Before we learn about verbs, a special note on nouns, when ascribing a character on someone e.g a Nigerian or Kenyan or even a Yoruba we always use the prefix m- although this is the domain of adjectives we introduce it here:

Nigeria - Mnaijeria
Kenyan - Mkenya
Christian - Mkristo
Muslim - Muislamu
Hindu - Mhindi
Jew - Myahudi
European - Mzungu
African - Muafrika/Mwafrika
America - Mwaamerika/Muamerika
Swahili - Mswahili
Arab - Muarabi/Mwaarabu

Also, nouns describing qualities like freedom, humanity, homoseuality, also known as collective nouns always start with U- and belong to ngeli ya U-U

Freedom - Uhuru
Humanity - Utu
Homosexuality - Ushoga
Patriotism - Uzalendo
Chrisitianity - Ukristiano
Islam - Uislamu
Witchcraft - Uchawi
Beauty - Urembo
Intelligence - Uerevu
Charm - Ucheshi
etc.

To do - Kufanya Here the actual verb/kitenzi (from the word tenda - do) is do - fanya/tenda, you won't find kufanya/kutenda or to do in the dictionary/kamusi as a verb, maybe as a special case of doing nouns in the Kamusi.
We already talked about verb conjugation so all you do is take the root and apply the pronoun cases and tenses to form a simple sentence.

Eat- kula
Take - chukua
give - patia/kabidhi
talk - ongea
speak - zungumza
walk - tembea
drink - kunywa
cook - pika
make - tengeneza/unda
praise - abudu
hurt - umiza
die - kufa
birth - zalisha
ask - uliza
build - jenga
sing - imba
draw - chora

Also Swahili has a wealth of words that have repetitive morphology, but mostly they are found in insults/peculiar behaviours we'll list some of them though, also when you want to emphasize something you repeat the verb

e.g You eat too much - Wewe hukula kula sana. I believe this feature is ubiquitous with almost all bantu languages though I maybe wrong.

kiherehere/kimbelembele - confusion/unnecessary anxiety
mbumbumbu - stupid person
mbumbuwazi - stupid person
tapatapa - talk confusedly
papatika - twitch
zumbukuku - idiot
kizunguzungu - dizziness
weweseka/wewedeka - talk deliriously
wasiwasi - worries
kandanda - football
bodaboda - okada motorcycles and bicycles (originally used to ferry people from Kenya to Uganda border and back hence the name bodaboda, now used all over East Africa).
pilipili - chilli
barabara - road
...etc

These words are so many (not confined to only this category) that it's impossible to know them all since their usage differs by region, many foreigners especially the wazungu find them funny and fun to use

We investigate the possessive pronouns

My = -angu also Mine = yangu

Here this depends on the Ngeli, so if you are using say kiti from ngeli ya KI-VI you say changu remember kiti cha, if you are using say gari from ngeli ya LI-YA you say langu remember gari la so any time you want to use this possessive first find out what ngeli the noun you are using belongs to, for A-WA, humans and animals, you use wangu.

Kiti changu- - My chair, for plural it'll be viti vyangu vya will always be plural to cha
Mpenzi wangu - My lover wa doesn't have plural so wapenzi wangu

His/Hers = -ake

Same explanation, you only change the first prefix to fit the ngeli of the said noun

Ours = -etu

Gari letu - our car
Magari yetu - our cars

Kitabu chetu - our book
Vitabu vyetu - our books

Again refer to your ngeli for more

Yours = -ako

Sura yako - Your face/appearance
Same explanation as above

Yours (plural) = -enu

Same explanation as above

Theirs = -ao

chao - vyao(KI-VI), yao - zao(I-ZI), lao - yao(LI-YA), etc

Here things depend on ngeli, always know what noun belongs to what ngeli to successfully apply these.

