Orignally posted by: machieng https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/38914284
I'm sourcing notes from this very useful website. All explanations are in Swahili, so this is a brief English version; you can visit this website for more examples!
Here are the types of conjugations in Swahili:
Conjugation | Definition | Example |
---|---|---|
Kutenda (to do) | verb in its simplest, ordinary form | eat, sleep |
Kutendea | to do for/on behalf of | cook for |
Kutendana | reciprocal direct actions | see each other |
Kutendeana | reciprocal actions on behalf of each other | to cook for each other |
Kutendwa | (of an object) to be a direct recipient of an action | to be selected |
Kutendewa | (of an object) to have something done for/on behalf of (passive form of kutendea) | to be cooked for |
Kutendeka | a completed action/occurrence OR a doable action | to be broken, to be readable |
Kutendesha | to make someone do an action | self-explanatory |
these are some of the more common conjugations you'll come across. A couple of things to note:
- the suffixes of these conjugations are not the same for all verbs e.g. 'kutendea' conjugation can have the suffixes -ea, -ia, 'kutendesha' can have the suffixes -sha, -za\n* some verbs in their ordinary form also contain some of the common suffixes of the other conjugations, so be cautious of that e.g. maliza (finish), elewa (understand), tumia (use)
- owing to the different types of verbs, not all conjugations are applicable to all verbs; depending on transitive vs intransitive, active vs passive, some verbs have a very finite number of possible conjugations e.g. if an action can't be done on behalf of someone, the conjugation kutendea does not apply
Here are just a few examples of different conjugations for some common verbs:
Kutenda | Soma (Read) | Elewa (understand) | Hudhuria (attend) | Pata (find) | Imba (sing) | Tafuta (seek) | Penda (love) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kutendea | Somea | - | - | Patia | Imbia | Tafutia | - |
Kutendana | - | Elewana | - | Patana | - | Tafutana | Pendana |
Kutendeana | Someana | - | Hudhuriana | Patiana | Imbiana | Tafutiana | - |
Kutendewa | Somewa | - | Hudthuriwa | Patiwa | Imbiwa | Tafutiwa | - |
Kutendeka | Someka | Eleweka | Hudhurika | Patika | Imbika | Tafutika | Pendeka |
Kutendesha | Somesha | Elewesha | Hudhurisha | Patiza | Imbisha | Tafutisha | Pendeza |