Basic Verbs (positive sentences, present tense)

Swahili verbs do a lot of work in a sentence.  You can often use one word in Swahili when you'd need four or five in English:

Anawasomesha    -   She is teaching them

A verb like that may look long and complicated, but once you understand how the grammar works it  becomes much less daunting.

A + NA + WA + SOMESHA
She + present tense + them (object) + is teaching

or

Ninakupenda  -  I like/love you

NI + NA + KU + PENDA
I + present tense + you (object) + like/love

You do NOT need to use a separate personal pronoun, unlike in English.  "Ninakupenda" means "I love you", and using a personal pronoun before the verb ("mimi ninakupenda") would only be used if you really want to emphasise the "I" - 'It is I who love you'.

A verb always begins with a person prefix:

Ni        I
U         You
A         He / She
Tu       We
M        You (plural)
Wa       They

It is followed by the tense marker, which is na for the present tense.  In Swahili there is no difference between "I go" and "I am going" - both would be ninakwenda.

Ninasema  (ni+na+sema)  -  I say, speak
Unatoka   (u+na+toka)  -  You come from
Anasoma  (a+na+soma) - He reads/learns, or She reads/learns
Tunakula  (tu+na+kula) -  We eat
Mnakuja   (m+na+kuja)  - You are coming
Wanaondoka (wa+na+ondoka)  -  They are leaving

Here are a few useful verbs:

kwenda*   -  go
kuja*        -  come
kula*         - eat
kunywa*   - drink
soma         - learn, read
fanya         - do, make
fanya kazi - work (literally 'do work')
penda        - like, love
taka           - want
jua             - know
fahamu     - understand
elewa       - understand
omba       - beg (used as a polite way of asking for something, rather than 'I want...')
nunua      - buy
sema        - say, speak
toka         - come from
pumzika   - relax, have a rest

* The four verbs with a star next to them behave in a slightly different way, because they are short verbs.  See the next post on negative sentences in the present tense.