The King of Cool. What a voice.
Speaking of voice...
I've been trying to figure out how to form passive voice verbs in Swahili for a few weeks. I even reached out to Mama Moshi with a vague request for help (which she promptly and graciosity fulfilled). I just couldn't quite figure out how to crack the passive voice code.
The hurdle that I was having trouble clearing is easier to see than to explain.
In the Active Voice examples below, the verb ends are -a for each example. Simple. Straightforward.
- Zinabomoa nyumba. [They are demolishing the houses.]
- Emilian aliandika kitabu. [Emilian wrote the book.]
- Mwalimu atakaa kiti. [The teacher will sit in the chair.]
I noticed that there is something unusual about the verb ends with passive voice verbs. Passive Voice verbs don't use the -a verb end, but I couldn't figure out the rule that determines which verb end they do use because they use different verb ends. Here are a few examples.
- Nyumba zinabomolewa. [Houses are being demolished.]
- Kitabu kiliandikwa na Emilian. [The book was written by Emilian.]
- Kiti kitakaliwa na mwalimu. [The chair will be sat on by the teacher.]
And then I found the Passive Voice section of the Swahili Cheat Sheet which explains how to form Passive Voice verbs. Here's the gist:
- If the infinitive ends in -a, form the root-verb by dropping the last -a off the infinitive. Then drop the leading ku-. From the earlier examples,
- The root-verb for kubomoa is bomo
- The root-verb for kuandika is andik
- The root-verb for kukaa is ka
- If the root-verb ends in a consonant (e.g., kuandik), the Passive Verb end is -wa
- If the root-verb ends in a, i, or u (e.g., kuka), the Passive Verb end is -liwa
- If the root-verb ends in e or o, (e.g., kubomo), the verb end is -lewa
Wham! Bam! Thank you, Swahili Cheat Sheet! I hope you're satisfied.
