Nouns come in classes
What a noun class is, and why it decides the rest of the sentence.
After this unit
Explain why Kimbundu sorts its nouns at all.
The prefix gives the class
A Kimbundu noun starts with a prefix, and the prefix puts the noun in a class. Chatelain lists ten classes. This unit shows the ones you will meet first.
Singular and plural swap the prefix
Most classes work in pairs: one class for the singular and its partner for the plural. To make the plural, replace the prefix of the singular with the prefix of the partner class. Chatelain gives this rule for the first class, where mu- becomes a-.
The class pairs you will meet first
| Class | Chatelain | Prefixes | Singular | Plural | Singular means |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | (I) | mu- / a- | Muthu | Athu | person |
| 3/4 | (II) | mu- / mi- | Muxinga | Mixinga | rope |
| 5/6 | (IV) | di- / ma- | Dihupu | Mahupu | passion fruit |
| 7/8 | (III) | ki- / i- | Kima | Ima | thing |
| 9/10 | (IX) | none / ji- | Mbiji | Jimbiji | fish |
| 12/13 | (X) | ka- / tu- | Kahima | Tuhima | little monkey |
| 11 | (VI) | lu- / malu- | Lubhambu | Malubhambu | shackle |
| 14 | (V) | u- / mau- | Uta | Mauta | rifle |
| 15 | (VIII) | ku- / maku- | Kubanga | Makubanga | to fight |
Class 9 has no prefix in the singular. Classes 11, 14 and 15 are smaller, and Chatelain gives them plurals that begin with ma-. Their plurals can mean something looser than the singular, so open the word to see the meaning of each.
Browse all classesWhy the class matters
The class decides the form of the words that agree with the noun. Chatelain calls agreement very important: nouns, verbs and adjectives must all agree with the noun they refer to. The units on agreement come later in the course. They all start from the class of the noun.
See agreement at work: Agreement is the engineWhat the classes once meant
Chatelain notes that the prefixes and classes once indicated the nature of the things named, and that traces of this remain in Kimbundu today. For example, he puts the names of people in the first class. Treat this as his observation, not as a rule that sorts every noun.
Where this comes from
- Chatelain, Grammatica elementar do Kimbundu (Loanda, 1889), printed pages 1 and 10 — classes, prefixes, agreement
- The 1940s Kimbundu–Portuguese dictionary this site is built from — every example word