Swahili Feminine

If you're trying to learn Swahili Feminine you will find out that Swahili actually doesn't have a gender. So there is no masculine or feminine... But you still need to know how to deal with that fact. Below are some tips and examples. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Swahili. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!

Swahili Gender

As we mentioned before, there is no Swahili gender which is good news (compared to other languages).

While in English it is known that feminine refers to female qualities attributed specifically to women and girls or things considered feminine. The complement to feminine is masculine. In Swahili, nouns are not masculine, feminine, they might be all considered "neutral".

Grammar Tips:
There are no genders in Swahili, no feminine and no masculine. This applies to adjectives as well as nouns.

Here are some examples:

English Gender	Swahili Gender
Feminine	Uke
he is happy	amefurahi
she is happy	amefurahi
he is American	ni Mmarikani
she is American	ni Mmarikani

man	mwanamme
woman	mwanamke
father	baba
mother	mama
brother	ndugu
sister	dada
uncle	mjomba
aunt	shangazi
bull	ng'ombe ndume
cow	ng'ombe
boy	mvulana
girl	msichana

As you can see from the example above, there is no structure of the Feminine in Swahili.

Gender in Swahili

Below are examples of some vocabulary words that you can try to memorize to help you boost your vocabulary.

English Vocabulary	Swahili Vocabulary
objects	vitu
bathroom	bafu
bed	kitanda
bedroom	chumba cha kulala
ceiling	dari
chair	kiti
clothes	nguo
coat	shati
cup	kikombe
desk	dawati
dress	mavazi
floor	sakafu
fork	uma
furniture	samani
glass	kioo
hat	kofia
house	nyumba
ink	wino
jacket	koti
kitchen	jikoni
knife	kisu
lamp	taa
letter	barua
map	ramani
newspaper	gazeti
notebook	daftari
pants	suruali
paper	karatasi
pen	kalamu
pencil	penseli
pharmacy	duka la dawa
picture	picha
plate	sahani
refrigerator	jokofu
restaurant	mkahawa
roof	paa
room	chumba
rug	rug
scissors	makasi
shampoo	Sabuni ya nywele
shirt	shati
shoes	viatu
soap	sabuni
socks	soksi
spoon	kijiko
table	meza
toilet	choo
toothbrush	mswagi
toothpaste	dawa ya meno
towel	kitambaa
umbrella	mwavuli
underwear	chupi
wall	ukuta
wallet	mkoba
window	dirisha
telephone	simu

Feminine and Masculine are absent from Swahili, therefore they don't need very special attention. Once you're done with the Kiswahili gender lesson, you might want to check the rest of our Swahili lessons here: Learn Swahili. Don't forget to bookmark this page.

Swahili Feminine