Adjectives - Vivumishi (singular is Kivumishi)

good - zuri
bad - baya
beautiful - rembo
tall - refu
short - fupi
broad - pana
thin - konde
delicious - tamu
bitter - kali
sweet - tamu
big - kubwa
small - dogo
greedy - lafi
selfish - choyo

Basically adjectives depend on ngeli since you apply them to the subject which is the noun, so when applying them to people or animals use ngeli ya A-WA and apply the prefix m- for singular and Wa- for plural, so you might say:

Mtu huyu ni mlafi - This person is greedy
Watu hawa ni walafi - These people are greedy

or when using a noun from a different ngeli say KI-VI

Kiti hiki ni kirefu - This chair is tall
Viti hivi ni virefu - These chairs are tall

Ngeli ya LI-YA

Gari hili ni kubwa - This car is big
Magari haya ni makubwa - These cars are big

Ngeli ya I-ZI

Soda hii ni tamu - This soda is sweet
Soda hizi ni tamu - These sodas are sweet

Ngeli ya U-I

Mti huu ni mdogo - This tree is small
Miti hii ni midogo - These trees are small

Okay since I've been doing lots of teaching, I should ask for a contribution from people who follow this topic. Please, write a small sample about yourself, where you come from, what you do, where you live, what you like, basically an introductory composition, you don't have to tell the truth, if it helps, write in English and try to translate it to Kiswahili and see if it makes sense. You have the necessary vocabulary for the task and I'll try to correct all the pieces that will be submitted, till then I won't post another lesson.

Habaari...

I'm really enjoying this. Thanks again!! You are right, there are similarities between isiZulu and Swahili I spotted a few. Please continue doing best!! It's appreciated. Usiku mwema

soilsista:
Habaari...

I'm really enjoying this. Thanks again!! You are right, there are similarities between isiZulu and Swahili I spotted a few. Please continue doing best!! It's appreciated. Usiku mwema

Hey, why don't you try to write a simple composition, Iwant to see the mistakes commonly made by newbies so that i can at least try to improve on the lessons, it can as less than 50 words, let's see how you'll do.

Since we are taking a break to consolidate what we've learned, try listening to some kenyan songs on youtube, don't bother with Tanzanian songs, they use more difficult vocabulary and a shairi (swahili poem) based form of song-writing which is highly metaphorical, so it would be more difficult for non-natives to understand what they're singing about, if you feel that you can, then do so, post whatever confuses you here and I'll try to explain.

You can start with this one: called Wale wasee (Those people), it uses a bit of sheng', this gives you an idea of how Swahili is spoken in Nairobi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0mIf673D6s


This is I think is the second most popular Swahili song after Malaika, it was written and first performed by Them Mushrooms, a Kenyan band in 1982, there are thousands upon thousands of renditions especially from white people, there are many videos on youtube, don't know why they never remade the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-GUHSJKRtc


This is touted as the most famous Swahili song, there's a lot of dispute (Kenyan vs Tanzanian) as to who wrote it, but the rights belongs to a Kenyan by the name of Fadhili Williams, it also has thousands of renditions, but the most famous seems to be Miriam Makeba's when she first heard it in Tanzania.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSO-pHn9rw


This is the music typical to the East African coast, it's called Taarab and is heavily influenced by Indian and Arab styles: It's a Zanzibari (Tanzania) song, this form of Taarab is called Mduara (Think Diamond Platinums' Nasema Nawe) where the community condemns bad behaviour by circling around the offender and reminding them that they've wronged the community. Mduara means something of circular or round (appearance) from the noun duara - circle.

In this case they condemn the guy for spreading rumours, you can see this when he first talks to the lady doing laundry, where he tells her that she has been bewitched upon which the lady asks him how he knows this if he himself isn't a witchdoctor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOBJHJ677PA

These are just the most common of the dozens of Swahili song genres found in East Africa, enjoy

This other one is a Chakacha song, mostly sang in coastal Kenya, it usually has a faster rhythm than this (Like the introduction beats to Sauti Sol's Sura Yako). The title says Tanzania Swahili bongo flava, it's misleading, the song was done in Malindi, and the lady and the man are from the Giriama tribe (language is closest to Swahili) who are known for their traditional waist dances.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXyQhn09sAc

It's typically a song that praises butt shaking and waist swerving, when the lady says kanipa mama, kiuno, she means that mother gave me this waist

This is Taarab proper, it is usually sang by women, it's basically a recitation of shairi(Swahili poem), the songs are usually very long like Lingala songs, and they may well go on for 10 or more minutes. It is mostly sang in Zanzibar, Mombasa, Dar and Tanga. Unless you've lived in the coast for long, or understand Swahili very well you're unlikely to understand most of what they usually sing about since they use lots of local idioms, metaphors, and also change the structure of words to rhyme with the song. It's often quite a challenge for people living in the mainland to discern the meaning of certain phrases, it's like a form of 16^th century Shakespearean English.

