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.
Why noun classes matter for understanding Swahili
If you are learning Swahili or working with Swahili text, noun classes are the single most important concept to grasp — and the one most commonly skipped. Unlike grammatical gender in European languages, which primarily affects articles and adjective agreement, Swahili noun classes control agreement on every part of speech simultaneously: the verb’s subject prefix, the object infix, the adjective’s agreement prefix, the possessive’s prefix, and even the demonstrative form.
This means that a single noun class assignment ripples through an entire sentence. A learner who does not know that kitabu is class 7/8 (KI-/VI-) cannot form a correct Swahili sentence about a book, because every agreeing word in that sentence needs the KI- prefix on the singular and VI- on the plural.
Practical concord table for common classes
| Class | Noun prefix | Subject concord | Object concord | Example noun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (sg) | m- / mu- | a- | -m- | mtu (person) |
| 2 (pl) | wa- | wa- | -wa- | watu (people) |
| 3 (sg) | m- / mu- | u- | -u- | mti (tree) |
| 4 (pl) | mi- | i- | -i- | miti (trees) |
| 5 (sg) | ji- / zero | li- | -li- | jicho (eye) |
| 6 (pl) | ma- | ya- | -ya- | macho (eyes) |
| 7 (sg) | ki- / ch- | ki- | -ki- | kitu (thing) |
| 8 (pl) | vi- / vy- | vi- | -vi- | vitu (things) |
| 9 (sg) | n- / ny- | i- | -i- | ndege (bird) |
| 10 (pl) | n- / ny- | zi- | -zi- | ndege (birds) |
The N-/N- class and loanwords
Class 9/10 (N-/N-) is special because it absorbs the majority of Arabic and English loanwords in Swahili. This class has no visible singular/plural distinction on the noun itself — the plural is identical to the singular — but the verb concords differ (i- for singular, zi- for plural). Words like redio (radio), kompyuta (computer), and gari (car, from Arabic) all fall into this class.
The locative classes
Swahili marks location not with separate prepositions alone but with a combination of the suffix -ni on the noun and one of three locative concords:
- Class 16 (pa-): definite, specific location — “at the specific spot.” Nyumbani pana wageni = “At home there are guests” (specific home).
- Class 17 (ku-): indefinite or general location, also used for motion toward. Afrikani kuna watu wengi = “In Africa there are many people.”
- Class 18 (mu-): interior location, “inside.” Ndani ya nyumba muna baridi = “Inside the house it is cold.”
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
-nion the noun plus their own concords. - Use the filter to jump straight to a prefix, class number, or meaning.