Verb basics: Infinitives and Exceptions

The few exception verbs: Monosyllabic verbs

The lion’s share of Swahili verbs are regular.

A few verbs have a single syllable, apart from the verb stem. These show up as exceptions to the rules below.

The most common irregular monosyllabic verbs are:

When you see exceptions below about monosyllabic verbs, these are the ones. There are a few others, but they’re much less commonly used.

“To live is to see”: The infinitive

Verbs in Swahili are represented with a ku- prefix that’s equivalent to “to” in English. They’re also often just written using a stem.

For sentences like “I decided to not go” form a negative infinitive:

• add a -to- after the ku-
• monosyllabic verbs: keep the stem marker keep the stem

Examples of infinitives:

Simple tenses: Past, Present, Future

The basic formula for conjugation is: pronoun prefix + tense prefix + verb root

For example, I want = ninataka. This is ni (verb prefix) + na (present tense) + taka (to want).

Simple verb prefixes are:

Here is an example of the conjugations of -lala the verb for "sleep". I’ve included translations for a few of them; you fill in the blanks.

You’ll see verbs presented either in infinitive form, like kulala, or just with the stem, like -lala.

For exception verbs, the rules are exactly the same, except you retain the ku in the word for the simple tenses.

Examples of conjugating Swahili present tense (kula, to eat):

“I didn’t go, I am not going, I won’t go”: Simple tenses (past, present and future) in negative form

The simple tenses all change slightly when using them in negative form.

The first kind of negation most people encounter is in basic greetings around jambo.

Examples of conjugating -jambo:

Literally, these mean “I have no matters, you have no matters” and so on.

The example below uses the verb -cheza, meaning "dance" or "play".

Conjugation rules:

• In the present tense, if the last syllable is a, the final vowel becomes an i.
  • For monosyllabic verbs, even though in the present tense they keep the ku, the verbs drop it in the negative tense. e.g. “I am not eating now” is sili sasa.
  • No special rules for monosyllabic verbs in past and future negative; they keep their ku
• In the present tense, verbs drop the tense prefix (na).
• In the past tense, the tense prefix changes from li to ku.

Negative simple tenses with regular verbs (more than one syllable), -cheza (to dance):

Negative simple tenses with an irregular verb (monosyllabic), kula (to eat):