Swahili Grammar

The Swahili grammar allows you to manipulate the vocabulary to obtain multiple forms of a word. The grammatical rules below are the most important in Swahili and help connect words or shape the structure. We start with the prepositions:

And: na	Under: chini ya
Before: kabla	After: baada ya
Inside: ndani	Outside: nje
With: na	But: lakini
For: kwa	From: kutoka
To: kwa	In: katika

Questions and Adverbs

To ask questions, use the following:

What?: nini?	Who?: nani?
How?: aje?	Why?: kwa nini?
Where?: wapi?

Some of the most important time adverbs:

Never: kamwe	Rarely: mara chache
Sometimes: mara kwa mara	Usually: kawaida
Always: kawaida	Very: sana

Most commonly used pronouns in Swahili:

I: mimi	You: wewe
He: yeye	She: yeye
We: sisi	They: wao

To express the possession of something [possessive form]:

My: yangu	Your: yako
His: yake	Her: yeye
Our: yetu	Their: yao

Grammar in a sentence

Some random verbs to show how it's being used:

I speak English: mimi huongea kiingereza

You speak French: unaongea kifaransa

He speaks German: anaongea kijerumani

She speaks Italian: anaongea kiitalia

I visited France: nilitembelea ufaransa

I will drink milk: nitakunywa maziwa

Some extra grammatical structures:

I understand you: ninaelewa

I don't understand you: siekuelewi

I don't speak French: sielewi kifaransa

This is my house: hii ni nyumba yangu

That restaurant is far: mkahawa huo uko mbali

No problem: hakuna shida

The above Swahili grammar can provide tools to use in coordination with the Swahili vocabulary to obtain some popular Swahili phrases.