Breakdown of Harufu ya mkate mpya imeenea katika mkahawa.
katika
in
ya
of
mkate
the bread
harufu
the smell
kuenea
to spread
mkahawa
the café
mpya
fresh
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Questions & Answers about Harufu ya mkate mpya imeenea katika mkahawa.
Why is ya used between harufu and mkate?
In Swahili, to show “of” (the genitive), you insert a linking word that agrees with the noun class of the first noun. harufu belongs to class 9 (singular), whose genitive connector is ya. Hence harufu ya mkate (“smell of bread”).
Why does mpya come after mkate instead of before it, like English “fresh bread”?
Swahili adjectives normally follow the noun they modify. So you say mkate mpya (“bread fresh”), not mpya mkate.
How do adjectives agree with noun classes? Specifically, why is “fresh” mpya here and not just pya?
Adjectives take the same class prefix as the noun they describe. The root for “new/fresh” is -pya. mkate is class 3 singular (prefix m-), so its adjective becomes m- + pya = mpya. A different noun class would give a different prefix.
Can you break down imeenea into its parts and explain what each piece means?
Yes.
• i- is the subject prefix for class 9 (agreeing with harufu).
• -me- is the perfect aspect marker (“has…”).
• -enea is the verb root meaning “spread.”
Put together, imeenea = “it has spread.”
Why is katika used for “in” here? Could we use kwenye or the locative suffix -ni instead?
katika is the standard preposition for “in/inside.” You can also say kwenye mkahawa (“at/on/in the café”) or attach the locative -ni to mkahawa, forming mkahawani (“in the café”). All three are correct, with only slight style or nuance differences.
What noun class is mkahawa, and how do we form its plural?
mkahawa has the class 3 prefix m-, so it’s singular class 3. Its plural takes the class 4 prefix mi-, giving mikahawa.
Why doesn’t Swahili use words for “the” or “a” as English does?
Swahili has no definite or indefinite articles. A noun like harufu can be translated as “a smell” or “the smell” depending on context; there is no separate word for “the” or “a.”
How would you say “The smell of fresh bread hasn’t spread in the café” in Swahili?
Use the perfect negative marker -ja- instead of -me-. With subject prefix i-, you get i- + ja + -enea = haijaenea. So:
Harufu ya mkate mpya haijaenea katika mkahawa.
What is the infinitive form of imeenea, and how do you form it?
The infinitive is ku-enea. You drop the subject and aspect prefixes from imeenea and add the infinitive marker ku- to the root -enea, giving kuenea (“to spread”).