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Feni mpya imenunuliwa jana, na imekuwa ikifanya kazi kimya kimya.

Feni mpya imenunuliwa jana, na imekuwa ikifanya kazi kimya kimya.
The new fan was bought yesterday, and it has been working quietly.
FromLesson 30inHardcore Swahili
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Questions & Answers about Feni mpya imenunuliwa jana, na imekuwa ikifanya kazi kimya kimya.

What does feni mean and how do you form its plural?
feni means fan in English. It’s a borrowed noun in Swahili noun class 9/10, so its form stays the same for singular and plural—feni can mean one fan or several fans.
Why is mpya placed after feni instead of before it?
In Swahili, adjectives normally follow the noun they describe. Here mpya means new, so feni mpya literally is “fan new.” Adjectives agree in noun class, but mpya is invariable in class 9/10.
What does imenunuliwa mean and how is it constructed?

imenunuliwa means has been bought (or “was bought”). It’s built as:
• i- = subject marker for class 9 (referring to feni)
• -me- = perfect tense marker (“has/have”)
• nunuliwa = passive form of nunua (“to buy”)
Together they form the passive perfect “it has been bought.”

Why do we use imekuwa ikifanya kazi instead of simply inafanya kazi?

inafanya kazi is the simple present: it works or it is working. To express “it has been working” (an action continuing up to now), Swahili combines:
• imekuwa = perfect of kuwa (“it has been”)
• iki- = present/progressive marker
• fanya = root “do/work”
So imekuwa ikifanya kazi literally “it has been doing work,” i.e. it has been working.

What does kimya kimya mean, and why is kimya repeated?
kimya means quiet or silent. Reduplicating it—kimya kimya—creates an adverb meaning quietly or very quietly, emphasizing continuous silence. Reduplication is a common way in Swahili to form adverbs of manner (e.g. polepole = slowly).
Can jana be placed somewhere else in the sentence, and why is it after imenunuliwa here?

Time words like jana (“yesterday”) are flexible in Swahili. You can say:
• Jana feni mpya imenunuliwa
• Feni mpya imenunuliwa jana
Both mean “the new fan was bought yesterday.” Placing jana after the verb is perfectly natural and doesn’t change the meaning—just the emphasis or rhythm.

How do we know imekuwa ikifanya refers to feni as its subject?
Swahili verbs include subject prefixes that agree with the noun’s class. The prefix i- in imekuwa and iki- in ikifanya matches class 9, which is the class of feni. That prefix tells us “it” = the fan, so no extra pronoun is needed.

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