Swahili Nouns

Welcome to the third Swahili lesson about nouns. This time we will first learn about fruits and vegetables, followed bygrammar rules, then food items, finally a conversation in Swahili to help you practice your daily phrases.

potatoes   viazi	tomatoes   nyanya	onions   vitunguu	carrots   karoti
fruits   matunda	apples   tofaa	bananas   ndizi	oranges   machungwa

Nouns Grammar Rules

In general nouns refer to a person, an object, or abstract ideas. For example: a fast runner the noun is [runner] because it refers to a person. The examples below use nouns in different ways and places to demonstrate how they behave in a sentence.

Grammar + Rules	Swahili
do you have milk? [verb + noun]	je, una maziwa?
I have milk and coffee [preposition + noun]	nina maziwa na kahawa
he has three apples [number + plural noun]	ana tofaa tatu
she only has one apple [number + singular noun]	ana tofaa moja tu
we live in a small house [adjective + noun]	tunaishi katika nyumba ndogo
I like our breakfast [pronoun + noun]	ninapenda kiamsha kinywa chetu

The following are nouns of food items that you might be interested in learning and memorizing.

bread   mkate	milk   maziwa	butter   siagi	cheese   jibini/chizi
coffee   kahawa	sandwich   sandwichi	meat   nyama	chicken   kuku
fish   samaki	breakfast   kifungua kinywa	lunch   chakula cha mchana	dinner   chakula cha jioni

Conversation in Swahili

Now we finally reach the fun part, the practice of the daily conversations. These phrases are used to get to know new people, and break the ice.

English	Swahili
Do you speak (English/ Swahili)?	je, unafahamu kizungu, kiswahili?
Just a little	kidogo tu
I like Swahili	naupenda lugha ya kiswahili
Can I practice with you?	ninaweza kufanya mazoezi na wewe?
How old are you?	una miaka mingapi?
I'm thirty three years old	mimi nina umri wa miaka thelathini na tatu
It was nice talking to you	nimefurahi kuzungumza na wewe

Source: www.learn101.org