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Questions & Answers about Asubuhi, jua linachomoza juu ya mlima.
What does Asubuhi mean, and why is there no preposition before it?
Asubuhi means “morning.” In Swahili, words for parts of the day (like asubuhi, mchana = afternoon, jioni = evening) serve as adverbials of time by themselves. You simply place Asubuhi at the beginning (or end) of a sentence to mean “in the morning,” without adding an English-style preposition.
How do you break down the verb linachomoza into its parts?
linachomoza = li- + -na- + chomoza
- li- is the 3rd person singular subject prefix for noun class 5 (the class of jua)
- -na- is the present-tense marker (used for both simple present and present continuous)
- chomoza is the verb root meaning “to rise” or “to appear.”
Why is the subject prefix li- in linachomoza, and not ja- or in-?
The prefix li- corresponds to noun class 5 singular. The word jua (“sun”) belongs to class 5, whose subject prefix is li-. Classes 9/10 (most animals, many loanwords) use i-/zi-, class 1 uses a-, class 2 uses wa-, etc. You’ll always match the verb prefix to the noun’s class.
What is the difference between linachomoza and limechomoza?
linachomoza (with -na-) is present tense: “it rises” or “it is rising.”
limechomoza (with -me-) is perfect tense: “it has risen.”
Use linachomoza when talking about the general or ongoing action; use limechomoza to state that the action is completed.
Why do we say juu ya mlima instead of just juu mlima?
In Swahili the preposition juu (“above,” “on top of”) must be linked to its object by the genitive connector ya. So you always say juu ya [noun]. The ya here is not a separate word meaning “of”; it’s part of the compound preposition juu ya.
Can the present-tense marker -na- express both a habitual action and a continuous action?
Yes. Swahili has one present marker -na- that covers both “habitual” (“the sun rises every morning”) and “progressive” (“right now the sun is rising”). Context tells you which. If you want to emphasize “right this minute,” you can add words like sasa (“now”).
What noun class is jua, and how does that affect agreement in the sentence?
jua (“sun”) is class 5 singular. Class 5 subject and tense prefixes are both li- in the present. That is why you see li-na-chomoza. If you replaced jua with a class 1 noun (e.g. mtoto child), you’d use a-na-: Mtoto anacheka.
How is stress placed in a Swahili word like linachomoza?
Swahili stress almost always falls on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable.
– li-na-CHO-mo-za
You’d naturally stress the CHO.
If I want to say “sunrise” as a noun in Swahili, how do I form that?
Derive a noun of action (a verbal noun) from chomoza. The common form is machomozi (“the rising, the sunrise”).
Example: Machomozi ya jua juu ya mlima = “The sunrise of the sun over the mountain.”
How would you express the same idea in the past tense (“yesterday morning the sun rose over the mountain”)?
Replace the present -na- with the simple past marker -li-. The sentence becomes:
Asubuhi jana, jua lilichomoza juu ya mlima.
Here li-li- (subject + past) merges into lilichomoza.