The videos and concerts are usually eye candy because of the coveted beautiful coastal women who drag their voices in typical Indian/Arabic style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-SB85baoHI

I'm actually kind of disappointed that the same peeps who asked me to teach them Swahili have not even been able to write one sentence, if you cannot find the time and effort to do something as simple as that then what's the point of me sparing my time to teach you and I'm doing it for free.

pkjag:
I'm actually kind of disappointed that the same peeps who asked me to teach them Swahili have not even been able to write one sentence, if you cannot find the time and effort to do something as simple as that then what's the point of me sparing my time to teaach you and I'm doing it for free.

Mbona kama kuwa hii ndugu yangu. Mimi nilikuwa say something but I get where you're coming from. Samahani

soilsista:

Mbona kama kuwa hii ndugu yangu. Mimi nilikuwa say something but I get where you're coming from. Samahani

Haha, now this is what we are talking about, some participation, but your sentence is too funny . You tried though.

Corrections:

Mbona kuwa hivi meaning why be like this, you should've used the kiashiria hivi which also means like this and hivyo/vile for like that. You'll also find the word kama in many sentences, it means if and like but in this case it isn't necessary.

Your second sentence where you used English should have been Mimi nilikuwa niseme kitu lakini ninaelewa unapotoka/unatoka wapi! meaning I would've said something but I get where you are coming from.

Good work you seem to be the most interested person here, keep trying

We investigate the adverbs we'll start with the common ones:

When - lini
Where - wapi
Who/Whom - nani
What - nini
How - vipi/aje

Which - this ones depends on the ngeli
but the standard form for all ngeli is gani(both singular and plural)
for example:

A-WA = yupi - wapi
U-I = upi - ipi
I-ZI = ipi - zipi
LI-YA = lipi - yapi
YA-YA = yapi - yapi
KI-VI = kipi - vipi
etc

By now if you are following this thread you should have realized what I mean when I say 'depends on Ngeli', you use the prefix of the preferred Ngeli (kiambishi awali cha ngeli) to replace whatever you want to apply i.e LI-YA becomes Lipi-Yapi, you should start seeing these common patterns as you progress.

For the other adverbs:

If you want to apply these you have to know the adjectives first say:
I ran quickly - Nilikimbia kwa haraka

Here you apply the adjective haraka - quick then use kwa to convert it into an adverb.

I ate greedily - Nilikula kwa ulafi
He drove fast - Aliendesha kwa upesi/haraka

So always know the adjective when applying adverbs.

For tenses and verb conjugation soilsista's sentence reminded of something I hadn't discussed (see, this is how you help me help you)

we have the following regular verbs;
sema - say
kula - eat
pika - cook
enda - go
kuja - come etc

They change when you conjugate them in various tenses:

Mostly though it's in the progressive forms of past tenses; those indicating a verb continuously doing something; those following -ilikuwa/-ngekuwa

Nilikuwa niseme - I should have said
Alikuwa apike - He/she should have cooked

Here the verb root changes the last letter to be -e

I know tenses tend to be quite complicated but with practice you should be able to understand/express simple sentences.

pkjag:

Haha, now this is what we are talking about, some participation, but your sentence is too funny . You tried though.

Corrections:

Mbona kuwa hivi meaning why be like this, you should've used the kiashiria hivi which also means like this and hivyo/vile for like that. You'll also find the word kama in many sentences, it means if and like but in this case it isn't necessary.

Your second sentence where you used English should have been Mimi nilikuwa niseme kitu lakini ninaelewa unapotoka/unatoka wapi! meaning I would've said something but I get where you are coming from.

Good work you seem to be the most interested person here, keep trying

Asante sana for the corrections. It's not going to be as easy I thought it would be but I'm not giving up. Your efforts are appreciated

Mimi kuchanganyikwa
Is there a difference between mzuri and muzuri? The song Sura Yako got me thinking

Jina langu ni Scholes0, nakupenda Kiswahili .
Mimi ni myoruba, lakini na taka kujifunsa kiswahili.

Habari gani? Mzuri sana?
Hakuna matata!!

soilsista:
Mimi kuchanganyikwa
Is there a difference between mzuri and muzuri? The song Sura Yako got me thinking

Haha, your swahili is too funny, are you by any chance directly translating from mopedi/isiZulu or is it google translate?

