Zulu grammar

Zulu grammar is typical for Bantu languages, bearing all the hallmarks of this language family. These include agglutinativity, a rich array of noun classes, extensive inflection for person (both subject and object), tense and aspect and a subject–verb–object word order.

Zulu orthography does not indicate vowel length or tone, but it can be important to note this in a description of grammar. The following diacritical marks are used throughout this article to indicate aspects that the standard orthography fails to.

The Zulu noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. Nouns are grouped into noun classes based on the prefix they have, with each class having a number. For example, the nouns "boys" and "friends" belong to class 2, characterised by the prefix aba-, whereas "surname" and "tree" belong to class 7, characterised by the prefix isi-. The numbers are based on the classes reconstructed for Proto-Bantu, and have corresponding classes in the other Bantu languages. Therefore, classes that are missing in Zulu create a gap in the numbering, as is the case with the missing classes 12, 13 and 16 (as well as those above 17).

The prefix occurs in two forms: the full form, and the simple or short form. The full form includes an initial vowel, called the augment, while this vowel is dropped in the simple form. The two forms have different grammatical functions, as detailed below.

The following noun classes exist:

Every class is inherently singular or plural. Odd-numbered classes are singular, even-numbered classes are plural, with the exception of class 14 which is also singular in meaning. The plural of a noun is normally formed by switching it to the next higher class. Thus, the plural of class 1 umuntu "person" is class 2 abantu "people". For class 11 nouns, the plural is class 10. Classes 14, 15 and 17 usually have no plural at all, but in rare instances class 6 is used to form a plural for these nouns.

The class of the noun determines the forms of other parts of speech, i.e. verbs, adjectives, etc. These other parts of speech receive their own prefix, matching in class with the noun, though the prefixes themselves are not quite the same.

In terms of meaning, groups of similar nouns tend to belong to similar noun classes. For example, names and surnames are only found in class 1a. Nouns for people, including agent nouns, are commonly in class 1, while animals are often in class 9. Abstract nouns are often in class 14, loanwords in classes 9 and 5, and infinitives of verbs and nouns derived from them in class 15. These are only guidelines and there are exceptions in every single class.

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