Noun classes: an overview

Yes — but breathe: they pair up (singular / plural). Those pairs are called « genders » in the Bantu sense (nothing to do with masculine/feminine).

In practice, we count 7 main genders + 3 locative classes (marking place). Once you recognise the 7 genders, you'll read the structure of any shikomori noun.

This lesson is a map. No need to memorise everything tonight — you'll come back to it every following lesson.

A Bantu gender is a singular/plural class pair forming a coherent system. A class-1 singular noun has its plural in class 2 — not in some other class.

That's why we say « gender 1/2 », « gender 3/4 », etc. Sometimes the plural is irregular: fundi (« master ») is semantically human, but grammatically takes the 5/6 pattern (fundi / mafundi) instead of 1/2. Like any language, shikomori has its exceptions.

Class 15 is special: it holds the infinitives (verbs used as nouns) and has no plural.

The locative classes (16, 17, 18) contain a single noun (vȑahanu « place ») but their prefixes appear in sentence grammar to mark location.

Here's a representative word for each gender — memorise as an anchor:

• 1/2: mwana / wana (child / children)
• 3/4: mwiri / miri (tree / trees)
• 5/6: dzitso / matso (eye / eyes)
• 7/8: shitswa / zitswa (head / heads)
• 9/10: mɓuzi / mɓuzi (goat / goats — sg = pl!)
• 11: uhuru (freedom — no plural)
• 15: husoma (to read — no plural)

Keep these 7 test-words in mind. For a new word, compare its prefix to these — you'll identify the class in seconds.

The next 4 lessons (3.3 to 3.6) explore each gender in detail, with prefixes, semantics, and exceptions. We start with class 1/2 — the most regular and most-used.