Verbs (vitenzi) is a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen.
Swahili uses different prefixes and suffixes to show different parts of grammar in a verb.Take the verb below,for instance;
Niliwafurahishia(I made them happy with [it])
The word may seem too long for you but if you understand the particles that make up the verb you will discover that it is quite easy.
1)Firstly,the root of every Swahili verb never change.So,you have to identify it first.The natural state of the verb above is FURAHA.The root of the word is the bit that never change. In this case the root is furah-.This is how it looks in the word above;
niliwaFURAHishia.Each syllable before and after the root of the word has a specific function. Ni-li-wa-furah-i-shia.
2.The first syllable,ni- is a pronoun.In this case ni- is I/me.The follow are the all sets of the prefixes of the pronouns.a)Ni-(I/me), b)u(you), c)a-(he/she/her/him, d)tu(we/us), e)m(You[plural]), f)wa(they/them).
3.The second syllable represents the tenses.The follow are the sets of all the tenses:
a)-li-(past simple tense), b)-hu-(present simple tense).All the tenses syllables comes second after the pronouns except this one.This one has to come first meaning that the pronoun will have to be separated from the verb.
c)-me-(present perfect tense), d) -na-(present continous tense),e)-ta-(future simple tense).Unlike the English’s tenses,swahili tenses don’t change with plural.That is,they remain the same in singular and plural.
EXAMPLES:
a)Niliahidi (ni-LI-ahidi)-I promised.
b)Mimi huahidi (HU-ahidi)-I promise
c)Ninaahidi (Ni-NA-ahidi)-I am promising.
d)Nimeahidi (Ni-ME-ahidi)-I have promised.
e)Nitaahidi (Ni-TA-ahidi)-I will promise.
Other tenses;
Ningeahidi (Ni-NGE-ahidi)-I could have promised.
Ningaliahidi (Ni-NGALI-ahidi)-I could have promised.
Nitakuwa nikiahidi (NITAKUWA NIKIahidi)-I will be promising(future continous tense).
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