First of all you should've said Mimi nimechanganyikiwa, but we'll cover that later, remember whenever you refer to yourself use ni-, refer to the verb conjugation lessons at the 0th page for clarification.

Second thing is muzuri is mzuri it's just that people can't pronounce it fast enough, same with all words that start with two consonants mb, mbw, mj etc. The correct word is mzuri, however most mzungus and foreigners just can't seem to pronounce it correctly.

scholes0:
Jina langu ni Scholes0, nakupenda(nakipenda/napenda) Kiswahili .
Mimi ni myoruba, lakini na taka(nataka) kujifunsa(kujifunza) kiswahili.
Habari gani? Mzuri sana?
Hakuna matata!!

Haha, karibu sana scholes0 hapa utafunzwa kiswahili vilivyo.

pkjag:
Haha, your swahili is too funny, are you by any chance directly translating from mopedi/isiZulu or is it google translate?

First of all you should've said Mimi nimechanganyikiwa, but we'll cover that later, remember whenever you refer to yourself use ni-, refer to the verb conjugation lessons at the 0th page for clarification.

Second thing is muzuri is mzuri it's just that people can't pronounce it fast enough, same with all words that start with two consonants mb, mbw, mj etc. The correct word is mzuri, however most mzungus and foreigners just can't seem to pronounce it correctly.


Haha, karibu sana scholes0 hapa utafunzwa kiswahili vilivyo.

Direct translation, and it's showing me flames hey!!

Wikendi ya Obama imeisha na nimeishiwa na hoja (The Obama weekend is over and I'm out of posts). Does anybody here have anything they want to be taught about as I think about what lessons I'll offer next??

PKJAG, habari yako? Mimi ni mzuri. Wikendu yako ilikuwaje? Yangu, (n)zuri. KiSwahili is a beautiful language!! Mimi naependa and it will be put to good use very soon
You've done more than enough, speaking for myself. Usiku wa kuagana.

Once again, asante sana

soilsista:
PKJAG, habari yako? Mimi ni mzuri(Mimi niko poa). Wikendu(Wikendi) yako ilikuwaje? Yangu, (n)zuri(ilikuwa nzuri/poa). KiSwahili is a beautiful language!!(Kiswahili ni lugha nzuri/yenye ladha) Mimi naependa(naipenda/nakipenda) and it will be put to good use very soon
You've done more than enough, speaking for myself. Usiku wa kuagana.
Once again, asante sana

Wow very good, your mistakes are reducing by the day Also adjectives always come after the nouns, the opposite of English.

Don't know why I forgot this but when speaking to an elder, greetings (maamkizi) are usually:

Shikamoo and they/you answer Marahaba

Mwana means child in most bantu languages, Kiswahili uses this to form other nouns associated with being human.

Mwanadamu - human being from adamu - Adam or damu - blood so it means child of adam

Mwanamke - woman from kike/jike/uke -female
Mwanamume/mwanaume - man from dume/uume/kiume - male

Also:
Mume - husband
Mke - wife

So a bull is ndume or ng'ombe dume and a cow is ng'ombe jike

Also when you want to say something like a commissioner from a committee - kamati you say mwanakamati, similarly journalist is mwanahabari from habari - news, a politician is mwanasiasa from politics - siasa.

pkjag:

Wow very good, your mistakes are reducing by the day Also adjectives always come after the nouns, the opposite of English.

Noted! But I had a good teacher too.

Lugha ya adabu - etiquette in language or language of manners when you literally translate.

Here is where there's a big difference in Kenyan/Tanzanian Swahili. The Tanzanians are very polite and will continuously use these words, however you'll be lucky to find the Kenyans especially in big cities like Nairobi use any of these unless of course you are a foreigner.

Sorry - Samahani normally sorry is pole but in etiquette we use samahani
Forgive me/Excuse me - Niwie radhi normally forgive me is nisamehe but here it's different.
Thank you - Shukrani/shukran normally thanks is Ahsante but mostly/formally you'll hear Shukrani being used.
Let me pass/Excuse me - nipishe njia
Please - Tafadhali

For instance in Tanzania when somebody wants to tell you to get out they'll say Naomba uondoke which literally means I pray that you get out but is intended to mean Please get out. Kenyans rubbish that off and use more abusive language like Toka - Go or Kwenda huko - Get out there, they may not sound abusive but in both countries they are considered rude and only to be used when you are angry. So because Tanzanians use polite language even when angry we say that Watanzania ni wastaarabu wa lugha, ustaarabu here means the state of being civilized.

