Lesson 3:
Grammar
Ji-Ma Possessive Prefixes and Adjective Agreement
You’ve already seen the singular Ji-Ma possessive prefix in the common expressions Jina lako ni nani? (What is your name?) and Jina langu ni Ali (My name is Ali). The plural form is y–. So the Ji-Ma possessives in the singular are langu (my), lake (your), lako (his/her), letu (our), lenu (your), and lao (their). In the plural, they are yangu, yake, yako, yetu, yenu, and yao:
| Basi lake linaondoka kituoni. | His bus is leaving the station. |
| Gari langu liliharibika. | My car broke down. |
| Bega lako liliuma. | Your shoulder was aching. |
| Madaftari yetu yalipotea. | Our notebooks were lost. |
| Treni lao lilifika mapema. | Their train arrived early. |
Now let’s look at adjective agreement. Most adjectives do not take any prefix to agree with singular Ji-Ma nouns, but they take the prefix ma– to agree with plural Ji-Ma nouns. Let’s see how that works with –zuri (good), –dogo (small), and –baya (bad):
| gari zuri (a beautiful car) | magari mazuri (beautiful cars) |
| chungwa dogo (a small orange) | machungwa madogo (small oranges) |
| tunda baya (a bad piece of fruit) | matunda mabaya (bad fruits) |
There are just a few minor exceptions to this rule. If the adjective only has one syllable, as in –pya (new), then the singular adjective takes the prefix ji–. If the adjective begins with a vowel, such as –ingi (a lot), –eupe (white), –eusi (black), or –ekundu (red), then the singular prefix is j–, and the ma– of the plural loses its –a:
| gari jipya (a new car) | magari mapya (new cars) |
| giza jingi (much darkness) | — |
| gari jeupe (a white car) | magari meupe (white cars) |
| daftari jeusi (a black notebook) | madaftari meusi (the black notebooks) |
| jiwe jekundu (a red stone) | mawe mekundu (red stones) |
Here are some example sentences with adjectives:
| Musa alinunua gari jekundu. | Musa bought a red car. |
| Wanafunzi wanapenda magari makubwa. | Students like big cars. |
| Madaftari madogo hayakupotea. | The small notebooks were not lost. |
| Matunda mengi yalioza. | Many fruits were rotten. |
| Darasa letu ni dogo. | Our classroom is small. |