The Past Tense (Including “Be” and “Have”)

If you’ve studied other languages, you may expect tense formation to be very difficult, with all sorts of different endings and irregular forms to memorize. Tenses in Swahili, you’ll be happy to know, are actually much more straightforward. As you’ve already learned, a verb contains at least three elements: a subject prefix + a tense infix + a verb root. Simply by changing the tense infix you can change from present to past or future. As an overview, here are the tense infixes. Of course you already know the present:

Present Tense Infix	Past Tense Infix	Future Tense Infix
–na–	–li–	–ta–

Now let’s see how this system works with three verbs that you know— kusoma (to study/read), kusema (to speak) and kutoka (to come from):

Present	Past	Future
Mimi ninasoma Kiswahili.	Mimi nilisoma Kiswahili.	Mimi nitasoma Kiswahili.
I study Swahili.	I studied Swahili.	I will study Swahili.
Mimi ninasema Kiswahili.	Mimi nilisema Kiswahili.	Mimi nitasema Kiswahili.
I speak Swahili.	I spoke Swahili.	I will speak Swahili.
Mimi ninatoka Marekani.	Mimi nilitoka Marekani.	Mimi nitatoka Marekani.
I come from the U.S.	I came from the U.S.	I will come from the U.S.

The great thing about tense infixes is that they never change, no matter what the noun class of the subject is, or whether the subject is a person, animal, or thing. What will change is the subject marker, of course. Since you’ve learned three noun classes so far, let’s review those subject markers:

M-Wa Class		Ki-Vi Class		N- Class
ni– u– a–	tu– m– wa–	ki–	vi–	i–	zi–

Don’t forget that the M-Wa Class is the class of human beings, so there are first person (I, we) and second person (you) subject prefixes as well as third person (he, she, they). But the Ki-Vi and N– Classes only have singular and plural third person prefixes, referring to “it” and “they” for non-humans. And remember, if a noun refers to an animate being, no matter which class it belongs to, the M-Wa subject prefixes will be used. Here are some examples of past tense verbs with different subjects:

Redio* iliharibika.	The radio broke down.
Kitabu kilipotea.	The book got lost.

* Both redio and radio are used in Swahili.

Vitabu viliuzwa.	The books were sold.
Ndege iliruka.	The airplane flew.
Ndege ziliruka.	The airplanes flew.
Ndege aliruka.	The bird flew.
Ndege waliruka.	The birds flew.

Take note of the last four examples. The noun ndege, an N- Class noun, can mean either “bird” or “airplane.” Since it’s an N- Class noun, its plural is the same as its singular, but any associated agreement markers will reflect its number. When meaning “airplane,” an inanimate noun, ndege takes regular N- Class subject prefixes. But when it means “bird,” an animate noun, ndege takes M-Wa subject prefixes.

In Unit 1 you learned that there is one simple form in Swahili for “am,” “are,” and “is”: ni, which is si in the negative. In the past tense, though, the verb kuwa is used to express “was” and “were”:

Mimi nilikuwa mwanafunzi.	I was a student.
Chakula kilikuwa kizuri.	The food was good.
Nyumba ilikuwa ndogo.	The house was small.

To express “have” in the past, the same forms are used, but na is included, just as in the present:

Nilikuwa na pesa.	I had money.
Chumba kilikuwa na kitanda kimoja.	The room had one bed.
Mji ulikuwa na watu wengi.	The city had many people.