Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kama maabara ingekuwa wazi sasa, tungefanya tafiti zetu kuhusu maji safi. - If the laboratory were open now, we would do our research about clean water.

kama is the conditional conjunction meaning if. It introduces the protasis (the “if” clause) of a hypothetical situation. You can also use ikiwa (literally “if it is”) instead of kama, for example Ikiwa maabara ingekuwa wazi sasa, but kama is more common and neutral in everyday speech.

How is the protasis ingekuwa wazi sasa formed?

Breakdown of ingekuwa:

i-: 3rd person singular subject prefix (“it,” referring to maabara)
-nge-: conditional (contrary-to-fact) tense marker “would”
kuwa: verb root “to be”
Putting them together: i + nge + kuwa → ingekuwa = “it would be.” Then wazi means “open,” and sasa means “now.” So ingekuwa wazi sasa = “were open right now.”

How do we form the result clause tungefanya tafiti zetu?

Breakdown of tungefanya:

tu-: 1st person plural subject prefix “we”
-nge-: conditional tense marker “would”
fanya: verb root “do/make”
Combined: tu + nge + fanya → tungefanya = “we would do/make.” Then tafiti zetu = “our research(s)/studies.” So tungefanya tafiti zetu = “we would conduct our studies.”

Why isn’t there an object marker before tafiti zetu in tungefanya?

Object markers in Swahili are optional when the object noun immediately follows the verb. You could insert the class-10 object marker zi- as tun-nge-zi-fanya tafiti zetu, but it’s more natural and clear to omit it when the full noun phrase tafiti zetu appears right after the verb.

What noun class is maabara, and why is it the same in singular and plural?

maabara is a loanword treated in noun class 6 (ma-). Many borrowed words use class 6 for both singular and plural, so the form maabara doesn’t change whether you mean one lab or many labs.

What noun class is tafiti, and why do we say tafiti zetu for “our research”?

tafiti belongs to noun classes 9/10, which have no distinct prefix in singular or plural (the form stays tafiti). Its class-10 possessive prefix is ze-, so ze + -tu → zetu. Hence tafiti zetu = “our research(s).”

In maji safi, why doesn’t safi take a prefix or a linker like ya (i.e., maji ya safi)?

Some adjectives in Swahili are invariable (often called J-class adjectives) and don’t take the usual noun-class agreement prefixes. safi is one of those, so you simply say maji safi (“clean water”). Although maji ya safi appears in some regions or more formal styles, maji safi is the standard idiomatic form.

Why is sasa placed after wazi, and could I move it?

Time adverbs like sasa (“now”) typically follow the adjective or verb they modify. ingekuwa wazi sasa sounds natural. You can front sasa as Kama sasa maabara ingekuwa wazi, but that emphasizes “now” in a way that feels less neutral and more marked.

What’s the difference between sasa and hivi sasa?

sasa means “now.” hivi sasa literally means “right now” or “just now” and is more emphatic. In many contexts they’re interchangeable, though hivi sasa adds a bit of immediacy.

Why are affixes in ingekuwa and tungefanya written as one word without hyphens?

Swahili orthography joins subject prefixes, tense-mood markers, and verb roots into a single word. The hyphens shown in breakdowns are just for analysis. In normal writing you simply write ingekuwa and tungefanya as continuous words.