Chapter 2 Review

🎯 Lesson Goal

You have now covered four big building blocks of Kikuyu: describing people (Lesson 6), talking about family (Lesson 7), counting (Lesson 8), and present-tense verbs (Lesson 9). This lesson does not teach new vocabulary from scratch. Instead, it brings everything together, shows you how the four topics combine in real sentences, and gives you one final, thorough round of practice before you move on to new material.

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Recall the key words and sentence patterns from Lessons 6–9 without looking them up.
• Tell apart the “to be” markers (Lesson 6) from the present-tense verb markers (Lesson 9), since they look similar but work differently.
• Build longer, combined sentences that describe a person, mention family, use numbers, and use a present-tense verb all at once.
• Follow and take part in a longer conversation that mixes all four topics.
• Complete a full mixed practice set and a short writing exercise covering everything so far.

How the lesson is organized: sections 1–4 are short reviews of each earlier lesson, with the core tables repeated so you do not need to flip back. Section 5 compares the two marker systems that often get confused. Sections 6 and 7 combine all four topics into new example sentences and a longer conversation. Section 8 is a master vocabulary table. The lesson ends with a large mixed practice set and a short writing exercise, with a separate tutor answer key.

🎯 Introduction

Learning a language is not just about collecting new words lesson by lesson. It is also about being able to use everything you know at once. In real conversation, you rarely talk about just one topic. You might describe a person while also saying how many children they have, how old they are, and what they are doing right now. That means combining describing words, family words, numbers and verbs in a single sentence.

This review lesson gives you that practice. We will briefly recap each of the four lessons, point out one important difference between two grammar patterns that can be confused, and then build new sentences and a new conversation that use everything together.

🔁 Review: Lesson 6 – Describing People

Lesson 6 taught you how to describe people using the “to be” markers from Lesson 4, plus describing words that change depending on whether you mean one person or several. The “to be” markers:

Describing words (one person / more than one person)

Key patterns: join two descriptions with na (and): Ndĩ mũraya na mũhoreri (I am tall and calm). Strengthen a description with mũno (very), which never changes: Nĩ mũgi mũno (He/She is very intelligent). A describing word can follow a noun: mũndũ mũraya (a tall person), andũ araya (tall people).

🔁 Review: Lesson 7 – Talking About Family

Lesson 7 taught you family words and two key patterns: saying “I have…” and saying “my.” Core family words:

Key patterns: “I have” is Nĩ ndĩ followed directly by the noun, with no na: Nĩ ndĩ mwana (I have a child). To ask “Do you have…?” change ndĩ to ũrĩ: Nĩ ũrĩ mbarĩ nene? “My” is often built in (maitũ already means “my mother”), or added with -akwa: mũrũ wakwa (my son). “This is my…” uses Ũyũ nĩ: Ũyũ nĩ maitũ (This is my mother).

🔁 Review: Lesson 8 – Counting

Lesson 8 taught you the numbers 1–10, how to build 11–19 and the tens, and how to join a ten with a single digit.

Key patterns: 11–19 is ikũmi na + a number from 1–9 (ikũmi na ithano = 15). The tens use mĩrongo (tens), with slightly different number forms: mĩrongo ĩrĩ (20), mĩrongo ĩtatũ (30), mĩrongo ĩna (40), mĩrongo ĩtano (50), mĩrongo ĩtandatũ (60), mĩrongo mũgwanja (70), mĩrongo ĩnana (80), mĩrongo kenda (90), and igana (100). A number above 20 joins the tens and the ones with na: mĩrongo ĩrĩ na ĩmwe (21).

🔢 Review: Lesson 9 – Present Tense Verbs

Lesson 9 taught you how to say what someone is doing, using a subject marker joined to the verb, plus the present-tense piece -ra-.

The pattern: Nĩ + subject marker + ra + verb + object. For example, Nĩ ndĩrathoma ibuku (I read a book). Common verbs from the lesson: thoma (read), rĩa (eat), nyua (drink), thiĩ (go), ruta (work, with wĩra), ona (see), gũra (buy).

🧩 A Closer Look: Two Marker Systems

Lessons 6 and 9 each use a short word or piece joined near the start of a sentence, and they can look similar to a beginner. It is worth comparing them side by side.

The difference: the Lesson 6 markers stand on their own and mean “am/is/are” by

themselves, with a describing word straight after (Ndĩ mũraya, I am tall). The Lesson 9 markers are joined to the front of an action verb, together with -ra-, to show who is doing the action (Nĩ ndĩrathoma, I read). Also notice that in Lesson 6, Nĩ covers both “he/she is” and “they are,” while in Lesson 9 the forms for “he/she” (a-) and “they” (ma-) are different from each other. Keeping these two systems separate in your mind will help you avoid mixing them up.

🗣️ Combined Example Sentences

These sentences mix describing words, family words, numbers and verbs, to show how everything fits together.

💬 Combined Conversation

Wanjiru: Nĩ ũrĩ mbarĩ nene?

Do you have a big family?

Kamau: Ĩĩ, nĩ ndĩ mbarĩ nene. Tũrĩ andũ ĩtandatũ.

Yes, I have a big family. We are six people.

Wanjiru: Ũyũ nĩ ũ?

Who is this?

Kamau: Ũyũ nĩ mũrũ wa maitũ. Nĩ mũraya na mũgi.

This is my brother. He is tall and intelligent.

Wanjiru: Nĩ areka atĩa?

What is he doing?

Kamau: Nĩ arathoma ibuku.

He is reading a book.

Wanjiru: Na mwarĩ wa maitũ, nĩ mũthaka?

And your sister, is she beautiful?

Kamau: Ĩĩ, nĩ mũthaka na mũhoreri mũno. Nĩ araruta wĩra.

Yes, she is beautiful and very calm. She is working.

Wanjiru: Nĩ mũkũrũ atĩa?

How old is she? (literally: How elderly is she?)

Kamau: We ti mũkũrũ; nĩ mwĩthĩ.

She is not old; she is young.

📚 Master Vocabulary Review

From Lesson 6 — describing people

From Lesson 7 — family

From Lesson 8 — numbers

From Lesson 9 — present tense verbs

✍️ Short Writing Exercise