Kunywa means “drink” and, in the collocation kunywa dawa, “take medicine.” Its short base is nyw-a. The consonant sequence nyw remains visible in kunywa, hanywi, anywe, and kunyweni; do not insert another vowel or confuse it with the unrelated verb kunya.
Like kula, this short verb retains support ku- after ordinary affirmative TAM markers: ninakunywa, nilikunywa, nimekunywa, nitakunywa. Present negative and subjunctive forms omit support: sinywi, ninywe.
The wider short-root system explains why the same alternation also appears with kula, kuja, and kufa.
Practical paradigm
| Form | I | you (sg.) | he/she | we | you (pl.) | they |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present | ninakunywa | unakunywa | anakunywa | tunakunywa | mnakunywa | wanakunywa |
| past | nilikunywa | ulikunywa | alikunywa | tulikunywa | mlikunywa | walikunywa |
| perfect | nimekunywa | umekunywa | amekunywa | tumekunywa | mmekunywa | wamekunywa |
| future | nitakunywa | utakunywa | atakunywa | tutakunywa | mtakunywa | watakunywa |
| present negative | sinywi | hunywi | hanywi | hatunywi | hamnywi | hawanywi |
| past negative | sikunywa | hukunywa | hakunywa | hatukunywa | hamkunywa | hawakunywa |
| subjunctive | ninywe | unywe | anywe | tunywe | mnywe | wanywe |
The singular imperative is kunywa! and the plural is kunyweni! Compare a-na-ku-nyw-a, present negative ha-nyw-i, and subjunctive a-nyw-e.
Ninakunywa maji mengi ninapofanya kazi nje.
I drink plenty of water when I work outside.
Hanywi kahawa jioni kwa sababu inamkosesha usingizi.
She does not drink coffee in the evening because it keeps her awake.
Ni muhimu unywe maji kabla ya kukimbia.
It is important that you drink water before running.
Support ku- and its absence
| Build | Finished form | Why |
|---|---|---|
| tu-na-ku-nyw-a | tunakunywa | present affirmative retains support |
| tu-li-ku-nyw-a | tulikunywa | past affirmative retains support |
| tu-me-ku-nyw-a | tumekunywa | perfect retains support |
| tu-ta-ku-nyw-a | tutakunywa | future retains support |
| hatu-nyw-i | hatunywi | present negative has no support |
| tu-nyw-e | tunywe | subjunctive has no support |
Wageni wamekunywa chai, lakini bado hawajala.
The guests have had tea, but they have not eaten yet.
Hatukunywa maji ya bomba tulipokuwa safarini.
We did not drink tap water while we were traveling.
In hatu-ku-nyw-a, the single -ku- is negative-past TAM, not an extra retained support prefix. This distinction is audible only through the whole grammatical structure.
Past -li- and perfect -me- also differ in viewpoint. Nilikunywa maji saa tatu locates one drinking event at nine o'clock; nimekunywa maji presents the drinking as complete and currently relevant, perhaps answering whether the speaker is hydrated.
Nilikunywa vikombe viwili vya kahawa kabla ya mkutano.
I drank two cups of coffee before the meeting.
Nimekunywa maji ya kutosha, kwa hiyo niko tayari kuendelea.
I have drunk enough water, so I am ready to continue.
The spelling and sound of nyw
In Standard spelling, the digraph ny represents one consonant sound, not separate n and y sounds, and is followed directly by glide w: nywa. The ending then alternates: nywa in the affirmative and imperative, nywi in present negative, and nywe in the subjunctive. These are not contractions of nyuwa, and no apostrophe separates the letters.
Rapid (informal) speech may make the cluster sound compressed, while careful (formal) speech articulates it more distinctly. The written forms remain hanywi, anywe, and kunyweni in both registers.
Beverage objects and object marking
New or nonspecific drinks usually appear as overt nouns without an object marker: anakunywa chai. Once a class 6 liquid is known and topical, object -ya- may index it, and support ku- disappears before the short root.
| Construction | Build | Form |
|---|---|---|
| drinks water | a-na-ku-nyw-a maji | anakunywa maji |
| drinks it, class 6 | a-na-ya-nyw-a | anayanywa |
| drink it!, class 6 | ya-nyw-e | yanywe |
| do not drink it | u-si-ya-nyw-e | usiyanywe |
Maji haya yamechemshwa; unaweza kuyanywa bila wasiwasi.
