Tense in Relative Clauses

Choose the relative clause tense for its intended relationship to the surrounding reference time. There is no automatic rule that every verb must copy the main clause tense. A present form can describe a situation simultaneous with a past event; it does not prove that the situation continues today.

Key Rules:

• Time and Context: Nilikutana na mtu anayeishi London can describe the person as living in London at the relevant meeting time. Context can also keep the description current. Aliyeishi presents living as past; it does not by itself assert that the person no longer lives there.
• Relative Concords: The relative concord is chosen based on the noun class of the antecedent using the '-o of reference'. This is generally formed by combining the subject prefix with the vowel '-o' (e.g., ki- + -o = -cho-, vi- + -o = -vyo-). Learn the conventional class forms alongside their vowel combinations: i + o yields yo, u + o yields o, while ki + o gives cho and vi + o gives vyo. Class 1 has ye and Class 2 has o; these concords are not obtained by blindly appending o to every full finite subject prefix.
• Infix Strategy: The relative concord attaches directly after the tense marker. This only works with three specific tenses: -na- (present), -li- (past), -taka- (future - note that the standard -ta- marker changes to -taka-), and the negative marker -si-. Note that -si- only functions as the negative relative for present or habitual tenses. For past or future negative relatives, you must use the amba- strategy.
• Suffix Strategy (Tenseless Relative): For habitual actions, general truths, and proverbs, the tense marker is dropped entirely. The relative concord attaches to the very end of the verb (e.g., asomaye - 'one who reads').
• Amba- Strategy: While you must use the independent word amba- for tenses that cannot take an infix (like the -me- perfect or -nge- conditional), it is universally applicable to all tenses and is highly common in everyday speech. Note that amba- is never used in isolation; it must take the relative concord as a suffix (e.g., ambaye, ambacho, ambao).
• Adverbial Relatives (Time, Place, Manner): The exact same relative grammar pattern is used to express 'when', 'where', and 'how' by using the locative relative concords -po-, -ko-, and -mo-, as well as the Class 8 manner concord -vyo-. For example, nilipofika means 'when I arrived' or 'where I arrived', atakapoingia means 'when he will enter', and ninavyofikiri means 'how I think' or 'the way that I think'.
• Monosyllabic Verbs: Short verbs (like kula, kuja, kunywa) retain their infinitive ku- when using the infix strategy (e.g., anayekula - 'who is eating'). However, they drop the ku- when using the suffix strategy (e.g., alaye - 'one who eats').
• Object Relatives: When forming an object relative clause, Swahili requires an object concord in the verb (e.g., kitabu nilichokisoma - 'the book which I read'). This rule also applies when using the amba- strategy (e.g., kitabu ambacho nilikisoma). The object concord is crucial for distinguishing the subject from the object, especially when both are animate (e.g., mtu aliyeniona - 'the person who saw me' vs. mtu niliyemwona - 'the person whom I saw'). Additionally, in amba-less object relatives, if the subject is an explicit noun, it must follow the verb (e.g., kitabu alichokisoma Juma - 'the book that Juma read', not kitabu Juma alichokisoma).

Do not infer an event’s continuing truth or exact time from a tense label alone; use the sentence’s reference point and context.