Swahili Plural

While in English, the plural is formed byadding (s) to the singular. In Swahili, to form the plural of nouns and adjectives depends on the noun class. In Swahili,nouns are divided into 11 classes mainly following the syntax rules. For mostnouns, the prefix before the root tells whether it’s in singular or plural.However, there are some nouns that don’t change in their structure- the changeis realized in the syntax. For example we have the noun class of all the nounsthat have life- basically people.

Example- mtu (person) watu(persons)

In the sentence:

 mtu amekuja( a person hascome), watu wamekuja( persons have come)

msichana ameingia( a girl hasentered), wasichana wameingia ( girls have entered)

daktari ametoka( the doctor hasgone ot) Madaktari wametoka( doctors have gone out)

This class is called A-WA class as you cansee from sentence construction.

* In this class many nouns have prefix m- inthe singular and wa- in the prulal. However there are very many irregular nounsthat don’t follow this rule. E.g Rafiki( friend) Daktari( doctor) Kiwete(lameperson),

Rafiki(a friend) becomes: marafiki ( friends)

Mwanamke(one woman) becomes: Wanawake (manywomen)

Hilii ni gari langu lekundu (this is my redcar) becomes: Haya ni magari yangu mekundu (these are my red cars)