” in Swahili: ni/si and kuwa
In the present tense, ni is used with every pronoun to say “to be”.
In past and future tenses, we use kuwa.
| Pronoun | Past | Present | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
| mimi | nilikuwa | ni | nitakuwa |
| wewe | ulikuwa | ni | utakuwa |
| yeye | alikuwa | ni | atakuwa |
| sisi | tulikuwa | ni | tutakuwa |
| ninyi | mlikuwa | ni | mtakuwa |
| wao | walikuwa | ni | watakuwa |
| “It” e.g. i | haikuwa | ni | itakuwa |
Negative form of “to be”: Kuwa also behaves strangely in the present tense for negations:
- In the present tense, si is used with every pronoun.
- In the past tense, the negation prefix ku is optional as it's redundant (and most people leave it out, so I will leave it out here).
| Pronoun | Past | Present | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
| mimi | sikuwa | si | sitakuwa |
| wewe | hukuwa | si | hutakuwa |
| yeye | hakuwa | si | hatakuwa |
| sisi | hatukuwa | si | hatutakuwa |
| ninyi | hamkuwa | si | hamtakuwa |
| wao | hawakuwa | si | hawatakuwa |
A few examples of conjugating kuwa:
| English | Swahili |
|---|---|
| I’ll be at school | Nitakuwa shuleni. |
| Where were you yesterday? | Ulikuwa wapi jana? |
| They weren’t home yesterday. | Hawakuwa nyumbani jana. |
| You won’t be at the office. | Hutakuwa ofisini. |