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Chinyanja Verb Conjugations

Complete conjugation tables for the 20 most essential Chinyanja (Chewa) verbs. Chinyanja is an agglutinative Bantu language — verbs are built by combining subject prefixes, tense markers, and verb stems into single words. Each verb includes six tenses, imperative forms, verb extensions, and example sentences.

Essential Verbs

Tenses Covered

60+

Example Sentences

How Chinyanja Verb Conjugation Works

Chinyanja (also called Chewa or Nyanja) is a Bantu language spoken as a national language in Malawi and widely in Zambia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Like all Bantu languages, Chinyanja uses agglutinative morphology — verb forms are built by stacking prefixes and suffixes onto a verb stem.

The basic verb structure is:

Subject Prefix + Tense Marker + Verb Stem

For example, ndi-ku-dya (I am eating) breaks down as: ndi- (I) + -ku- (progressive) + -dya (eat).

Key features of the Chinyanja verb system:

Subject prefixes change based on who performs the action (ndi-, u-, a-, ti-, mu-, a-)
Tense markers are inserted between the prefix and stem (-ma- habitual, -ku- progressive, -na- past, -dza- future)
Verb extensions modify meaning through suffixes: applicative (-ir-), causative (-its-), reciprocal (-an-), passive (-idw-)
Noun class agreement — beyond personal pronouns, subject prefixes also agree with the noun class of the subject