Pronunciation

Kiswahili pronunciation is, for the most part, easy for a learner whose first language is English.
The language has a five vowel system represented by the letter, a, e, i, o, and u, (like Spanish),
and most of its consonants are quite similar to English ones. The following points need to be
kept in mind when learning Kiswahili pronunciation:

 Kiswahili words are stressed. With a few notable exceptions, stress is places on the next-to-last
(penultimate) syllable, e.g. bába father, káka brother etc. The exceptions are: lázima
necessary, obligation; núsura almost, etc. (The accent ‘used here to indicate stress.)

 Kiswahili vowels are pronounced as follows:

The letter a is approximately pronounced as in English father, e.g. baba-father

The letter e is approximately pronounced as in English debt, e.g. nene-fat
The letter i is approximately pronounced as in English bee, e.g. bibi-grandmother
The letter o is approximately pronounced as in English row, e.g.mtoto-child
The letter u is approximately pronounced as in English moon, e.g. bubu-dumb person

All vowels are pronounced clearly and distinctly regardless of the position of the vowel in a
word. They are never pronounced reduced (i.e schwa) as the second vowel in water and butter.
Double vowels as in kaa, baa, taa, etc. are pronounced long. Dissimilar vowels as
in pea, paua, zuia, etc. are pronounced distinctly as separate syllables; they are not
pronounced like a sequence of two vowels one blending into the other as the English diphthong
which is considered to form a single syllable.

 Kiswahili consonants are pronounced as follows:

p, t, ch, k are pronounced as in English pea, tea, cheer, keeprespectively, Examples are: paa-
roof, taa-lamp, choo-toilet, kaa-crab

b, d, j, g are pronounced as in English big, dig, jog, give respectively. Examples are: baa-
bar, dada-sister, jaa-fill, gugu-weed

m, n, are pronounced as in English. Examples are: mama-mother, nane-eight

ng’ is pronounced like ng in long, bring, sing. Examples are: ng’aa-shine, ng’ombe-
cow, ng’amua-realize

ny is pronounced as ni as in the word onion. Examples are: nyanya-tomatoes, nyinyi-you

all, manyunyu-drizzle

nj is pronounced like the nge sound in the word fringe. Examples are: njano-yellow, njegere-
peas

th, dh are pronounced as English th in thick and this, respectively, Examples are: thelathini-
thirty, dhambi-sin
s, z are pronounced as English. Examples are: saa-time, watch, clock, zaa-give birth

sh is pronounced as in English she. Examples: shangaa-be surprised,shinda-win

h is pronounced as in English he. Examples are habari-news, information

f, v are pronounced like the initial sounds in the English words fail, veil respectively, Examples
are: faa-be of use, vaa-wear, dress (cloth)

r, l, w, y are pronounced as the initial sounds in the English words; rain, lawyer, way, yes,
respectively. Examples are: radi-thunder, lala-sleep, wewe-you (singular), yeye-s/he.

gh is pronounced in the same position in the mouth as English g in go but with friction.
Examples are ghali-expensive, ghafla-suddenly

Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns and demonstratives vary according to the noun class of the word they refer
to.

Swahili Pronoun English Pronoun

Mimi I/Me

Wewe You

Yeye He/She (Him/Her)

Sisi We/Us

Ninyi You (pl)

Wao They/Them
NOTE: Sometimes, you might see the second person plural written as Nyinyi, but for this
course, you will see Ninyi used.
 “To Be”
To express the concept of “being” in the present, the particles ni(positive) and si (negative) are
used as shown in the following chart:

SINGULAR

Pronoun Particle Noun

Mimi/Wewe/Yeye ni Mtanzania/Mmarekani/Mkenya

I/You/He or She am/are/is (a/an)

Tanzanian/American/Kenyan

Mimi/Wewe/Yeye si Mtanzania/Mmarekani/Mkenya

I/You/He or She am/are/is (a/an)

not Tanzanian/American/Kenyan
PLURAL

Pronoun Particle Noun

Sisi/Ninyi/Wao ni Watanzania/Wamarekani/Wakenya

We/You are Tanzanians/Americans/Kenyans

(pl)/They

Sisi/Ninyi/Wao si Watanzania/Wamarekani/Wakenya

We/You are not Tanzanians/Americans/Kenyans

(pl)/They

Greetings
 It is customary in Tanzanian culture to exchange greetings before engaging in a conversation
or in any other activities, which is why ‘Greetings’ is one of the first skills of the Swahili course.

 Hand shaking is used a lot. In some areas of Tanzania people kneel down or bow, or bend
down a little as a sign of respect, children bow their heads for a blessing from elders. In other
areas elders bow their heads for a touch from children when being greeted.
 People take greetings seriously as they help to maintain good relationships.

 The word habari literally means news, but it is often used to ask How is ---?.

 Some Tanzanians use the greeting Jambo when greeting foreigners. In most cases Jambo is
considered to be a touristic greeting. Generally foreigners are associated with tourists and for
that matter this greeting is commonly used with foreigners.

 When using the forms of -jambo, negative prefixes will be used (such as asking, Hujambo?).
This can be translated as a way to say Hello! or How are you?. More about this will be
explained in later lessons, but for now, just remember that Jambo is technically used for
tourists only.

 To a friend/colleague, one can say Mambo? or Salama? or Vipi?, but not to an elder or to a
senior person. These phrases are slang for Hello.

 Articles "a", "the", and "some" are not used in Swahili. One can say "mtoto" meaning "a" or
"the" child.

 Normally older people or those considered to be of higher status are greeted first. In most
cases titles would accompany the greetings Shikamoo mwalimu (teacher), mzee (old
person), babu (grandfather), kaka (brother), dada (sister) etc.

 Shikamoo literally translates to may I hold your feet, a greeting with Islamic roots. We can
simply translate this as Hello, or I respect you. The literal translation can be a bit strange!

 Similarly, the response to shikamoo, marahaba, literally means I accept. However, that can
also be awkward. In this course, we've tried to come up with an acceptable translation.

 Generally for Africans, the term family refers to all family and extended relatives, i.e siblings,
uncles, aunties, cousins, nephew, nieces, grand fathers and mothers etc.

 Family relationships take precedence over age: e.g. a stepmother, even if younger than you,
will get the same respect as your mother.

 Close family friends are treated and referred to as if they are relatives.

 In East African, and especially Tanzanian, culture, it is very common to ask and be asked about
family affairs, marital status and age, even when greeting new people.
Noun Classes: M- WA- Noun Class

In Swahili, nouns are grouped according to different classes. These classes have different
agreements and grammatical structures in common with very few exceptions. Although learning
the different rules of the noun classes can seem daunting, the patterns that each class follow
become easily recognizable and mastery over noun classes will set your Swahili apart from a
casual learner.

Most nouns referring to humans, animals, and insects fall into the M- WA- noun class because
they take the m- prefix in the singular and the wa- prefix in the plural. For example, the
word parent(s) is mzazior wazazi. This is also generally true for adjective stems, and although
we will introduce some adjectives here, we will cover adjective stems later in the course in
more detail. Unlike Romance languages and others with gendered nouns, Swahili does not
have gendered nouns and that distinction is only made through using adjectives.

However, it is important to note that many kinship nouns and almost all animal nouns
do not take those prefixes.

Plural Suffix -ni

There are certain words, like karibu, asante, shikamoo, or kwa herithat, when used to
address more than one person, take the suffix -nito indicate plural references. So,
saying asante, or thank you, to a group of people would be asanteni. When adding syllables to
the end of words, the stress still goes on the penultimate syllable once the addition is made, not
the original syllable where the stress once was.

Possessive Pronouns

The following chart shows personal pronouns for singular and plural. These act as vowel stem
adjectives and must take different agreements depending on the noun class.

Singular Translation Plural Translation

- angu my/mine - etu our/ours

- ako your/yours - enu your/yours (pl.)

- ake his/her - ao their/theirs

 For the M- WA- noun class, the prefix w- is used for both singular AND plural possessive
pronouns. For example, my child will be mtoto wangu and my children* will be watoto
wangu**.

 Note: The exceptions to this rule are certain kinship nouns that come from
Arabic: baba, mama, bibi, babu, shangazi, binamu, rafiki, dada, kaka, etc. These nouns
take the y- agreement in the singular and the z- agreement in the plural.
 Accordingly, my sister will be dada yangu whereas my sisters will be dada zangu.