This water has been boiled; you can drink it without concern.
Infinitive ku-ya-nyw-a gives kuyanywa. The initial ku- is the infinitive marker, while -ya- is the class 6 object marker.
Usiyanywe maziwa hayo; yamekaa nje tangu asubuhi.
Do not drink that milk; it has been out since morning.
Negative subjunctive u-si-ya-nyw-e keeps the object directly before the root and ends in -e.
Common collocations
| Expression | Meaning/register |
|---|---|
| kunywa maji | drink water, neutral |
| kunywa chai/kahawa/juisi | drink tea/coffee/juice, neutral |
| kunywa dawa | take medicine, neutral everyday usage |
| kunywa kwa mrija | drink through a straw, neutral |
| kunywa pombe | drink alcohol, neutral lexical meaning |
| kuacha kunywa | stop drinking; often stop alcohol, context-dependent |
Kunywa dawa hii baada ya kula, mara mbili kwa siku.
Take this medicine after eating, twice a day.
Kunywa dawa is the everyday collocation even when English prefers “take medicine.” For a tablet specifically, meza kidonge “swallow a tablet” is more precise.
Ameacha kunywa pombe tangu alipoanza mazoezi ya asubuhi.
He has stopped drinking alcohol since he began morning exercise.
Without an overt beverage, ameacha kunywa can imply abstaining from alcohol in the right context, just as English “stop drinking” can. State pombe when ambiguity matters.
Imperatives and polite advice
Kunyweni maji kidogo kidogo wakati wa matembezi.
Drink water little by little during the hike.
Plural kunyweni retains the short verb's citation support and adds -eni. In medical or service contexts, polite (formal) advice can use tafadhali or the subjunctive: Tafadhali unywe maji zaidi.
Common Mistakes
Inserting a vowel inside nyw
❌ Nimekunyuwa juisi yote.
Incorrect spelling — the Standard base is nyw-a, with no inserted u.
✅ Nimekunywa juisi yote baada ya mazoezi.
I have drunk all the juice after training.
Keeping support ku- in present negation
❌ Hakunywi chai yenye sukari.
Incorrect for ordinary ‘does not drink’ — present negative is hanywi.
✅ Hanywi chai yenye sukari kwa sababu ya afya yake.
She does not drink tea with sugar because of her health.
Adding a second ku- in past negation
❌ Sikukunywa maji wakati wa mapumziko.
Incorrect for unmarked ‘I did not drink’ — use one negative-past ku-.
✅ Sikunywa maji wakati wa mapumziko kwa sababu chupa ilikuwa tupu.
I did not drink water during the break because the bottle was empty.
Retaining support ku- in the subjunctive
❌ Ni muhimu ukunywe maji kabla ya safari.
Incorrect — the short-root subjunctive omits support ku-.
✅ Ni muhimu unywe maji kabla ya safari ndefu ya basi.
It is important that you drink water before the long bus journey.
Key Takeaways
- Kunywa has short base nyw-a and preserves the consonant cluster in every form.
- Common affirmative TAM retains support ku-; present negative and subjunctive omit it.
- Past negative contains one TAM -ku-: sikunywa, hakunywa.
- Object marking removes support next to the root: anayanywa, usiyanywe.
- Imperatives are kunywa and kunyweni; kunywa dawa is the established expression “take medicine.”
Now practice Swahili
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Swahili →Related Topics
- kula — to EatA1 — Conjugate short-root kula, retain support ku- in the right TAM forms, and remove it where mood, negation, or an object marker supports the root.
- kupenda — to Like, LoveA1 — Conjugate kupenda for stable preferences, mark human and known objects, add infinitive complements, and form polite ningependa and passive pendwa.
- Monosyllabic Verb RootsA2 — Conjugate -la, -ja, -nywa and -fa by tracking where finite forms retain support ku- and where another slot replaces it.
- Irregular and Monosyllabic ImperativesB1 — Form direct commands with njoo, nenda, lete, kula and kunywa, and rebuild their plural and negative counterparts correctly.
- The Object-Marker SlotA2 — Place personal and noun-class object markers immediately before the verb root, and use them according to reference, animacy, and discourse status.