VERB AFFIXATION

Swahili verbs consist of a root and a number of affixes (mostly prefixes) which can be attached to mean express grammatical persons, tense and many clauses that would require a conjunction in other languages (usually prefixes). As sometimes these affixes are sandwiched in between the root word and other affixes, some linguists have mistakenly assumed that Swahili uses infixes which is not the case. Most verbs, the verbs of Bantu Origin will end in 'A'. This is vital to know for using the Imperative, or Command, conjugation form.

In most dictionaries verbs are listed in their root form, for example -kata meaning 'to cut/chop'. In a simple sentence, prefixes for grammatical tense and person are added, e.g. ninakata. Here ni- means 'I' and na- indicates present tense unless stated otherwise.

Verb Conjugation

ni-	-na-	kata
1sg	DEF. TIME	cut/chop

'I am cutting (it)'

Now this sentence can be modified either by changing the subject prefix or the tense prefix, for example:

u-	-na-	kata
2sg	DEF. TIME	cut/chop

'You are cutting'

u-	-me-	kata
2sg	PERFECT	cut/chop

'You have cut'

The simple present is more complicated and learners often take some of the phrases for slang before they discover the proper usage. Nasoma means 'I read'. This is not short for ninasoma ('I am reading'). -A- is the indefinite (gnomic tense) prefix, used for example in generic statements such as "birds fly", and the vowel of the prefix ni- is assimilated. It may be simpler to consider these to be a single prefix:

1st PERSON	na-	twa-
2nd PERSON	wa-	mwa-
3rd PERSON	a-	wa-

na-	soma
1sg:GNOM	read

'I read'

mwa-	soma
2pl:GNOM	read

'You (pl) read'

The complete list of basic subject prefixes is (for the m-/wa- or human class):

	SINGULAR	PLURAL
1st PERSON	Ni-	Tu-
2nd PERSON	U-	M-
3rd PERSON	A-	Wa-

The most common tense prefixes are:

a-	gnomic (indefinite time)
na-	definite time (often present progressive)
me-	perfect
li-	past
ta-	future
hu-	habitual

However it is not only tenses in the sense the word is used in English that can be expressed by tense prefixes: conjunctions can be used in this context as well. For example ki- is the prefix for <conditional> - the sentence "nikinunua nyama wa mbuzi sokoni, nitapika leo" means 'If I buy goat meat at the market, I'll cook today'. The conjunction 'if' in this sentence is simply represented by -ki.

A third prefix can be added, the object prefix. It is placed just before the root and can either refer to a person, replace an object or emphasize a particular one, e.g.:

a-	na-	mw-	ona
3sg	DEF.T.	3sg.OBJ	see

'He (is) see(ing) him/her'

ni-	na-	mw-	ona	mtoto
1sg	DEF.T.	3sg.OBJ	see	child

'I (am) see(ing) the child'

There are not just prefixes. The root of a word is not really the one proposed by most dictionaries - the final vowel is an affix too. The suffix provided by dictionaries means <indicative>. Other forms occur for instance with negation, e.g. sisomi (the "-" in this case means null morpheme, i.e. it represents an empty space):

si-	-	som-	-i
1sg.NEG	TENSE	read	NEG

'I am not reading/ I don't read'

Other instances of this change of the final vowel include the conjunctive, where an -e is implemented. This goes only for Bantu verbs ending with -a, ones derived from Arabic follow more complex rules.

Other suffixes, which once again look suspiciously like infixes, are placed before the end vowel, e.g.

wa-	na-	pig	-w	-a
3pl	DEF.T.	hit	PASSIVE	IND.

'They are being hit'