Breakdown of Huyu ndiye daktari wetu mpya wa meno ambaye amehamia kijijini.
ni
to be
katika
in
mpya
new
wetu
our
ambaye
who
huyu
this
kijiji
the village
daktari wa meno
the dentist
kuhamia
to move to
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Questions & Answers about Huyu ndiye daktari wetu mpya wa meno ambaye amehamia kijijini.
What is the function of huyu ndiyo in this sentence?
huyu is a class 1 demonstrative pronoun meaning “this (person),” and ndiye is the emphatic copula that also agrees with class 1. Together they mean “this very person is…,” so huyu ndiye introduces and emphasizes exactly who we’re talking about.
How is the phrase daktari wetu mpya wa meno structured?
Breakdown of daktari wetu mpya wa meno:
• daktari (class 1 noun) = “doctor”
• wetu (possessive pronoun for class 1) = “our”
• mpya (adjective) = “new”
• wa (genitive/preposition agreeing with class 1) = “of”
• meno (class 6 noun) = “teeth”
Put together it literally says “doctor our new of teeth,” i.e. “our new dentist.”
Why is wa meno used, and how does it form the word for “dentist”?
In Swahili you often create “specialists” by saying “X wa Y” = “X of Y.” Here daktari wa meno literally means “doctor of teeth,” which is the natural way to say dentist. The wa preposition agrees with the class 1 noun daktari, showing possession or relationship.
Why is the adjective mpya placed after daktari wetu, rather than before?
Swahili adjectives normally follow the noun (and any possessive). Since daktari is the noun and wetu is the possessive, mpya must come after both: daktari wetu mpya = “our new doctor.”
What role does the relative pronoun ambaye play here, and how does it agree with daktari?
ambaye is the class 1 relative pronoun meaning “who” or “that.” It agrees with daktari (a class 1 noun) and introduces the relative clause ambaye amehamia kijijini, meaning “who has moved to the village.”
Can you break down amehamia into its parts and explain what each one does?
amehamia =
• a- (class 1 subject prefix for “he/she/it”)
• -me- (perfect aspect marker, “has”)
• hami (verb root “move/resettle”)
• -a (final vowel required by the verb class)
Altogether it means “he/she has moved (to a new place).”
What does kijijini mean, and how does the locative suffix -ni work in Swahili?
kijijini is kijiji (class 7 noun “village”) plus the locative suffix -ni, so it means “in the village” or “to the village,” depending on context. The suffix -ni attaches to most noun classes to express “at/in/on.”
How does the possessive pronoun wetu agree with daktari, and what does it indicate?
Because daktari is a class 1 noun, it takes the class 1 possessive wetu (first person plural “our”). So daktari wetu means “our doctor.”