Breakdown of Mtaalamu wa kilimo amefika leo kuwashauri wakulima kuhusu mbegu bora.
leo
today
wa
of
kufika
to arrive
kuhusu
about
bora
good
mkulima
the farmer
mbegu
the seed
mtaalamu
the expert
kilimo
the agriculture
kushauri
to advise
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Questions & Answers about Mtaalamu wa kilimo amefika leo kuwashauri wakulima kuhusu mbegu bora.
What does Mtaalamu wa kilimo mean?
It means agriculture expert. It’s made of mtaalamu (“expert”), wa (genitive “of”), and kilimo (“agriculture”).
How is amefika formed and what tense/aspect does it express?
a- is the 3rd-person-singular subject prefix (“he/she”), -me- marks the perfect aspect (“has”), and fika is the verb root “arrive.” So amefika means “he/she has arrived.”
Why don’t we see a separate pronoun for “he/she” in the sentence?
Swahili encodes the subject inside the verb via prefixes. In amefika, the a- already tells you it’s “he/she,” so you don’t need an extra word like yeye.
What does leo mean and where does it go?
leo means today. It’s an adverb of time and can flexibly appear before or after the subject/verb, e.g. Leo mtaalamu wa kilimo amefika or Mtaalamu wa kilimo leo amefika, both mean “the expert arrived today.”
What does kuwashauri wakulima mean, and how is it constructed?
It means to advise the farmers.
• ku- = infinitive marker (“to…”)
• -wa- = object pronoun “them”
• shauri = root “advise”
• wakulima = “farmers” (plural).
So it’s “to advise them (the farmers).”
Why attach the object marker -wa- if wakulima already appears?
Attaching -wa- directly to the infinitive is standard in Swahili to mark the object. Repeating wakulima clarifies exactly who is being advised and adds emphasis.
What does kuhusu mean in this context?
kuhusu means about, concerning, or regarding. Here it introduces the topic of advice: kuhusu mbegu bora = “about good seeds.”
What nuance does bora add in mbegu bora, and could we use nzuri instead?
bora means “best” or “high-quality,” so mbegu bora implies high-quality seeds. You could say mbegu nzuri for “good seeds,” but nzuri is more general (“nice/good”), whereas bora highlights superior quality.
What does the prefix ku- in kuwashauri indicate beyond marking the infinitive?
Besides forming the infinitive (“to advise”), after a verb of motion like amefika, an infinitive often expresses purpose (“has arrived in order to advise”). So amefika leo kuwashauri… = “has arrived today to advise…”