Learn Swahili - Part Five: Around the table

Course Part Five (KI-VI NOUN CLASS)
PRACTICE SWAHILI AROUND THE TABLE

Grammatical themes:

THE KI-VI NOUN CLASS:

In sentences with Ki-Vi nouns the often used sound-unit in singular is -ki- (i as the ea-sound in ´eagle´), and in plural -vi- (i as the ea-sound in ´eagle´).

Examples: Thing = Kitu
Things = Vitu
A good thing =
Kitu ki-zuri
(thing good)
Good things =
Vitu vi-zuri
(things good)


NARRATIVE TENSE and FAMILY MEMBERS

The narrative tense article is -ka- Example: Then they started to fight
(wao wa-ka-anza kupigana)
(they they-then-start to-fight)
The ka-tense is used a lot in everyday language when people are giving shorter or longer descriptions of events happening in time. It can be used to represent narrative time in both present and future tense.

Mother = Mama

Father = Baba

Big brother = Kaka

Big sister = Dada

Smaller sibling = Mdogo (”little”)

Grandfather = Babu

Grandmother = Bibi

Wife = Mke

Husband = Mume


Course Part Five, exercises

After practicing on the above mentioned grammatical features, make short dialogues with the sentences while repeating them:

This chair is for my grandmother = Kiti hiki ni kwa ajili ya bibi yangu
(chair this is for sake of grandmother my)

They sat down in the chairs and then fell asleep = Wao waliketi kwenye viti wa-ka-lala
(they they did sit down in the chairs
they-then-sleep)

I would like the big knife = Mimi naomba kisu ki-kubwa
(I I-like knife big)


The knives fell down and she started to cry = Visu vi-li-anguka chini a-ka-lia
(knives they-fell down she-then-cry)

Where are the matchboxes? Je, vibiriti vi-ko wapi?
(je = sound used before asking a question,
matchboxes they-are where?)

We will find the matchbox and light the candle = Tu-ta-ki-tafuta kibiriti tu-ka-washa mshumaa
(we-will-it-find matchbox we-then-light candle)

”I don´t have a spoon”, he said, and left = ”Mimi sina kijiko” alisema a-ka-ondoka
(I I-have-no spoon he-did-say he-then-leave)

We use our spoons to stir the coffee = Sisi tu-na-vi-tumia vijiko vyangu kukoroga kahawa
(we we-are-they-use spoons our to-stir coffee)