Noun Class System

This is perhaps the most important element of the language that you need to understand. Like in other Bantu languages there are those noun classes in Swahili that contain names of human beings, another for animals, a different one for locations etc but heavy borrowing from other languages has caused some shifts. The table below contains a simplified format of the noun class system. Here is how it works:

By picking a word that falls in noun class 1/2 such as Mtu (a person) you can then apply it across the table and even make sentences: Mtu huyu ni mkubwa na mwenye pesa.

Noun class table

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