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Questions & Answers about Mimi nina vitabu nne.
Why is Mimi included in the sentence? Is it necessary?
Mimi is the emphatic subject pronoun for “I.” Swahili verbs carry subject prefixes—here ni- on nina—so you already know it’s first person singular. You can safely omit it and say Nina vitabu nne. Use Mimi only when you want to stress that it's you (not someone else) who has the books.
What does nina actually mean? How is it formed?
nina is the present‐tense form of the verb “to have” (from kuwa na). It’s built as: subject prefix ni- (I) + present‐tense marker -na- + root -na- (have). In practice the two na elements merge into nina, so nina = “I have.”
Why do we say vitabu instead of kitabu?
Swahili nouns are grouped into classes. Kitabu (book) is class 7 (singular) with prefix ki-. Its plural is class 8, so the prefix changes to vi-, giving vitabu = “books.”
Why is the number nne placed after vitabu? In English we say “four books,” but here it's “books four.”
In Swahili, modifiers—including numbers—generally follow the noun they describe. So you say vitabu nne, not nne vitabu.
Shouldn't the number nne agree with the noun class of vitabu? Wouldn't it be vinne?
Strictly speaking, cardinal numbers 3–5 take noun‐class prefixes: class 8 is vi-, so you get vitabu vinne. However, in everyday speech many speakers drop the prefix and simply say vitabu nne, which is widely understood.
How do I say “I have two books”?
Use the class‐agreement form of mbili (“two”) for class 8: Nina vitabu viwili.
How would I ask “Do you have four books?” in Swahili?
You can say: Je, una vitabu vinne? or more colloquially Una vitabu nne?
Here u- is the second‐person singular subject prefix, -na- is the present tense marker, and you can also ask Una vitabu ngapi? meaning “How many books do you have?”
How do I say “I don't have any books”?
The negative of nina for first person singular is sina. So: Sina vitabu.
To emphasize “any,” you can add vyovyote (whatever), yielding Sina vitabu vyovyote.