"A wall has cracks"

[TelijeeL]

Why "una" and not "ana", please?

[AGreatUserName]

It's because of the noun class of ukuta. It's class 11/10 (U/N) so the verbal prefix is u-. The prefix a- is only used for people and animals.

M/WA (1/2) and other animate nouns regardless of class:
ana = s/he has
wana = they (people/animals) have

M-MI (3/4)
mti una = a tree has
miti ina = trees have

(JI)-MA (5/6)
gari lina = a car has
magari yana = cars have

KI-VI (7/8)
kitabu kina = a book has
vitabu vina = books have

N-N (9/10)
nyumba ina = a house has
nyumba zina = houses have

U-N (11/10)
ukuta una = a wall has
kuta zina = walls have

U (14)
uzuri una = beauty has

KU (15)
kula kuna = eating has

PA (16)
hapa pana = this place has / there is ... here

KU (17)
huku kuna = this general area has / there is ... around here

MU (18)
humu mna = this internal area has / there is ... in here

[TelijeeL]

Wow! Thank you. Very useful!

[TelijeeL]

Does that go only for the verb "Kuna" or for any other verb?

[AGreatUserName]

Those subject prefixes are for all verbs.

By the way "to have" is not "kuna", it's "kuwa na" (literally "to be with") - it's irregular in the present tense and just uses the subject prefix directly on "with", but in any other tense it's regular: nina "I have"; nilikuwa na "I had".

[TelijeeL]

Thank you! I am interested to learn Swahili, but I have not taken any other class except on Duo. Your explanations are wonderful. Thanks again.