Classes 9 and 10

Swahili's Class 9 (singular) and Class 10 (plural) form the most frequently used noun class pair in the language. It acts as a highly productive 'catch-all' category.

What belongs in this class?

• Everyday inanimate objects (e.g., nyumba - house, njia - road)
• Most animals (e.g., simba - lion, mbwa - dog)
• The vast majority of foreign loanwords (e.g., kompyuta - computer, kalamu - pen)

The Golden Rule of Class 9/10:
The noun itself never changes form between singular and plural. A kalamu (pen) remains kalamu (pens). Instead, you indicate whether you are talking about one or many by changing the agreement markers on the surrounding words. The most immediate way to tell is through demonstratives (e.g., kalamu hii for 'this pen' vs. kalamu hizi for 'these pens' - see Class 9 and 10 Near Demonstratives). To learn how verbs match these nouns, see Class 9 and 10 Subject Agreement.

The Hidden Prefix:
While many words in this class seem to have no prefix (especially loanwords), the class actually has an underlying nasal prefix (N-). Depending on the first letter of the root, this prefix might appear as ny-, nd-, ng-, nz-, m-, mb-, nj-, or n-. Crucially, this N- prefix drops entirely before voiceless consonants (like k, s, t, and p) in multi-syllable words, which is why words like kalamu or simba appear to have no prefix. However, monosyllabic stems retain the prefix as a syllabic nasal to maintain syllable weight (e.g., nchi - country, nta - wax). You will see this clearly when attaching adjectives, as explained in N-Class Adjective Agreement.

The Animal Exception:
Although most animals belong to Class 9/10, Swahili requires humans and animals to take the agreement markers of people (Classes 1 and 2) for verbs and adjectives. For possessive words, there can be variation: a singular animal takes Class 1 agreement (mbwa wangu - my dog), and in standard modern Swahili, the plural frequently takes Class 2 animate agreement (mbwa wangu - my dogs), though Class 10 agreement (mbwa zangu) is also used in some contexts. You can explore this rule in Human Agreement Across Classes.

The Kinship Exception:
Human kinship terms and relationships (like mama - mother, baba - father, rafiki - friend) also belong to this class. While they take Class 1/2 agreement for verbs and adjectives, they use standard Class 9/10 agreement for possessives in both singular and plural (e.g., mama yangu - my mother, mama zangu - my mothers). For more details, see Kinship Nouns and Human Agreement.

Connection to Class 11:
It is also important to note that Class 10 serves as the plural category for nouns in Class 11 (the U- class). For example, ukurasa (page - Class 11) becomes kurasa (pages - Class 10). You can learn more about this relationship in Classes 11 and 10.