Chichewa Verbs Part I

Stems

Like most Bantu words, verbs consist of a Stem. To this may be attached various optional affixes:

a Prefix followed by one or more Infixes before the stem and one ore more Suffixes following the stem. Verb stems "always" end with -a.
Here are a few sample stems:

STEM
-dya
to eat		 sound as
DYAH
-mva to hear MVAH
-peza to find PAY-zah
-bwera to come BWEH-rah
-pita to go PEE-tah
-gona to sleep GOH-nah
-ona to see OH-nah
-funa to want FOO-nah
-patsa to give PAH-tsah
-topa to be tired TOH-pah

Verbs are the most important part of speech in Chichewa. Much can be said by simply using verb forms. They are frequently used as complete one-word sentences.
They can also form other parts of speech such as nouns, adjectives and adverbs.
For example, the sound -ona- in many parts of Africa seems to express the idea of seeing. From that sound come a whole host of words:

ona! look!
osa-one! don't look
ta-ona-ni behold
ku-ona to see, seeing
ku-on-etsa to make someone see, to show
ku-on-edwa to be seen by someone
ku-on-etsedwa   to have been made to be seen
ku-on-era to see something happening
ku-on-eka to be visible
ku-on-ekera to be visible to someone, reflection
ku-on-eketsa to make visible
ku-on-ana to see each other
po-ona the moment when someone sees
cho-ona-di something that is clearly seen, truth
zo-ona-di truly, indeed

Commands

Verb stems may be used alone without any additional -fixes as a command:

Bwera!
BWEH-rah
Come!		 Pita!
PEE-tah
Go!		 Ona!
OH-nah
Look!		 Patsa!
PAH-tsah
Give!

A more forceful command uses the ta- prefix as in Taona!, Tabwera!, Tapita! Such formas are used in urgency or to children. To show more respect to adults, and when used more as an invitation, a suffice, -ni, is tacked on the end:

Bwerani
bweh-
RAH-
nee
Please
come		 Pitani
pee-
TAH-
nee
Please
go		 Onani
oh-
NAH-
nee
Please
look		 Patsani
pah-
TSAH-
nee
Please
give

Single syllable stems, like -dya, require an extra syllable when used as commands. I- is used in such cases as a prefix to take stress off the stem syllable:

Idya!
EE-
dyah
Eat!		 Idyani
ee-
DYAH-nee
Please eat		 Imva!
EE-
mvah
Listen!		 Imvani
ee
m-VAH-nee
Please listen

Personal Pronoun Prefixes

Chichewa tends to form single word sentences with the help of personal pronoun subject prefixes:

Ndi-
U-
A-		 I
You
He/She 		 Ti-
Mu-
A-		 We
You (Y'all)
They

Once again a distinction, based on respect to adults, is made between the two second person forms. Y'all will be used to indicate this honorific plural in the English examples. Now put them together with the verb stems and you can form complete statements:

I We You Y'all He/She/They
eat ndidya tidya udya mudya adya
hear ndimva timva umva mumva amva
come ndibwera tibwera ubwera mubwera abwera
find ndipeza tipeza upeza mupeza apeza
see ndiona tiona uona muona aona
sleep ndigona tigona ugona mugona agona
want ndifuna tifuna ufuna mufuna afuna
go ndipita tipita upita mupita apita
give ndipatsa tipatsa upatsa mupatsa apatsa

Verbs used in this way (with just a pronoun and no tense infix) are usually considered as being in the present tense. More accurately, they express the "Immediate future" tense. The impression is given that the action will take place very soon; often just as one is speaking, and certainly before tomorrow.

Personal Pronouns

(Not exactly verbs, but this is the place to deal with them)

Notice that there's no way to tell if you're talking about a him, a she, or a them. This is why a Chichewa speaking person often confuses he and she when using English—they just don't bother with gender. However, they can use an extra explicit pronoun to distinguish beteen he-she and them:

Iye adya.
Iwo adya.		 He eats.
They eat.

The other full-fledged, explicit, independent pronouns are:

Ine
Iwe		 I
You		 Ife
Inu		 We
You (Y'all)

You will often hear children shouting at each other: Iwe! "Hey, you!"
Practice saying the explicit pronouns together with the subject prefixes:

Ine
ndipita
Iye
apita
Iwe
ufuna		 Ife
tipita
Iwo
apita
Inu
mufuna		 Iwe
upita
Ine
ndifuna
Iye
afuna		 Inu
mupita
Ife
tifuna
Iwo
afuna

VERBS Part 2