Ada ya usafirishaji imelipwa kupitia mfumo wa kiposta.

The delivery fee was paid through the postal system.

Breakdown of Ada ya usafirishaji imelipwa kupitia mfumo wa kiposta.

• kulipwa: to be paid
• kupitia: via
• mfumo wa kiposta: the postal system
• ada ya usafirishaji: the delivery fee

Questions & Answers about Ada ya usafirishaji imelipwa kupitia mfumo wa kiposta.

What are the main parts of this sentence?

A helpful breakdown is:

• Ada = fee, charge
• ya = of
• usafirishaji = shipping, transportation
• imelipwa = has been paid
• kupitia = through, via, by means of
• mfumo = system
• wa = of
• kiposta = postal / related to the post

So grammatically, the sentence is built like:

[Fee of shipping] + [has been paid] + [through the postal system]

Why is there no word for the or a in the sentence?

Swahili does not usually use articles like English the and a/an.

So ada can mean:

• a fee
• the fee
• sometimes just fee/fees in a general sense

The exact meaning depends on context. English requires an article, but Swahili usually does not.

Why is it ya usafirishaji and not some other word for of?

In Swahili, the word for of changes to agree with the noun that comes before it.

Here the head noun is ada.
Ada belongs to a noun class that takes the connector ya.

So:

• ada ya usafirishaji = fee of shipping = shipping fee

A key point for English speakers: the connector agrees with ada, not with usafirishaji.