The Ki-Vi Noun Class and Agreement with Noun Classes

The second noun class that you’ll become acquainted with is the Ki-Vi Class, which mostly includes words for inanimate objects, but also has a few other types of words. As you can guess, the singular of these nouns begins with ki–, and the plural begins with vi–. A few examples of Ki-Vi nouns are: kitanda/vitanda , (bed/s), kiti/viti (chair/s), kitabu/vitabu, kitu/vitu, kichwa/vichwa, kikombe/vikombe, and kisu/visu. If the root part of the noun begins with a vowel, the prefixes become ch– and vy–, as in chumba/vyumba and chakula/vyakula (food/s). The names of languages, such as Kiswahili and Kiingereza , are also in the Ki-Vi class, but naturally there are no plural forms.

Now that you’ve gotten two noun classes under your belt, M-Wa and Ki-Vi, it’s a good time to start to see how agreement works in Swahili based on noun classes. The concept is simple—any element of a sentence that’s linked to a particular noun will show its relationship by “agreeing” with the noun. So, different elements—verbs, adjectives, possessives, and so on—will take different prefixes that agree with the noun class of the noun that they’re related to. Let’s take a look at a pair of examples. Thankfully, the word for long and tall is the same in Swahili, so the examples are as similar as possible:

In the first example, the noun mtu (person) is a M-Wa noun, so the adjective agrees by taking the prefix m–. The demonstrative (this) has the form huyu, and the verb takes the M-Wa subject prefix a–, as you learned in unit 1. But in the second example, the noun kisu (knife) is a Ki-Vi noun, so the adjective takes the prefix ki–, the demonstrative has the form hiki, and the verb takes the subject prefix ki–. So, in this course, as you learn new noun classes, you’ll also go through a list of agreement patterns—subject prefixes, possessive prefixes, demonstratives, and so on. Here’s a suggestion: start to get used to these patterns by making a table that you can add onto, or by drawing up a noun class “cheat sheet” on an index card. That way, you can always go back and check on prefixes that you might not remember.

Now let’s look at how agreement works with the M-Wa class and the Ki-Vi class, starting with subject prefixes. Do you remember the subject prefixes that you learned in the first unit? To review, those were: ni– (for mimi/I), u– (for wewe/you, sing.), a– (for yeye/he, she), tu– (for sisi/we), m– (for nyinyi/you plural), and wa– (for wao/they.) Those prefixes are the ones that you use if a pronoun is the subject of a sentence. But if an M-Wa noun is the subject of a sentence, then the subject prefixes are a– in the singular, and wa– in the plural. You’ll notice that those are exactly the same as the prefixes used for pronouns in the third person, which makes a lot of sense, since they all refer to animate beings, such as people. In fact, whenever a noun refers to an animate being, no matter what class it belongs to, it uses those subject prefixes. But for the Ki-Vi class, the prefixes are even easier—they’re ki– in the singular, and vi– in the plural, as you saw in the “knife” examples above. Here are a few more examples:

Subject prefixes aren’t the only type of agreement you’ll see with noun classes, though. In unit 2 you learned both demonstratives and possessives, although only for the M-Wa class. To review, you learned the demonstratives huyu (this), hawa (these), yule (that), and wale (those.) And you also learned that the prefix w– is used for possessives with M-Wa nouns, giving you: wangu (my), wako (your), wake (his/her), wetu (our), wenu (your, pl.), and wao (their.)

For Ki-Vi nouns, the demonstratives are: hiki (this), hivi (these), kile (that), and vile (those.) Can you see the ki of the singular and the vi of the plural in those forms? For possessives, there’s a different prefix used for singular (ki–) nouns and for plural (vi–) nouns. But you actually already know it. Do you remember the special forms of ki– and vi– before vowels? They were ch– and vy–, and since the possessives without their prefixes begin with vowels, those are the forms that you use with Ki-Vi nouns. For singular possessions, that’s: changu (my), chako (your), chake (his/her), chetu (our), chenu (your, pl.), and chao (their), and for plural possessions that’s: vyangu (my), vyako (your), vyake (his/her), vyetu (our), vyenu (your, pl.), and vyao (their).