Usafirishaji wa bidhaa ulichelewa kwa sababu ya msongamano mkali wa magari.

The transportation of goods was delayed because of a heavy traffic jam.

Breakdown of Usafirishaji wa bidhaa ulichelewa kwa sababu ya msongamano mkali wa magari.

• wa: of
• gari: the car
• kwa sababu ya: because of
• mkali: severe
• bidhaa: the goods
• usafirishaji: the transportation
• kuchelewa: to be delayed
• msongamano: the congestion

Questions & Answers about Usafirishaji wa bidhaa ulichelewa kwa sababu ya msongamano mkali wa magari.

What is usafirishaji and how is it formed?

usafirishaji is a noun meaning transportation or shipping. It derives from the verb safirisha (to transport). By adding the nominalizing prefix u- and the suffix -aji, you turn the verb into a noun indicating the process or result of transporting.

In u-li-chelewa, what do the prefixes u- and li- indicate?

The prefix u- is the subject concord for noun class 11, matching usafirishaji, which is the subject of the sentence. The infix li- marks the past tense. So u-li-chelewa literally means “it (the transportation) was delayed.”

Why is the verb chelewa not rendered as cheleweshwa (a passive form)?

In Swahili kuchelewa is an intransitive verb meaning “to be delayed” or “to be late,” so it doesn’t take the passive marker -esh-. The transitive form kuchelewesha means “to delay something,” whose passive would be cheleweshwa. Here we’re simply saying the transportation itself was late, hence chelewa.

What does kwa sababu ya mean and why do we always include ya?

kwa sababu ya means “because of.” In Swahili, ya is part of this fixed prepositional phrase that introduces a noun phrase as the cause. Unlike other concords, it does not change with the noun’s class—it remains ya regardless of what follows.

Why is the adjective mkali placed after msongamano, and how does adjective agreement work?

Adjectives in Swahili normally follow the noun they modify and take an adjective concord that matches the noun’s class. msongamano is class 3, so its adjective concord is m-, giving mkali, meaning severe. Hence msongamano mkali = a severe congestion.

Why is it msongamano wa magari and not msongamano ya magari?

msongamano belongs to noun class 3, whose genitive concord is wa. When expressing “congestion of vehicles,” you link msongamano to magari with wa, yielding msongamano wa magari.

Why does the verb agree with usafirishaji and not with bidhaa?

In the phrase usafirishaji wa bidhaa, usafirishaji (class 11) is the head noun and subject. The verb concord always matches the head noun’s class, not the genitive noun bidhaa.

What’s the difference between msongamano and trafiki? Could you use trafiki instead?

msongamano refers specifically to a congestion or jam—a standstill of vehicles. trafiki (a borrowing) means traffic in general. You could say usafirishaji wa bidhaa ulichelewa kwa sababu ya trafiki nyingi (“delayed because of heavy traffic”), but that emphasizes the amount of traffic rather than the jam itself.