Swahili Nouns

Welcome to the third Swahili lesson about nouns. This time we will first learn about fruits and vegetables, followed by grammar 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

I hope you enjoyed this lesson about the nouns in Swahili. Please check out our main menu here for more lessons: homepage. Now check the next lesson below.