Appendix:Swahili personal pronouns

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This page documents the grammatical details of personal pronouns and pronoun concord in Swahili. See Appendix:Swahili noun classes for details of the noun class system.

Full table

Independent Subject concord Object concord Relative Combined forms Possessive
affirmative negative na ndi- si- -ote
m(I) 1st person mimi ni- si- -ni- -ye nami, na mimi ndimi, ndiye simi, siye – -angu
2nd person wewe u- hu- -ku- nawe, na wewe ndiwe, ndiye siwe, siye -ako
3rd person yeye a-, yu- ha-, hayu- -m-, -mw-, -mu- naye, na yeye ndiye siye wote -ake
wa(II) 1st person sisi tu- hatu- -tu- -o nasi, na sisi ndisi, ndio sio sote -etu
2nd person ninyi m-, mw-, mu- ham-, hamw-, hamu- -wa- nanyi, na ninyi ndinyi, ndio sinyi, sio nyote -enu
3rd person wao wa- hawa- -wa- nao ndio sio wote -ao (animate), -ake (inanimate)
m(III) yeye u- hau- -u- -o nao ndio sio wote -ake
mi(IV) i- hai- -i- -yo nayo ndiyo siyo yote
ji(V) li- hali- -li- -lo nalo ndilo silo lote
ma(VI) ya- haya- -ya- -yo nayo ndiyo siyo yote
ki(VII) ki- haki- -ki- -cho nacho ndicho sicho chote
vi(VIII) vi- havi- -vi- -vyo navyo ndivyo sivyo vyote
n(IX) i- hai- -i- -yo nayo ndiyo siyo yote
n(X) zi- hazi- -zi- -zo nazo ndizo sizo zote
u(XI) u- hau- -u- -o nao ndio sio wote
ku(XV/XVII) ku- haku- -ku- -ko nako ndiko siko kote
pa(XVI) pa- hapa- -pa- -po napo ndipo sipo pote
mu(XVIII) m-, mw-, mu- ham-, hamw-, hamu- -mu- -mo namo ndimo simo mote
Reflexive — — -ji- — — —

Overview

Independent pronouns

Independent pronouns are optionally used

  • as the subject of verbs without subject concord: ni, si, the hu- tense,
  • to draw the contrast between the subject or the object of a given verb with other persons or objects.

Subject and object concord

Subject concord is used in all finite verbs (except the plain imperatives) and goes at the very beginning, before the tense and aspect markers.

Object concord is used if the object is definite and goes right before the verb stem, after tense and aspect markers and after the relative marker. The ku-/kw- is always removed from the verb when object concord is present.

Relative

Relative concord is used

  • suffixed to the verb stem to form the general relative,
  • suffixed to the tense marker (-li-, -na-, -taka-) or the negative marker -si- to form tensed and negative relative forms, with eventual object markers following.

The relative can concord with either subject or object, or be in one of the adverbial classes (vi class(VIII) or a locative class). First and second-person relative concord in the verb is identical to third person m-wa class(I/II).

The same morpheme is used

  • suffixed to na, such as to denote object concord in -wa na,
  • as concord in

When suffixed to na, ndi-, si-, there exist forms that distinguish first, second, and third person.

References

  • Fidèle Mpiranya (2015), Swahili Grammar and Workbook
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia