UNIT OBJECTIVES
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
- Form demonstratives for nouns in all classes
- Give simple, direct commands
- Master the following vocabulary: Swahili Unit 6 Vocabulary
NEW CONTENT
Here’s the lecture audio, if you’d like to listen along:
DEMONSTRATIVES
Demonstratives indicate “this”, “these”, “that” and “those” objects. They are an essential grammatical tool, and a very useful device for a novice shopper in a Tanzanian market.
You’ll often use them in response to the question word gani, meaning “which.”
In Swahili,we construct demonstratives according the class of the noun being demonstrated.
Conveniently, you may find the demonstrative “this” for each noun class to be a helpful tool in memorizing/recalling noun class subject prefixes, because the ending of “this” demonstrative matches the subject prefix for its respective noun class. Take a look:
| Noun Class | Noun Class Prefix | Example Noun | 1st: “This” or “These” | 2nd: “That or those” | 3rd: “that or those over there” | Subject Prefix |
| 1 | m- | mtu | huyu | huyo | yule | a- |
| 2 | wa- | watu | hawa | hao | wale | wa- |
| 3 | m- | mti | huu | huo | ule | u- |
| 4 | mi- | miti | hii | hiyo | ile | i- |
| 5 | (-)/ji- | tunda | hili | hilo | lile | li- |
| 6 | ma- | matunda | haya | hayo | yale | ya- |
| 7 | ki- | kitu | hiki | hicho | kile | ki- |
| 8 | vi- | vitu | hivi | hivyo | vile | vi- |
| 9 | (-) | nyumba | hii | hiyo | ile | i- |
| 10 | (-) | nyumba | hizi | hizo | zile | zi- |
| 11 | u- | ukuta | huu | huo | ule | u- |
| 14 | u- | upendo | huu | huo | ule | u- |
| 16 | [pa] | mahali | hapa | hapo | pale | pa- |
| 17 | [ku] | mahali | huku | huko | kule | ku- |
| 18 | [m] | mahali | humu | humo | mle | m- |
Some examples of demonstratives in action:
Demonstratives are generally used immediately after the noun being demonstrated (e.g. nyumba hii, or matunda haya). If you want to put special emphasis on the demonstrative, though, you can use it immediately before the demonstrated noun. So “Hii nyumba” would be akin to saying “THIS (!) house”
Nitauza maembe hayo: I will sell those mangoes
Walifungua mlango huo: They opened that door
Anataka kumwagilia miche hii: He/she wants to irrigate these seedlings
Vile vitalu vimekauka: Those nurseries have dried out
Tulijenga nyumba hizo: We built those houses
Now let’s practice. How would you say the following? Check your answers against the audio:
This teacher is planting those seeds:
Use that toilet!
Open these windows!
Come back here (this exact place) later!
