Ngeli ya m-wa

The M-WA class is the noun class for people, including the word for ‘people’:mtu  –  watu   (person – people)

There are only two nouns in this class that are not people:

mnyama – wanyama  (animal)
mdudu   – wadudu     (insect)

A few M-WA nouns:

mtoto – watoto   (child)
mwanamke  – wanawake  (woman)
mwanamume – wanaume  (man)
msichana  – wasichana  (girl)
mvulana  –  wavulana  (boy)
mwana  – wana  (son/daughter)
mzee  –  wazee  (old man)
mzungu – wazungu (white person)

mwalimu  – walimu  (teacher)
mwanafunzi  – wanafunzi  (student)
mhandisi  – wahandisi  (engineer)
mkulima  – wakulima  (farmer)
mpishi  – wapishi  (cook)

Mwafrika  – Waafrika  (African)
Mtanzania – Watanzania  (Tanzanian)
Mwingereza – Waingereza  (English person)
Mkenya – Wakenya  (Kenyan)
Mganda – Waganda  (Ugandan)
Mfaransa  – Wafaransa  (French person)
Mjerumani – Wajerumani  (German)
Mholanzi  – Waholanzi  (Dutch person)
Marekani  – Wamerekani  (American)

And most other nationalities – you get the idea. The only unexpected one is
Mreno  – Wareno  (Portuguese person)

The reason it’s called the M-WA class should be fairly obvious by now.  The same rule applies to adjectives describing the nouns.  The word nzuri is actually -zuri in its most basic form.  So instead of nzuri, words in this class are mzuri in the singular and wazuri in the plural.

Mwalimu mzuri (a good teacher)
Wakenya wazuri (beautiful Kenyans – or good Kenyans, depending on the context).

In the M-WA class the verb prefixes are a- (third person singular, i.e. he/she), and wa- (third person plural, i.e. they).  We’ve learnt these already, because we were using verbs to talk about people.

Mtoto anakwenda shuleni  (The child is going to school)
Waholanzi wanapenda chizi  (Dutch people like cheese)

A few useful M-WA class words:

huyu – yule         this – that              Huyu ni mtoto wangu    This is my child
hawa  – wale      these – those        Hawa ni watoto wangu    These are my children
wengi                   many                   Watu wengi sana!     A lot of people
mwengine         other, another        Mtoto mwengine      Another child
wengine             other (plura           Wazungu wengine   Other white people
wote                     all                        Wanafunzi wote wanasoma    All the students are reading

The most important letter for the M-WA class is W.  W is the prefix for the A of association and for possessives, for example:

mtoto wa jirani                 the neighbour’s child
mwalimu wa Kiswahili     the Swahili teacher

mwalimu wake      his/her teacher
wadudu wangu      my insects.

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