wa
AI In plain words
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
wa¹
- /wɑ/
Where it comes from
Inherited from Proto-Bantu *-báa (“to become”). The original copula was -li, which survives in relative forms. The form ni was a focus marker, while si appears to have been a general negative marker. In modern standard Swahili, these all came together into one paradigm.
verb -wa · kuwa · kutokuwa · kuweni
- to be Wewe ni nani?
- to become Inakuwa baridi.
- dummy verb that takes tense marking while the main verb takes aspect marking nilikuwa ninaandika
- stem of -wapo, -wako, or -wamo
- stem of -wa na
wa²
- /wɑ/
Where it comes from
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
particle
- [[Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes#M-wa class|m-wa class_((I/II))]]/[[Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes#M-mi class|m class_((III))]]/[[Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes#U class|u class_((XI))]] inflected form of -a نِكَمَ كِسِمَ كِسِگُ وُمْبِّ ، كِنْيِ مْتَپَاءَ مَانَ وَغُمْبِ
In English
- of introducing an epithet
Talk about this word "wa." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sw/wa. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. wa. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sw/wa "wa." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sw/wa.Cite this
@misc{wa_2026,
title = {wa},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sw/wa},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
