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<p>
    One of the beauties of the Swahili language is a certain harmony found in its sentences which is obtained by having as many words as possible begin with the same initial or a letter associated to it. Let me demonstrate <em> (and don't worry about the vocabulary used here; we will treat that later...) </em>:
</p>

<p>
	<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>	<strong>K</strong>una	<strong>k</strong>ijiko	<strong>k</strong>imoja	<strong>k</strong>ikubwa na	<strong>k</strong>isu	<strong>k</strong>ikali 	<strong>k</strong>ilichowekwa	<strong>k</strong>wengi	<strong>k</strong>iti.</td>
            
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td><em>There are one big spoon and a sharp knife laying on the chair.</em></td>
           
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
</p>
<p>
	<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>		<strong>V</strong>ijiko	<strong>v</strong>wili	<strong>v</strong>ikubwa na	<strong>v</strong>isu <strong>v</strong>chache	<strong>v</strong>ikali 	<strong>v</strong>ilianguka	<strong>ch</strong>ini.</td>
            
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td><em>Two big spoons and a few sharp knives fell down.</em></td>
           
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
</p>Now there are some words that occur in both sentences above but suddenly look quite different:
<p>
    <table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>kisu kikali</td>
            <td><em>a sharp knife</em></td>
        </tr> 
    </tbody>
    </table>
        <p>
         turned into   
  </p>       
<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>visu vikali</td>
            <td><em>sharp knives</em></td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<p>The same way
</p>
   <table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>kijiko kikubwa</td>
            <td><em>a big spoon</em></td>
        </tr> 
        </tbody>
</table>
        <p>
         became   
        </p>
        <table class="ui celled table">
            <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>vijiko vikubwa</td>
            <td><em>big spoons</em></td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<p>This is of course just the transformation from singular into plural. But look at the following:</p>
<table class="ui celled definition table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>kijiko<strong> kikubwa</strong> </td>
            <td><em>a big spoon</em></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>mtu <strong>mkubwa</strong></td>
            <td><em>a big person</em></td>
        </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>daraja <strong>kubwa</strong></td>
            <td><em>a big bridge</em></td>
        </tr> <tr>
            <td>mapenzi<strong> makubwa</strong></td>
            <td><em>a big love</em></td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
    </table>
    <p>
      And I could go on...  
</p>
<p>
    So how to orient ourselves in a sentence like this? We need one stable factor around which everything else evolves. Our compass are the nouns. They are the factor which determines every other word.  
</p>
<p>
    Swahili nouns are grouped together in different <em> Noun classes.</em> Those noun classes are organized according to initial letters, topics or origin. e.g. most foreign words are grouped together. There are groups for animals, jobs, nouns made up from verbs, words starting with the letter 'k' ...
</p>
<p> With the words we learned so far we hit two of these marks:</p>
<ol>
    <li>
        All our words started with <strong>the letter 'm'</strong>
    </li>
    <li>
        All our words described <strong>people </strong> or <strong>professions.</strong>
    </li>
</ol>
<p> The words we learned belong all to the <strong>First Noun Class</strong> and their plural form would count as the <strong> Second Noun Class.</strong>
</p>
<p> You could also call it the <strong> M/Wa Class</strong> and thus count class 1 and 2 together by one single name.
</p>
<p>All in all there are 18 noun classes. If you think that this sounds too frightening, you may cut this down almost by half considering that most groups have a singular and a plural class. Anyway we will get there little by little...
</p>
<p> Now let's look at some adjectives:</p>
<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td><strong> - kubwa </strong></td>
            <td><em> big</em></td>
        </tr>
       
    </tbody>
</table>
<p>
   If our adjective describes a noun of the M/Wa Class, M/Wa is exactly what we have to add to make it fit: M - for singular or Wa- for plural.
</p>
<table class="ui celled definition table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td><strong>mtoto m-kubwa</strong></td>
            <td><em>a big child</em></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td><strong>watoto wa-kubwa</strong></td>
            <td><em>big children</em></td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td><strong> - baya </strong></td>
            <td><em> bad</em></td>
        </tr>
       
    </tbody>
</table>

<table class="ui celled definition table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td><strong>mpishi m-baya</strong></td>
            <td><em>a bad cook</em></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td><strong>wapishi wa-baya</strong></td>
            <td><em>bad cooks</em></td>
        </tr>
        <p></p>
    </tbody>
    <table class="ui celled definition table">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Root</th>
            <th>Singular</th>
            <th>Plural</th>
            <th></th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>-kubwa</td>
            <td>mkubwa</td>
            <td>wakubwa</td>
            <td><em>big</em></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>-fupi</td>
            <td>mfupi</td>
            <td>wafupi</td>
            <td><em>short</em></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>-zuri</td>
            <td>mzuri</td>
            <td>wazuri</td>
            <td><em>nice / beautiful</em></td>
        </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>-refu</td>
            <td>mrefu</td>
            <td>warefu</td>
            <td><em>long/ tall</em></td>
        </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>-baya</td>
            <td>mbaya</td>
            <td>wabaya</td>
            <td><em>bad</em></td>
        </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>-dogo</td>
            <td>mdogo</td>
            <td>wadogo</td>
            <td><em>small</em></td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
</table>	
</p>