Tafadhali niletee glasi nyingine ya maji.

Please bring me another glass of water.

Breakdown of Tafadhali niletee glasi nyingine ya maji.

• ya: of
• kuleta: to bring
• maji: the water
• tafadhali: please
• nyingine: another
• glasi: the glass

Questions & Answers about Tafadhali niletee glasi nyingine ya maji.

What does tafadhali mean and how is it used in this sentence?

Tafadhali simply means please in English. It’s an adverb placed at the beginning of a request to make it polite. In Swahili you often start a polite command or request with tafadhali.

What is the function of ni in niletee?

The ni- in niletee is the object-marker for me. In Swahili the speaker (“me”) is marked as an object by the prefix ni-, so the verb expresses “bring me.”

Why is kuleta changed to letee here instead of staying leta?

After tafadhali you normally use a polite request form—the subjunctive or imperative with a final -e instead of -a. So the infinitive kuleta (“to bring”) loses ku-, you change -a to -e, giving lete, and then you add the object-marker ni-.

Why does the object-marker ni- come before the verb root and its final -e?

Swahili verb morphology follows this order:
1) (optional) Tense/Aspect/Mood prefix
2) Object-marker
3) Verb root
4) Final vowel ((-a for plain imperative/indicative, -e for subjunctive/polite request)

Here there is no tense prefix, so you get ni- + lete + -e → niletee.

Why is it glasi nyingine and not glasi kingine?

Swahili adjectives must agree with the noun class of the noun they modify. Glasi (glass) is treated as a class 5 noun (borrowed words often land in class 5), and the prefix for “other” in class 5 is ng-. So “other” becomes ngine, giving glasi nyingine.

What role does ya play in glasi nyingine ya maji?

Ya is the genitive (the equivalent of “of” in English) and must agree with the noun class of the head noun (glasi, class 5). So ya maji means “of water,” linking “another glass” to “water.”

Why is maji not singular or given another prefix?

Maji (“water”) is a mass noun that exists only in the plural class (class 6). It never has a singular form in Swahili, so it always appears as maji.

Could I say nipe glasi nyingine ya maji instead of niletee?

Nipe means “give me,” while letea means “bring me.” If someone is right beside you handing you something, nipe is fine (“give me another glass of water”). But if you want them to fetch it from somewhere else (e.g. the kitchen), leta (bring) is more appropriate.