Baadhi ya selects a nonexhaustive part of a larger set or quantity: baadhi ya wageni “some of the guests/some guests,” baadhi ya taarifa “some of the information,” and baadhi ya fedha “some of the money.” Unlike ordinary postnominal determiners, the whole expression comes before its complement.
The visible linker is normally the fixed form ya: it is the class 9 associative form licensed by the partitive head baadhi, not a concord copied from the following noun. Yet that following noun generally remains the agreement controller for the larger clause, especially when it is plural. This combination of baadhi ya and complement-controlled concord is precisely why English speakers often misparse the construction.
Basic structure and meaning
The template is baadhi ya + noun phrase. Baadhi means a part or some members; ya links that partitive expression to the set from which the selection is made.
Baadhi ya wageni wameondoka, lakini wengine wanakunywa chai bustanini.
Some of the guests have left, but the others are drinking tea in the garden.
Baadhi ya maziwa yamemwagika wakati wa kupakia gari.
Some of the milk was spilled while the vehicle was being loaded.
Nimeyasoma baadhi ya maoni yaliyotumwa baada ya mkutano.
I have read some of the comments sent after the meeting.
In the first sentence, plural human wageni triggers subject marker wa- in wameondoka. Class 6 maziwa triggers ya- in yamemwagika. In the third, class 6 maoni is resumed by object marker -ya- in nimeyasoma and by yali- in the relative form. The construction does not impose class 9 agreement merely because its linker looks like class 9 ya.
A known subset or an indefinite subset
English distinguishes “some guests” from “some of the guests” through articles and the word of. Swahili has no obligatory articles, so baadhi ya wageni can receive either translation. The context and modifiers tell the listener whether the source set is already identifiable.
Baadhi ya waombaji wana uzoefu wa kufanya kazi vijijini.
Some applicants have experience working in rural areas.
Without a demonstrative or prior set, this naturally introduces an indefinite subgroup. It does not claim that every applicant has the experience.
Baadhi ya waombaji hao wameitwa kwa mahojiano ya pili.
Some of those applicants have been called for a second interview.
Now referential hao makes the larger class 2 set identifiable. A possessive can do the same:
Baadhi ya wateja wetu wameomba risiti zitumwe kwa barua pepe.
Some of our customers have asked for the receipts to be sent by email.
The partitive meaning remains constant: only a portion of the relevant set is selected. What changes is how precisely the source set is identified. That distinction belongs to discourse, not to an unpronounced equivalent of English the; see Definiteness without Articles.
Agreement belongs to the complement
With count nouns, the number and class of the complement normally control predicates, relative clauses, and modifiers inside the complement phrase.
Baadhi ya miti mirefu iliangushwa na upepo wa usiku.
Some of the tall trees were brought down by the night wind.
Class 4 miti controls adjective mirefu and subject marker i- in iliangushwa. For class 8, the chain changes:
Baadhi ya vifaa vipya havijafika kwenye zahanati bado.
Some of the new equipment items have not yet arrived at the clinic.
Class 8 vifaa controls vipya and negative subject marker havi-. For a mass complement, use the noun's lexical class rather than English singular agreement:
Baadhi ya maji haya yana harufu isiyo ya kawaida.
Some of this water has an unusual smell.
English says “water has,” but class 6 maji takes haya and yana. The contrast shows why agreement cannot be assigned from the English translation.
An expanded noun phrase makes all the dependencies visible:
Baadhi ya washiriki wetu hawa sita wapya watashiriki katika mafunzo ya jioni.
Some of these six new participants of ours will take part in the evening training.
The order inside the complement is washiriki + wetu + hawa + sita + wapya. Every agreeing item—wetu, hawa, wapya, and wa- in watashiriki—tracks class 2 washiriki. Numeral sita is invariant. Baadhi ya sits outside and before that complete noun phrase. Long stacks like this are clearest in (formal) contrast; ordinary (informal) speech often distributes the information across clauses.
Pronoun complements
When the set is already represented by a pronoun, Swahili commonly uses forms such as baadhi yao “some of them” for people, baadhi yetu “some of us,” and class-sensitive forms such as baadhi yazo “some of them” for a class 10 set. These are compact partitives, not bare English-style pronouns placed after invariant ya.
Tulipokea nakala kumi, lakini baadhi yazo zilikuwa na kurasa zilizokosekana.
We received ten copies, but some of them had missing pages.
Baadhi yetu tutabaki kumalizia hesabu baada ya ofisi kufungwa.
Some of us will stay to finish the accounts after the office closes.
In baadhi yazo, -zo refers back to the class 10 set nakala, and plural zi- appears on zilikuwa. In baadhi yetu, the first-person plural group is human, so tu- appears in tutabaki. The pronoun supplies the intended set; agreement follows that referent.
Baadhi ya versus other quantity expressions
Baadhi ya selects members or material from a larger whole without measuring the portion exactly. Wengi/mengi means “many/much” and agrees directly after its noun. Wachache/machache means “few.” Sehemu ya conceptualizes a portion as a part, while kiasi cha conceptualizes it as an amount; those expressions can make their own measure noun the grammatical head.
Compare baadhi ya wafanyakazi wameondoka “some employees have left” with sehemu ya wafanyakazi imeondoka “a section/portion of the workforce has left.” The first normally foregrounds plural members; the second can package the subgroup as one portion. For the difficult variation in head choice, consult Agreement with Quantified Nouns.
The expression is neutral across (informal) and (formal) registers. In (academic) prose, writers may prefer a numerical proportion—asilimia thelathini ya... “thirty percent of...” — when an exact claim matters. Baadhi ya deliberately leaves the proportion unspecified.
Common Mistakes
Making the linker agree with the complement
❌ Baadhi wa walimu wameomba muda zaidi.
Incorrect — the established partitive is baadhi ya, not baadhi wa.
✅ Baadhi ya walimu wameomba muda zaidi wa kusahihisha mitihani.
Some of the teachers have requested more time to mark the exams.
Making baadhi the class 9 controller
❌ Baadhi ya maua imekauka kwa kukosa maji.
Incorrect — plural class 6 maua controls the verb, so yamekauka is required.
✅ Baadhi ya maua yamekauka kwa kukosa maji.
Some of the flowers have dried out from lack of water.
Putting the construction after the selected noun
❌ Wanafunzi baadhi ya hawakupokea ujumbe.
Incorrect in the neutral construction — baadhi ya must precede its noun phrase.
✅ Baadhi ya wanafunzi hawakupokea ujumbe kuhusu mabadiliko.
Some of the students did not receive the message about the changes.
Reading ya as an article
❌ Tulinunua baadhi ya meza, kwa maana ya meza zote.
Incorrect interpretation — baadhi ya explicitly selects less than the whole set.
✅ Tulinunua baadhi ya meza; zilizobaki zitanunuliwa mwezi ujao.
We bought some of the tables; the remaining ones will be bought next month.
Key Takeaways
Use baadhi ya + noun phrase to select an unspecified, nonexhaustive portion. The construction precedes its complement, and the form ya does not vary with that complement. Nevertheless, the complement normally controls plural, mass-class, modifier, relative, object, and predicate agreement. Demonstratives and possessives distinguish a known source set from a newly introduced one; no article is required.
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