LEARN SWAHILI

Possessives

Possessives

These are words that show ownership of something

📚 Theory: Posessives [Vimilikishi]

These are words that show ownership of something. Each posessive has a singular and plural form (just like in English eg. mine (singular) and ours (plural). The interesting thing is that Kiswahili possessives must agree with the noun class they represent.

KiswahiliEnglish
-angumine
-etuours
-akoyours (singular)
-enuyours (plural)
-akehis/hers
-aotheirs

📚 Possessives and Noun Agremeents

Like other adjectives, possessives in Kiswahili come after the noun they describe, and they take the agreement of the noun's class.

Kiswahili (Singular - Ngeli ya A-WA)English Meaning (Singular - Ngeli ya A-WA)Kiswahili (Plural - Ngeli ya A-WA)English Meaning (Plural - Ngeli ya A-Wa)Kiswahili (Singular - Ngeli ya KI-VI)English Meaning (Singular - Ngeli ya KI-VI)Kiswahili (Plural - Ngeli ya KI-VI)English Meaning (Plural - Ngeli ya KI-VI)
Mtoto wanguMy childWatoto wetuOur childrenKisu changuMy knifeVisu vyetuOur knives
Mtoto wakoYour childWatoto wenuYour childrenKisu chakoYour knifeVisu vyenuYour knives
Mtoto wakeHis/Her childWatoto waoTheir childrenKisu chakeHis/Her knifeVisu vyaoTheir knives

🎯 Practice Exercises

Practice is free — just sign in

Create a free account to unlock the interactive exercises for this lesson and track your progress. The lessons stay free to read, always.

Create free account

Speak on Echo

Practise conversing in Swahili with other learners and get expert feedback from native speakers on the Echo app.

Practise speaking on Echo
Scroll to Top