“The person who came here”: The relative marker, or amba-
There are two ways of forming this: with and without “amba”
Relative clauses without “amba”
- You can only use this for simple tenses: present, past, future. Not perfect (-me).
- Put a relative marker inside the word to show who you’re referring to.
- Use -ye for one person, or -o for plural people (M-Wa class)
- For other noun classes, you make the marker with the possessive prefix, plus an o. Like “My oranges” is machungwa yangu, because y- is the possessive prefix for Ji-Ma class in plural. “The oranges which you want” becomes machungwa unayotaka.
| English | Noun | Class | Marker | Swahili |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The oranges you want are not good. | machungwa | Ji-Ma | -yo | Machungwa unayotaka sio mazuri. |
| The student who comes from Australia likes coffee. | mwanafunzi | M-wa (person) | -ye | Mwanafunzi anayetoka Australia anapenda kahawa. |
| The man who visited us yesterday is here again. | mtu | m-wa (person) | -ye | Mtu aliyetutembelea jana yupo hapa tena. |
Relative clauses with “amba”
- Use this for all other clauses.
- Use amba- + -ye for one person, or -o for plural people (M-Wa class)
- For other noun classes, you make the marker with the possessive prefix, plus an o. Like “My oranges” is machungwa yangu, because y- is the possessive prefix for Ji-Ma class in plural. “The oranges which you bought” is machungwa ambayo ulinunua.
| English | Noun | Class | Marker | Swahili |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The oranges you want are not good. | machungwa | Ji-Ma | -yo | Machungwa ambayo unataka sio mazuri. |
| The student who comes from Australia likes coffee. | mwanafunzi | M-wa (person) | -ye | Mwanafunzi ambaye anatoka Australia anapenda kahawa |
| The man who visited us yesterday is here again. | mtu | m-wa (person) | -ye | Mtu ambaye alitutembelea jana yupo hapa tena. |
| The person who has left | mtu | m | -ye | Mtu ambaye ameondoka |
| The students who have arrived... | wanafunzi | m-wa | -o | Wanafunzi ambao wamefika... |
| The houses which have been built | nyumba | n | -zo (plural) | Nyumba ambazo zimejengwa... |
| The word which has been written here... | neno | ji-ma | -lo | Neno ambalo limeandikwa hapa... |