Crtd 05-11-20 Lastedit 14-08-20

Multiple uses of some syllables

Below are some confusing grammatical features of Kiswahili. Needless to say I have been victim of all of them and hope this list will be useful to others.

As a rule, below I am not concerned with confusions possible as a result of the accidental composition of a noun or verb stem.

hu

is used as "you not" as in hutanimwona, "you will not see me", and

as "normally": humwonekana, "he is normally to be seen". 

ka

is used for expressing possibility: onekana, "be visible",

in the conditional future tense nitakaporudi, "when I shall have returned", and

in reporting events when telling a story: tukafika, "we arrived"

ku

is used for infinitive and the tense marker you need to say something about it: kusafiri ni kuzuri, "travelling is good".

But to negate the past tense nilinunua, "I bought", you say sikununua, "I did not buy", and this use of ku for past negation is a general rule.

"Here", concerning a place is huku, "there", kule. This particular place-grammar is also in kuna, "there is", where ku, though used in front of a verb ("is") is not the infinitive marker, but a reference to place.

In nitakupata, "I'll get for you", ku means "for you", and

if it concerns a chicken: chicken is kuku.

li

In waliona, "they saw", li marks past tense.

In walio, "they who are....", li is an old stem for "be" -  wa-li-o, is in Kiswahili word order: "they-are-who".

In gari limepotea, "the car is lost", li refers to the car, which is in a class if words referred to by li in singular and ya in plural.

m

In kikaponi mna mayai, "there are eggs in the basket", m refers to a place inside something, in this case, the place inside the basket.

But in mna nyumba nzuri, "you have a good house", m means "you" (plural). This comes to its own in hamna makaa, in which m could refer to a place inside something: "there is no charcoal", or to a second person plural "you (pl.) have no charcoal".

na

na means "and", but

(ku)wa na means "(to) have" (litt. "to be with", hence na something like "with").

Na bibi Alison can mean "by Mrs. Alison" if you are, say, invited, and

there is the na in statements of possibility: wezekana, "capable", onekana, "visible".

po

Walipokwenda means "when they went", hence po is "when",

in yupo, "he (or she) is here", po refers to a place.

wa

Hawana means "they do not have", where wa means "they",

kuwa means "to be" and wa is the verb stem "be".