Grammar:

Zulu is an agglutinative (mostly prefixing) language with an SVO word order. Modifiers for the most part follow the nouns they modify. It is fairly regular, but sometimes prefixes and suffixes combine in weird ways causing changes in consonants and/or vowels.

Nouns:

Nouns in Zulu are always part of one of 14 noun classes, indicated by a prefix on the noun. Some noun classes are singular and some are plural, and the plural of a noun is formed by changing the noun class of the noun to its corresponding plural noun class. The noun class paradigm is shown below:

You can form a locative noun (at, to, from) by prefixing e- (replacing the first vowel) and suffixing -ini. The suffix at the end takes a different form depending on the final vowel of the word.

• -a + ini = -eni
• -e + ini = -eni
• -i + ini = -ini
• -o + ini = -weni
• -u + ini = -wini

ex. idolobha "city" -> edolobheni "at, to, in, from the city"

If the last consonant of the word is b, p, bh, ph, or m, and the -weni/-wini form is used, then the -w- is deleted and the last consonant palatalizes as so:

• b -> tsh
• p -> tsh
• bh -> j
• ph -> sh
• m -> ny
• mp -> ntsh
• mb -> nj

ex. isipho "gift" -> esisheni "at, to, in, from the gift"

You can attach subject prefixes to locatives. In that case, the e- prefix becomes se-.

ex. ngisedolobheni "I am in the city"

You can also use forms of the verb ukuba to get other tenses.

ex. ukubasedolobheni "To be in the city."
ex. ngibesedolobheni "I was in the city."

Possessives of nouns can be formed with a possessive prefix. The prefix attaches to the possessor and agrees with the possessee. These are shown below:

Possessive Concords

ex. ibhola lenja "the dog's ball" literally "ball of-dog"

Verbs:

The basic verbal paradigm is subject-tense-object-stem-suffix(es). Every verb has to have a suffix, and the default suffix is a meaningless -a. There are both personal and nominal subject and object prefixes. The tricky thing with subject prefixes is that they can attach to things that aren't verbs. The subject and object concords are shown below:

Subject Concords

Personal SC

Object Concords

Personal OC

Present tense:

The present tense can use the tense prefix -ya-, but it is not always used.

Infinitive:

The infinitive prefix uku- is used.

Recent past/perfect:

(This tense can be recent past or present perfect depending on the context)
The suffix -ile or -e is used. The passive form of this (used once in the text) uses the suffix -iwe or -we.

Participial mood:

The participle mood forms present participles of verbs. An example of a present participle in English is "running" as in "the running man". This is almost identical to the present tense, but a few of the subject concords are different. The whole paradigm is below:

Subject Concords (participial)

Subjunctive mood:

The subjunctive is only used once here. It is formed by using the suffix -e on a verb. The subjunctive is used in wishes and polite requests, in sequences of requests, and with certain auxiliary verbs.

Relatives:

Relatives are a class of adjectives, but they are a bit different than the true adjectives in Zulu. Relatives can also be formed from verbs. When formed from verbs, the meaning is like "that who/which verbs" or "the [noun] that verbs". The relatives agree with the noun they modify. The paradigm is shown below:

Relative Concords

Adjectives:

Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify.

Adjective Concords

Combining rules:

Zulu doesn't allow diphthongs or sequences of vowels. When attaching prefixes, sometimes two vowel come together, and that must be resolved. Sometimes a vowel is deleted. U and I can become W and Y before another vowel. When A precedes a vowel, it usually merges with it as follows:

• a + a = a
• a + e = e
• a + i = e
• a + o = o
• a + u = o

Note that if the sequences wo- or wu- directly follow a consonant, it simplifies to o- and u-.

ex. okwa- "like" + utshani "grass" = okotshani "like grass"