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Questions & Answers about Jana usiku kulikuwa na giza nene, kwa hiyo tuliwasha taa mapema.
What does Jana usiku mean and why use both words instead of just one?
Jana means “yesterday” and usiku means “night.” Putting them together as Jana usiku specifies “last night,” making it clear you’re talking about the nighttime portion of yesterday rather than some other time yesterday.
Why is kulikuwa na used here instead of just ilikuwa or ilikuwa na?
Kulikuwa na is the standard Swahili construction for “there was/were.” It breaks down as ku- (infinitive marker) + -li- (past tense) + -kuwa na (to exist/have). While ilikuwa na can sometimes be heard, kulikuwa na is more natural for general existential statements like “there was darkness.”
What does giza nene mean exactly?
Giza means “darkness” and nene means “thick” or “dense.” Together, giza nene paints the picture of “thick darkness” or “pitch black.”
What role does kwa hiyo play in the sentence?
Kwa hiyo is a conjunctive phrase meaning “therefore” or “so.” It links the first clause (it was very dark) to the consequence (we turned on the light early). It usually follows a comma and introduces the resulting action.
Can you break down tuliwasha into its parts?
Certainly:
- tu-: subject prefix for “we”
- -li-: past tense marker
- -wa-: object marker referring to taa (“light”)
- -sha: root of -washa (“to switch on”)
Altogether, tuliwasha means “we switched on” or “we turned on.”
What part of speech is mapema and why is it placed at the end?
Mapema is an adverb meaning “early.” In Swahili, adverbs of time or manner typically follow the verb (and its object), so tuliwasha taa mapema reads naturally as “we turned on the light early.”
Could I say mapema tuliwasha taa instead?
You could, but it shifts the emphasis onto mapema (“early”) as the topic: “Early, we turned on the light.” The neutral, most common order is tuliwasha taa mapema, which focuses on the action (turning on the light) with mapema simply qualifying when it happened.