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