- Luganda is a tonal language.
- Vowels are very important in Luganda. In fact, the word for vowel, enjatuza, means "letters that make sound in a word." Vowels create the structure of Luganda pronunciation, and can be either long or short.
- Consonants can also be long or short.
- In written Luganda, long vowels and consonants are expressed through double letters. For example, jjajja (grandmother) and baana (children) both feature a long sound. When spoken, both long vowels and consonants simply put extra emphasis on the long sound.
- Long vs. short vowels can give a word different meaning.
- Every syllable in Luganda ends with a vowel.
- The sound "ny" is a single consonant sound, but it is written with two letters.
- There are seven tenses in Luganda: Distant past, past, immediate past, now, ongoing, immediate future, and future.
- There are ten types (or classes) of nouns (Note: this number is somewhat disputed, but ten seems to be mostly agreed-upon). Each noun class comes in both singular and plural, and there isn't any hard and fast rule about which nouns fit into which class.
- When telling time, the beginning of the day corresponds with the first hour of sunlight. So, to say 7:00 AM, you won't use the word for seven in Luganda. Instead, you'll call it one o'clock (emu ey'okumakya).