Classes 3 and 4: objects, trees, body parts

Welcome to class 3/4 — singular prefix mu- (or mw-) identical to class 1/2, but *plural in mi-** instead of wa-*.

Why watch out? Because seeing muhono without context doesn't tell you whether it's class 1 (human — « a certain personified hand ») or class 3 (object — « a hand, body part »). The plural disambiguates:

• muhono → wahono would have been class 1 (human)
• muhono → mihono is class 3 (object) ✅

This is the class of trees, objects, many body parts, and certain natural elements.

For class 3, the definite pre-prefix is *u- (same as class 1). For class 4, it's i-*.

• mwiri — a tree / umwiri — the tree
• miri — trees / imiri — the trees

In everyday speech, often dropped — like class 1/2.

Fair question. The historical answer: in proto-Bantu, classes 1 and 3 had distinct prefixes (mu- for humans, mu- for objects — but different tones). Over the centuries, tones neutralised and the prefixes merged graphically.

Result: the semantic class reveals itself in the plural (wa- humans vs mi- objects) and in agreement (verbs, adjectives, demonstratives take different forms by class — you'll see this in later lessons).

You can now read classes 1/2 (humans) and 3/4 (objects, trees, body). That's 50% of the system.

Upcoming lessons cover classes 5/6 (the big « miscellaneous »), 7/8 (languages, tools), 9/10 (animals and loanwords), and class 15 (verbal infinitives).