Breakdown of Mboga hizo ambazo tunapanda shambani huimarisha afya ya familia yote.
kwenye
at
ya
of
mboga
the vegetable
shamba
the farm
familia
the family
afya
the health
hizo
those
kupanda
to plant
ambazo
that
kuimarisha
to strengthen
yote
whole
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Questions & Answers about Mboga hizo ambazo tunapanda shambani huimarisha afya ya familia yote.
Why is hizo placed after mboga, and what does it mean?
In Swahili, demonstratives follow the noun they modify. mboga is a class 9/10 noun and hizo is the distal plural demonstrative for that class, meaning those. So mboga hizo = those vegetables.
How is the relative pronoun ambazo formed, and why do we need it here?
Swahili uses relative pronouns instead of a separate word for that/which. You start with amba- and add an ending that agrees with the noun’s class and number. For class 9/10 plural (mboga) the ending is -zo, giving amba-zo (spelled ambazo). It links mboga hizo to the clause tunapanda shambani, so you get “those vegetables which we plant on the farm.”
What do tu-, -na-, and panda mean in tunapanda?
- panda is the verb root meaning to plant (also “to climb”).
- tu- is the subject marker for we (1st person plural).
- -na- is the present tense marker.
Together tu- + -na- + panda = tunapanda, literally we are planting or we plant.
What does the -ni suffix do in shambani?
shamba means farm. The locative suffix -ni attaches to nouns to mean at/in/on that place. Thus shambani = on the farm.
Why is the verb huimarisha used instead of something like inaimarisha or tunaimarisha?
- hu- is the habitual/general present marker. It expresses a general truth or recurring action: They (the vegetables) strengthen regularly.
- inaimarisha (i- + -na-) would focus on a specific present action: they are strengthening right now.
- tunaimarisha would shift the subject to we (“we are strengthening”).
Here, huimarisha fits the idea “those vegetables strengthen (in general) the health…”.
Why do we say afya ya familia yote and not afya ya familia zote?
- afya (“health”) is class 9.
- To express of the family, we use the genitive ya for class 9/10.
- familia is treated as singular in Swahili (class 9), so the adjective whole/entire must agree as yote.
Thus familia yote = the whole family, and afya ya familia yote = the health of the whole family.
If we had a class 8 noun like vitabu (books), would the relative pronoun change?
Yes. Class 8 uses amba- + -vyo → ambavyo.
Example: vitabu ambavyo tunasoma = the books that we read.
For mboga (class 9/10), the form is ambazo.