What is a Swahili noun class?

Swahili sorts every noun into a class, similar to grammatical gender but with many more categories based on meaning and prefix shape. Classes usually come in singular and plural pairs, such as M-/WA- for people and KI-/VI- for things, and they control agreement across the sentence.

What are subject and object concords?

A concord is the agreement marker a noun class triggers on other words. The subject concord goes at the front of the verb to agree with the subject, and the object concord is infixed to agree with the object. For class 2 these are wa- and -wa-.

Why are some class numbers missing?

The reference uses the traditional Bantu numbering 1 to 18. Some proto-Bantu classes, such as 12 and 13, are not productive in standard Swahili and class 11 merges its plural into class 10, so the table lists the classes that are actually used in Kiswahili.

What are the locative classes 16, 17 and 18?

Locatives express place using the suffix -ni plus distinct concords: class 16 (pa-) for a definite spot, class 17 (ku-) for general or indefinite location, and class 18 (mu-) for being inside something, as in nyumbani for in the house.

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Swahili Noun Class Reference

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The Swahili (Kiswahili) noun-class system is the backbone of its grammar. Every noun belongs to a class, and that class controls agreement on verbs, adjectives, and possessives through concords. This reference lists the classes with their noun prefixes and their subject and object concords.

How it works

Swahili classes are traditionally numbered using the Bantu system from 1 to 18, with singular and plural classes paired:

1 / 2 M-/WA- — people (mtu / watu)
3 / 4 M-/MI- — trees and natural things (mti / miti)
5 / 6 JI-/MA- — fruits, paired things, liquids (jicho / macho)
7 / 8 KI-/VI- — things, tools, languages (kitu / vitu)
9 / 10 N-/N- — animals and loanwords (ndege / ndege)
11 / 14 U- — long thin objects and abstractions (ufunguo, uhuru)
15 KU- — infinitives / verbal nouns (kusoma)
16 / 17 / 18 locatives with -ni — pa-, ku-, mu-

The subject concord (subject marker) attaches to the front of the verb to agree with the subject; the object concord (object marker) is infixed to agree with the object. Click any row in the tool to copy its subject concord.

Example

A class-2 subject like watu (“people”) takes the subject concord wa-, so “they are reading” is wanasoma — wa- (subject) + -na- (present) + -soma (read). Switch to a class-7 subject like kitabu and the concord becomes ki-: kinasomeka (“it is readable”).

Notes

Concords change with the noun class, which is why the same English verb takes different prefixes depending on the subject.
The locative classes use the suffix -ni on the noun plus their own concords.
Use the filter to jump straight to a prefix, class number, or meaning.