-a of association

There is a prepositional element in Swahili that is the equivalent of saying of. It follows
agreement patterns based on the noun class as well. All nouns, including the Arabic kinship
nouns, in the M- WA-noun class take the agreement prefix w- for the “-a of association.” In a
way, this linguistic element acts as a way to attach an adjective. See below:

Singular Example Translation Plural Example Translation

Mwalimu wa Kiswahili Teacher of Walimu waKiswahili Teachers

Swahili – of Swahili –
Swahili Swahili
Teacher Teachers

Msichana waMarekani American Wasichana waMarekani American

girl girls

Mwanafunzi wa hisabati Math Wanafunzi wahisabati Math

student students

 Note: From the first example, you can see that the “-a of association” can be literally translated
to of. However, in conversational English, a speaker would not say “teacher of Swahili” but
rather “Swahili teacher”. For the purposes of this course, we will accept both translations,
however, since they are both grammatically correct.

 Affirmative Constructions:
 Simple Swahili sentence structure has three parts: a subject prefix, a tense marker, and
the verb stem. For example Ninapika (I am cooking/I cook):
 Ni- = Subject Prefix (I)
 -na- = Tense Marker (Simple Present)
  -pika = Verb (Cook)
 This can be called verb construction or sentence structure, because in Swahili, this
construction can constitute a complete sentence with a subject and a verb by itself. The
structure will become longer with additional nouns or other modifiers.
 In the example above, -pika is the modified verb in the present tense. If we want to talk
about cooking, or if we refer to the infinitive form, to cook, then we add what we call the
infinitive ku. So, to say to cook or cooking, the word is kupika. When we refer to
dropping or retaining the infinitive ku, this is what will stay or go!
 In Swahili, Bantu-origin verbs end in -a and Arabic/other language-origin verbs end in
other vowels. Verbs in Swahili do not end in consonants.
 The following chart shows sample constructions involving the subject prefixes, tense
markers, and some sample verb stems:

Subject Tense Verb

Pronoun Construction
Prefix Marker Stem

mimi (I) ni- (I) -na- -sema Ninasema

(present (speak)
tense)

wewe u –(you) -na- -lala Unalala

(you) (present (sleep)
tense)

yeye a – -na- -fikiri Anafikiri

(she/he) (she/he) (present (think)
tense)

sisi (we) tu – -na- -uliza Tunauliza

(we) (present (ask)
tense)

ninyi m – -na- - Mnafundisha

(you (ya’ll) (present fundisha
plural) tense) (teach)

wao wa – -na- -kimbia Wanakimbia

(they (They) (present (run)
plural) tense)
 In these constructions, ni-, u-, a-, tu-, m-, and wa- are subject prefixes, i.e. they refer to
the subject noun or pronoun.
  Monosyllabic verbs retain the infinitive ku as part of the verb stem, like kula - to eat. To
make a construction, the infinitive ku is retained. So, to say I eat or I am eating, the
Swahili would be Ninakula.
 This form of construction, or agglutination, is important in Swahili as all verbage is
formed by combining subject prefixes, tense markers, and verbs at the very least, and
including object infixes, relatives, and different verb endings as language ability
progresses.

 Negative present singular and plural:

 In negative present:
 1- No tense sign is used;
 2- If the last vowel is an “a”, it is changed into “i”; and
 3- Negative subject prefixes are used.
 The negative present can also be used for the negative continuous, ie.- I do not/am
not....
 Examples:

Affirmative Negative

Ninaandika. Siandiki.

I am writing. I am not writing.

Unaandika. Huandiki.

You are writing. You are not writing.

Anaandika. Haandiki.

She/He is writing. She/He is not writing.

Tunaandika. Hatuandiki.

We are writing. We are not writing.

Mnaandika. Hamwandiki.

You (pl.) are writing. You (pl.) are not writing.

Wanaandika. Hawaandiki.

They are writing. They are not writing.

  Note 1: - Whenever a consonant ‘m’ precedes vowel stem verbs, -w- is inserted
between the consonant and the vowels; example: Ninyi hamwandiki.
 Note 2: - Monosyllabic verbs like kula, kunywa, and kuja, drop the infinitive ‘ku’ in the
negative present.

Affirmative Negative

Mimi ninakula samaki. Mimi sili samaki.

I am eating fish. I am not eating/do not eat fish.

Wewe unakunywa Wewe hunywi pombe.

pombe.

You are drinking You are not drinking/do not drink

alcohol. alcohol.
 Note 3: - Verbs with other vowel endings other than “-a” retain their endings.

Affirmative Negative

Ninajibu swali. Sijibu swali.

I am answering a I am not answering/do not answer

question. a/the question.

Tunadhani kwamba Hatudhani kwamba atafika.

atafika.

We think she/he will We do not think she/he will arrive.

arrive.