The Passive — Swahili Grammar

The passive puts -w- in front of the stem's final vowel. The thing affected becomes the subject and takes over the agreement, and whoever did it either disappears or is named with .

The Pattern

close, becomes fungwa be closed
like, becomes pendwa be liked
call, becomes itwa be called

Duka limefungwa. Huwezi kuingia.
The shop is closed. You cannot go in.

li- it, the class 5 subject, standing for the shop
-me- done, and still so
fungwa be closed

The shop, not the shopkeeper, is the subject now, and the verb carries the shop's class agreement.

Naming the Doer with na

Where English uses by, Swahili uses .

Barua iliandikwa na mwalimu.
The letter was written by the teacher.
Chakula kilipikwa na mama yangu.
The food was cooked by my mother.
Mtoto aliumwa na mbwa.
The child was bitten by a dog.

Each time brings in who did it, while the verb agrees with what it was done to: the class 9 i- of the letter, the class 7 ki- of the food, the a- of the child.

Naming the doer is optional, and many passive sentences leave it out:

Picha nzuri imetundikwa ukutani.
A lovely picture has been hung on the wall.

Saying What Something Is Called

This is the passive a beginner meets first, and it is the ordinary way to give a name.

Mbwa wako mdogo anaitwa nani?
What is your little dog called?

Literally that is is called by what name, and there is no active alternative in normal speech.

Stems Ending in Two Vowels

When a stem already ends in a vowel cluster, the passive is -liwa or -lewa rather than a bare -w-.

buy, becomes nunuliwa be bought
open, becomes funguliwa be opened

Gari hili lilinunuliwa mwaka jana.
This car was bought last year.
Mlango ulifunguliwa na mlinzi.
The door was opened by the guard.

The Agreement Moves

Turning a sentence passive changes which noun the verb agrees with, and that is the clearest sign the change has happened.

Wanafunzi wanampenda mwalimu.
The students like the teacher.
Mwalimu anapendwa na wanafunzi.
The teacher is liked by the students.

In the first the verb wears the class 2 wa- of the students, with -m- inside it for the teacher; in the second it wears the class 1 a- of the teacher.

Where English Would Not Use a Passive

Swahili reaches for the passive more readily than English does, especially for events with no obvious agent.

Mumewe anaitwa David.
Her husband's name is David.
Unatakiwa kufika mapema.
You need to arrive early.

The second is literally you are wanted to arrive early: is a passive built on want.

In Every Tense

A passive stem conjugates like any other, so it turns up across all the tenses with no further change.

- it is being closed
- it was closed
- it will be closed
- it has been closed, and is shut

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