As mentioned in the introduction, Swahili nouns are grouped into "noun classes" that govern how they are pluralized and how they interact with other parts of speech. Here we will learn the first Swahili known class, the M-Wa class. The M-Wa class is resereved for nouns that describe human beings, with only two exceptions. Singular nouns in the M-Wa class all begin with "m" and pluralize by replacing "m" with "wa". The Lesson 3 M-Wa class nouns are:

The only two non-human nouns that appear in this table are the only two exceptions to the M-Wa class: mnyama/wannyama for animals and mdudu/wadudu for pests. Even though the noun "animals" is part of the M-Wa class, individual animals like dogs, cats, and rhinos appear in other noun classes. The word "mdudu/wadudu" is generally used for insects, but can be used to describe any sort of animal nuisance, including hippos!

Noun classes also determine which subject markers to used when constructing verbs. Since M-Wa class verbs all describe animate objects, they use the "s/he" and "they" subject prefixes that we learned in Lessons 1 and 2. These are summarized below for clarity.

Although the M-Wa class contains human beings, all human beings do not appear in the M-Wa class, as we will see in subsequent lessons. The quiz below includes the 10 Lesson 3 M-Wa class nouns paired with affirmative/negative verbs from Lessons 1 and 2. As a final note before trying the quiz: there are no "articles" (e.g. "a", "the") in Swahili. As a result "mtu anasoma" should be input as "person is reading" rather than "a person is reading" or "the person is reading".