The Swahili Verb I

 Swahili word for Verb is Kitenzi
What makes Swahili an  interesting and friendly language to learn is the fact that one can construct a sentence with just one verb without the sentence having to be an imperative as seen in English. Depending on the message, the swahili verb is able to carry the subject, tense-marker, the object, either the positive or negative aspect. More so, the suffixes on the verbal stem are functional enough to reveal how an action has been done i.e -done, -done for/on behalf, cause(ed) to do and so forth.
To understand this, lets look at the affixes in the verbal stem. The illustration below shows the subject prefixes that come before the verbal stem. In this post we shall concentrate on the personal pronouns.

Personal Pronouns

1. Singular Form

   Person	Positive	Negative
   1st	Ni (I, me) e.g. Ninaenda (I am going)	Si (I…not) e.g. Siendi (I am not going)
   2nd	U (you) e.g. Unaenda( You are going)	Hu(You… not Huendi( You are not going)
   3rd	A (he/she) e.g. Anaenda (S/he is going)	Ha(S/He…not) e.g. Haendi( S/he is not going)

2. Plural Form

Person	Positive	Negative
1st	tu (we,us) e.g. tunaenda (we are going)	Hatu(we…not) e.g. Hatuendi (I am not going)
2nd	m(you) e.g. mnaenda( You are going)	Ham(You… not Hamwendi( You are not going)
3rd	wa(they)e.g. wanaenda (S/he is going)	Hawa(They…not)e.g. Hawaendi( They are not going)

N/B: For the other noun classes, substitute the the personal pronouns above with the respective noun-class prefix.

There are free morphemes for personal Pronouns which can be used before the verb in a sentence. These can be illustrated as shown below. However, the conjunction “with” can be used together with the pronouns after the verb. Bound morphemes from the free morphemes are used in this case. This can be illustrated in table a.2 below.

Table a.2

Free Morphemes
Person	Singular	Plural
1st	mimi (I, me) e.g. mimi ninaenda (I am going)	Sisi (we, us) e.g. sisi tunaenda (we are going)
2nd	wewe(you)e.g.  wewe unaenda( You are going)	Nyinyi (you) e.g. nyinyi mnaenda( You are going)
3rd	Yeye (he/she)e.g.  yeye anaenda (S/he is going)	Wao (he/she)e.g.  wao wanaenda (they are going)
Bound Morphemes
Person	Singular	Plural
1st	nami (with me)e.g.  anaenda nami (s/he is going with me)	nasi (with us)e.g.  wanaenda nasi (they are going with us)
2nd	nawe( with you)e.g.  anaenda nawe (s/he is going with me)	nanyi ( with you)e.g.  wanaenda nanyi ( they are going with you)
3rd	naye (with him/her)e.g. anaenda naye (s/he is going with me)	Nao (with them)e.g. wanaenda nao (they are going with them)

N/B: Both free and bound morphemes are used interchangeably.

Exercise

Try this with the following verbs with different personal pronouns

cheza(play)
soma(read)
 lia(cry)
 omba(pray)

Referrences

Habwe J. and Karanja P. (2004) Misingi ya sarufi ya Kiswahili. Phoenix Publishers: Nairobi, Kenya.

 Mgullu, R. S. (2008). Mtalaa Wa Isimu: Fonetiki, Fonolojia na Mofolojia ya Kiswahili. Longhorn Publishers: Nairobi Kenya.
Mohammed, A. M. (2001). Modern Swahili Grammar.  The Jomo Kenyatta Foundation: Nairobi, Kenya.
 Njanje N. and Njogu K. (2006) Kiswahili kwa Vyuo vya Ualimu. The Jomo Kenyatta Foundation: Nairobi, Kenya.