Learn Hardcore Swahili: Rafiki yangu aliguswa sana alipoona watoto yatima wakicheza bila viatu. - My friend was deeply touched when he saw orphans playing without shoes.

Rafiki yangu literally translates to my friend. In Swahili, rafiki means friend and yangu is the possessive form meaning my. Notice how the adjective follows the noun in Swahili.

What is the meaning of aliguswa sana and how is it structured?

Aliguswa sana means was very shocked. The verb guswa (to be shocked or deeply affected) is combined with: • a- – a subject marker for third person singular
• li- – a past tense marker
• sana – an intensifier meaning very
So, the construction indicates that my friend was greatly affected or shocked.

How is the temporal clause alipoona watoto yatima wakicheza bila viatu constructed?

The clause begins with alipoona, a compound where: • ali- is the past tense marker with the subject prefix (he/she)
• -po- is inserted as a temporal relative marker, effectively meaning when
• ona means saw
Thus, alipoona translates to when he/she saw. The rest of the clause watoto yatima wakicheza bila viatu provides additional details about what was seen.

What does watoto yatima mean?

Watoto means children and yatima means orphaned. Together, watoto yatima translates to orphan children (or orphaned children), with the descriptive word following the noun, which is common in Swahili.

How is the action playing without shoes expressed in this sentence?

The action is conveyed by two parts: • wakicheza – derived from the verb cheza (to play) with the prefix wa- adjusted for the plural subject and the participial form -chi- appended to show an ongoing action (meaning playing or while playing). • bila viatu – where bila means without and viatu means shoes. This indicates that the orphan children were playing without shoes.

What does the structure of the sentence tell us about Swahili grammar and word order?

This sentence demonstrates several key points of Swahili grammar: • It typically follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order. Here, Rafiki yangu (my friend) is the subject and aliguswa (was shocked) is the verb. • Additional information, like the circumstance in which the emotion occurred, is attached using a temporal clause (alipoona watoto yatima wakicheza bila viatu), which starts with a combined marker (ali- + po-) to indicate when. • Descriptive adjectives (like yatima) follow the noun they describe. • The use of participial forms (like wakicheza) allows the description of simultaneous actions. Overall, the sentence provides a compact way to express a cause-and-effect relationship while following typical Swahili construction patterns.