Breakdown of Tafadhali, nisaidie kusafisha jikoni na brashi.
na
with
kusafisha
to clean
kusaidia
to help
tafadhali
please
ni
me
jikoni
the kitchen
brashi
the brush
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Questions & Answers about Tafadhali, nisaidie kusafisha jikoni na brashi.
What does Tafadhali mean, and why is it placed at the beginning of the sentence?
Tafadhali means please (borrowed from Arabic). In Swahili polite requests or commands, it almost always comes first to soften the tone—just like “please” in English.
How is nisaidie formed, and what does it mean?
nisaidie = ni- (1st-person singular object marker, “me”) + saidia (verb root “help”) + -ie (subjunctive/imperative ending).
So nisaidie literally means “help me.”
Why is kusafisha used instead of the command form safisha?
After verbs like saidia, the following verb must be in the infinitive form with the prefix ku-.
- safisha alone is the standalone imperative “clean!”
- kusafisha is the infinitive “to clean” and is required here because you’re asking someone to help you to do the cleaning.
Why does safisha take jikoni directly, without a preposition?
Safisha is a transitive verb (“clean something”), so its object (jikoni, “kitchen”) follows directly. In Swahili you don’t need a preposition before the direct object.
What role does na play in na brashi? Does it mean “and” or “with”?
Here na is instrumental: it means “with.” You’re specifying the tool used for cleaning.
(Note: na can also mean “and” when listing things, but in this context it marks the instrument.)
Can I use kwa brashi instead of na brashi to say “with a brush”?
Yes. Swahili also allows kwa + noun for instruments.
- na brashi (colloquial)
- kwa brashi (slightly more formal)
Both translate as “with a brush.”
Is brashi a native Swahili word?
No, brashi is a loanword from English brush (likely via Arabic). Many household and technical terms in Swahili are borrowed and then treated like class 9/10 nouns.
How would I change “help me” to “help us” or “help him/her” using the same structure?
Swap the object-marker prefix ni- for the appropriate one:
- tusaidie kusafisha jikoni na brashi – help us to clean the kitchen with a brush (tu- = “us”)
- msaidie kusafisha jikoni na brashi – help him/her to clean the kitchen with a brush (m- = “him/her”)
Could I place na brashi before kusafisha, like “Tafadhali, nisaidie na brashi kusafisha jikoni”?
No, that order is unnatural in Swahili. The normal sequence is:
- nisaidie (“help me”)
- kusafisha (“to clean”)
- jikoni (“the kitchen”)
- na brashi (“with a brush”)
Reordering can confuse the complement structure and instrument marking.