Swahili/Verbs/General

Verbs

General Structure

Verbs in general consist of a stem which is flexed mostly by adding affixes. Different types of affixes serve different functions. The following shows the most basic and important categories of affixes. Regular/native verbs end in "-a". Those that do not usually have their origin in another language.

Subject Prefixes (personal)

Subject prefixes are (when used) in the first position. They indicate the acting subject (in this case the person) of the sentence.

Person	Singular		Plural
First	Ni-	I do	Tu-	we do
Second	U-	you do	M-	You do
Third	A-	he/she does	Wa-	they do

For subjects other than persons the respective prefix of the corresponding Noun Class is used, which will be introduced in Nouns.

Negating Prefixes (personal)

For each subject prefix there exists another corresponding prefix which use negates the whole sentence. The regular negated form adds "H(a)-" in front of the respective positive subject prefix. (Note that if the prefix begins with a vowel, only an "H-" is added, omitting the "-a-".)

Person	Singular		Plural
First	Si-	I do not	Hatu-	we do not
Second	Hu-	you do not	Ham-	You do not
Third	Ha-	he/she does not	Hawa-	they do not

Personal Pronouns

These prefixes render personal pronouns obsolete except for cases in which one wants to emphasize on the subject.

Example: Mimi sipendi (I do not like)

Tense/TENS

After a subject prefix follows a infix, called the TENS-marker, that marks the tense or other mode (for example the conditional) of the verb.

Infinitive

The infinitive is built by simply adding the prefix "ku-" to the stem of the verb.

Example: Ku-fanya (To do)

(Technically this is its own Noun Class.)

Present

Example: Ni-na-fanya (I do/I am doing)

Other Tenses

• Present (+Habitual)
• Past (Simple Past and Past Perfect)
• Future
• Imperative
• Subjunctive
• Participle

Others

Other infixes and modifier contain

• "Already"
• Passive
• Object
• Conditional
• Relative
• Locative
• Single Syllable