Adjectives: Agreement

01

One Stem, Many Shapes

Take -zuri good, beautiful.

• class 1 mtoto mzuri - a good child
• class 2 watu wazuri - good people
• class 4 mikahawa mizuri - good cafés
• class 7 kitabu kizuri - a good book
• class 9 nyumba nzuri - a good house

• Unaijua mikahawa mizuri?

  Do you know any good cafés?

• Una nyumba nzuri sana.

  You have a very nice house.

The stem -zuri never moves. Only the syllable in front of it does, and that syllable comes from the noun.

02

The Order Is Fixed

The adjective comes after its noun, always. Where English stacks words in front of a noun, Swahili strings them out behind it, each carrying the class.

• Ingawa wenzangu kazini ni watu wazuri.

  Even though my colleagues at work are good people.

• Mbwa wake mdogo anapendeza sana.

  Her little dog is very sweet.

03

Adjectives That Never Change

A group of common adjectives take no prefix at all, so you can use them with any noun without thinking about class. Most of them came from Arabic.

• rahisi - easy, cheap
• ghali - expensive
• safi - clean
• tayari - ready
• muhimu - important

• Tuna mkutano muhimu Jumatano.

  We have an important meeting on Wednesday.

• Mashua zile ni ghali sana.

  Those boats over there are very expensive.

muhimu and ghali show no class marking, though the nouns beside them belong to quite different classes.

Borrowing is the usual reason, but not the only one. A few words of Bantu origin never change either, such as kuukuu old, worn out, which repeats the stem -kuu.

• Nini kile? Kile ni redio kuukuu.

  What is that? - That is an old radio.

So what decides it is not where a word came from but whether it takes a prefix, and the dictionary shows which: a stem written with a hyphen, like -zuri, agrees with its noun; a word written without one, like safi or kuukuu, stays as it is.

04

Agreement Reveals Number

Where a noun looks the same in the singular and the plural, the words around it are the only place number shows at all.

• Bisi hizi zina chumvi.

  This popcorn has salt in it.

• Suruali hizi ni ndefu kiasi gani?

  How long are these trousers?

05

Standing Alone After ni

An adjective can be the whole of what is said about a noun, joined to it by ni is. It still takes the class prefix.

• Ala! Mizigo yako ni mizito.

  Oh! Your bags are heavy.

• Viatu hivi ni vidogo.

  These shoes are small.

• Leo ni siku mbaya.

  Today is a bad day.

06

When There Is No Adjective

Swahili has far fewer true adjectives than English and fills the gap with the linking word -a followed by a noun. These phrases behave exactly like adjectives and are very common.

• -a kwanza - first
• -a mwisho - last
• -a zamani - old, former

• Kitabu hiki ni cha zamani.

  This book is old.

cha zamani is doing the work of old, and it takes the class of the book just as a real adjective would.

07

Several Words Behind One Noun

When a noun collects more than one describing word, they all line up behind it, the possessive first, and each carries the same agreement.

• Watoto wetu wadogo wawili wanacheza.

  Our two little children are playing.

• Kiti changu cha zamani cha ofisi kimevunjika.

  My old office chair has broken.

So a long phrase in Swahili chimes in a way English never does.