Very common and very irregular: To be, to have, and “is/are”

There are three words/constructs that kind of behave like verbs, but aren’t fully verbs. In the present tense, they’re pretty easy, but in past and future, you have to conjugate kuwa.

“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.

“To have” in Swahili: na and kuwa na

This is the verb used to say “to have”.

E.g. I have a car = nina gari

The verb na also conjugates a little strangely. In the present tense, it’s easy, but in past and future tenses, it gets kuwa na thrown into the mix.

E.g. I had a car = nilikuwa na gari

Here’s how it conjugates:

Pronoun	Past	Present	Future
mimi	nilikuwa na	nina	nitakuwa na
wewe	ulikuwa na	una	utakuwa na
yeye	alikuwa na	ana	atakuwa na
sisi	tulikuwa na	tuna	tutakuwa na
ninyi	mlikuwa na	mna	mtakuwa na
wao	walikuwa na	wana	watakuwa na

And, of course, kuwa na behaves similarly strangely in the negation present tense. (Note: The present negation of kuwa na is NOT the same for all pronouns. In the past tense, the negation prefix ku is optional as it's redundant.)

Pronoun	Past	Present	Future
mimi	si(ku)kuwa na	sina	sitakuwa na
wewe	hu(ku)kuwa na	huna	hutakuwa na
yeye	ha(ku)kuwa na	hana	hatakuwa na
sisi	hatu(ku)kuwa na	hatuna	hatutakuwa na
ninyi	ham(ku)kuwa na	hamna	hamtakuwa na
wao	hawa(ku)kuwa na	hawana	hawatakuwa na

“There is/are” in Swahili: -na

Aside from “have”, -na is also used to mean “is/are” in Swahili. Like “There is a …”

Technically, the ku is different to the ku in verbs. Here, it’s a subject prefix to indicate location.

Pos/Neg	Past	Present	Future
Positive: There was, there is, there will be	Kulikuwa na	Kuna	Kutakuwa na
Negative: There wasn’t, There isn’t, There won’t be	Hakuwa* na	Hakuna	Hakutakuwa na

* This is hakukuwa (with the ku twice) if you follow the rules blindly. But it’s simplified to hakuwa verbally.

Examples: Based on weather, which all use “kuna”

English	Swahili
It’s hot today.	Kuna joto leo
It’s not raining right now.	Hakuna mvua sasa hivi
It will rain tomorrow.	Kutanyesha kesho
It was cold this morning.	Kulikuwa na baridi asubuhi.
It didn’t rain last week.	Hakukunyesha wiki iliyopita
It will not be cold next month.	Hakutakuwa na baridi mwezi hujao.

“Where are you? I’m here”: ko, po, and mo (the “locative copula”)

To talk about where something or someone is, you have to use ko, po, and mo.

Kiwahili	Meaning/Usage
-po	Specific location ("is right here")
-ko	General location ("is at/is on")
-mo	Internal location ("is inside of")

Rule:

Positive: Use the pronoun prefix + -po/-ko/-mo
Negative: Add si (first person) or ha before the locative copula.

Examples of using ko, po, and mo in Swahili:

English	Noun class	Pronoun prefix	-po/-ko/-mo	Swahili
I’m right here.	m/wa	Ni-	-po	Nipo hapa
Are you outside?	m/wa	u	-ko	Uko nje?
Where are you?	m/wa	u	-ko	Uko wapi?
Are you ready?	m/wa	u	-po	Upo tayari?
I’m outside.	m/wa	ni	-po	Nipo nje.
S/he’s not here.	m/wa	yu	-po	Hayupo.
She’s at work	m/wa	yu	-po	Yupo kazini.
They’re not inside	m/wa	wa	-mo	Hawamo ndani
Where is it? (n-class)	n	i	-ko	Iko wapi?
It’s on the table (n-class)	n	i	-ko	iko mezani
It’s not in here (n-class)	n	i	-mo	Haimo hapa
They’re inside.	m/wa	wa	-mo	Wamo ndani.
I’m not here.	m/wa	Si	-po	Sipo.
We’re around here	m/wa	Tu	-ko	Tuko.
Where’s the teacher?	m/wa	yu	-ko	Mwalimu yuko wapi?
Where is the book?	ki/vi	ki	ko	Kitabu kiko wapi?

For past and future tense:

Use the past or future tense of kuwa, merged with po/ko/mo
You only need to use po/ko/mo if you haven’t specified a location. If you do (e.g. nyumbani, you can omit the po/ko/mo marker.

Pronoun	-po/-ko/-mo	Past positive	Past negative	Future positive	Future negative
mimi	-po	nilikuwapo	sikuwapo	nitakuwa(po)	sitakuwa(po)
wewe	-ko	ulikuwa(ko)	hukuwa(ko)	utakuwa(ko)	hutakuwa(ko)
yeye	-mo	alikuwa(mo)	hakuwa(mo)	atakuwa(mo)	hatakuwa(mo)
sisi	-po	tulikuwa(po)	hatukuwa(po)	tutakuwa(po)	hatutakuwa(po)
ninyi	-ko	mlikuwa(ko)	hamkuwa(ko)	mtakuwa(ko)	hamtakuwa(ko)
wao	-mo	walikuwa(mo)	hawakuwa(mo)	watakuwa(mo)	hawatakuwa(mo)

Examples of the locative copula:

English	Swahili
I am here.	Nipo hapa.
I was there.	Nilikuwapo.
We were not at home.	Hatukuwa nyumbani.
He is at home.	Yumo nyumbani.
They will be at work.	Watakuwa kazini.
Where’s my pen? It was on the table.	Kalamu yangu iko wapi? Ilikuwa kwenye meza.
Where are the eggs? They’re in the fridge.	Mayai yako wapi? Yapo ndani ya friji.