Class 3: Trees and Growing Things (m-)

01

What Belongs Here

• growing things: mti tree, mchele rice
• parts of the body: mkono arm, mguu leg
• stretches of time: mwaka year, mwezi month, mchana daytime
• and a long tail of ordinary objects: mlango door, mkate bread, mji town, mzigo load

• Unaweza kuchora mti huu?

  Can you draw this tree?

• Tuna mkutano muhimu Jumatano.

  We have an important meeting on Wednesday.

02

The Verb Prefix Is u-

Where class 1 takes a-, class 3 takes u-. That one letter is the clearest sign that a noun beginning with m- is not a person.

• Mlango umefungwa.

  The door is closed.

• u- it, the class 3 subject
• -me- done and still true
• fungwa be closed

The same u- also means you, as in Umelala? Have you slept? There is never any doubt which is meant: it depends on whether a class 3 noun is standing in the sentence.

03

Adjectives Still Take m-

An adjective copies the noun's own prefix, so a class 3 adjective looks exactly like a class 1 one. The word for of is wa and the possessives take w-, and those are shared with class 1 as well. The verb is the only thing that separates the two classes.

• Usingoje muda mrefu.

  Do not wait a long time.

• Nina swali kuhusu mtihani wa kesho.

  I have a question about tomorrow's exam.

04

Pointing at a Class 3 Noun

• huu - this
• huo - that, the one just mentioned
• ule - that one over there

• Kumbuka usiwahi kufunga mlango huu.

  Remember never to close this door.

• Huu ndio mkahawa bora zaidi duniani.

  This is the best restaurant in the world.

A noun in m- takes huu if it is a thing and huyu if it is somebody, so the pointing word separates the classes just as the verb does.

05

The Object Marker Is -u-

When a class 3 thing is on the receiving end of the verb, -u- goes inside the word, in the slot between the tense and the stem.

• Nataka ufanye mpango na uufuate.

  I want you to make a plan and follow it.

The last word is u-u-fuate. The first u- is you, the second is the plan.

06

Not Every m- Word Is a Person

The practical test is the verb. If it begins with a-, the noun is somebody; if with u-, it is a class 3 thing.

• Mgeni wetu amefika.

  Our guest has arrived.

• Mzigo wetu umefika.

  Our luggage has arrived.

Those two sentences differ by a single letter, and that letter is the whole difference between a guest and a suitcase.