Daktari ni mwangalifu.

The doctor is careful.

Breakdown of Daktari ni mwangalifu.

• ni: to be
• daktari: the doctor
• mwangalifu: careful

Questions & Answers about Daktari ni mwangalifu.

What role does ni play in the sentence "Daktari ni mwangalifu"?

Ni is the copula in Swahili that connects the subject (daktari) with its predicate adjective (mwangalifu). It functions much like the English “is,” equating the subject with the quality described.

Why does the adjective mwangalifu appear after ni instead of before daktari as adjectives sometimes do in English?

Swahili equative sentences follow the structure Subject + ni + Predicate. This means that after stating the subject (daktari), you use ni to link it to the predicate adjective (mwangalifu). In Swahili, adjectives typically follow the copula rather than preceding the noun.

How is adjective agreement handled in this sentence? Does mwangalifu change based on the noun daktari?

Yes, adjectives in Swahili agree with the noun they describe in terms of noun class. In this example, mwangalifu is formed with a prefix that corresponds with the noun class of daktari (which, when referring to a person, follows patterns similar to class 1/2). This agreement ensures that the adjective properly relates to its subject.

How would you modify the sentence if you wanted to express that multiple doctors are careful?

For the plural, both the noun and the adjective must reflect the appropriate noun class markers. The sentence becomes Wadaktari ni wawangalifu, where wadaktari is the plural form of daktari and wawangalifu is the adjective modified to agree with the plural subject.

Why is there no word equivalent to the English definite article “the” before daktari?

Swahili does not use separate definite articles like English does. Definiteness is understood from context, so daktari alone can mean “doctor” or “the doctor” depending on the situation, without needing an extra word to indicate “the.”