Also Bwana is used to refer to Mister in both countries and is shortened to Bw. for Mr. , in Kenya it is also used to refer to Husband along with Mume.

Bibi means an old woman, in Kenya it also means wife along with Mke.

Nyanya means tomato/grandmother and Babu means grandfather and mjukuu is grandson/granddaughter/grandchild

Mzee is a respectful term for an old man i.e Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya. It also means something old (usually noun from ngeli ya A-WA)

Also daughter is binti so my daughter becomes binti yangu/bintiangu, your daughter becomes bintiye/binti yako.

Kijana is young man/young person not older than 35

Cousin is binamu

uncle - mjomba(maternal)/ami/amu(paternal)

aunt - shangazi(paternal)/mbiomba(maternal)

shemeji - any in-law/relative by marriage

wifi - sister in-law

mpwa - nephew/niece

Baba/mama mkwe - father/mother in-law

Rafiki/mwendani/msela/shoga/sahibu/swahiba - friend - this one depends with the place, cause there're too many words we'll stick with rafiki

adui/hasidi - enemy

ndugu - brother/sibling

dada - sister

kaka - brother

baba - father

mama - mother

Also with these family relations you'll often see/hear shortforms which are usually more common in speech, i.e

Mamangu - Mama yangu - My mother
Kakako - Kaka yako - Your brother
Dadake - Dada yake - His/her sister
Babaye - The father, etc

[quote

[/quote] author=pkjag post=36371871]Lugha ya adabu - etiquette in language or language of manners when you literally translate.

Here is where there's a big difference in Kenyan/Tanzanian Swahili. The Tanzanians are very polite and will continuously use these words, however you'll be lucky to find the Kenyans especially in big cities like Nairobi use any of these unless of course you are a foreigner.

Sorry - Samahani normally sorry is pole but in etiquette we use samahani
Forgive me/Excuse me - Niwie radhi normally forgive me is nisamehe but here it's different.
Thank you - Shukrani/shukran normally thanks is Ahsante but mostly/formally you'll hear Shukrani being used.
Let me pass/Excuse me - nipishe njia
Please - Tafadhali

For instance in Tanzania when somebody wants to tell you to get out they'll say Naomba uondoke which literally means I pray that you get out but is intended to mean Please get out. Kenyans rubbish that off and use more abusive language like Toka - Go or Kwenda huko - Get out there, they may not sound abusive but in both countries they are considered rude and only to be used when you are angry. So because Tanzanians use polite language even when angry we say that Watanzania ni wastaarabu wa lugha, ustaarabu here means the state of being civilized.

The bolded is confusing hey. Or maybe I'm not understanding it well because it's late.

soilsista:
author=pkjag post=36371871]Lugha ya adabu - etiquette in language or language of manners when you literally translate.
Here is where there's a big difference in Kenyan/Tanzanian Swahili. The Tanzanians are very polite and will continuously use these words, however you'll be lucky to find the Kenyans especially in big cities like Nairobi use any of these unless of course you are a foreigner.
Sorry - Samahani normally sorry is pole but in etiquette we use samahani
Forgive me/Excuse me - Niwie radhi normally forgive me is nisamehe but here it's different.
Thank you - Shukrani/shukran normally thanks is Ahsante but mostly/formally you'll hear Shukrani being used.
Let me pass/Excuse me - nipishe njia
Please - Tafadhali
For instance in Tanzania when somebody wants to tell you to get out they'll say Naomba uondoke which literally means I pray that you get out but is intended to mean Please get out. Kenyans rubbish that off and use more abusive language like Toka - Go or Kwenda huko - Get out there, they may not sound abusive but in both countries they are considered rude and only to be used when you are angry. So because Tanzanians use polite language even when angry we say that Watanzania ni wastaarabu wa lugha, ustaarabu here means the state of being civilized.
The bolded is confusing hey. Or maybe I'm not understanding it well because it's late.

What's confusing, please specify?

pkjag:

What's confusing, please specify?

Like, when I'm in Tanzania I would have to say Shukrani instead of Ahsante? Also, why did the spelling change? ahsante and not asante , is it for pronunciation purposes?

Also together with mwanadamu, binadamu is also commonly used for humans, so bin is the arabic word for son of, the word therefore translates to son of adam