"Mtoto wa kwanza"
Translation:The first child
March 3, 2017
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Verb
kwanza (verbal noun of the ku class)
1) Infinitive of -anza
Usage notes
The form -a kwanza, which literally means "of the beginning" is used for first. See Appendix:Swahili numbers for more.
Ordinal numbers
Ordinals are formed by using -a (“of”), which must agree using the verb prefixes with the class of the noun preceding it, followed by the number in question. The two exceptions are -a kwenda (“first”) (kwenda is the infinitive/gerund of -enda (“to begin”)) and -a pili (“second”), which uses the counting form.
From Wiktionary: