Tafadhali egesha gari kando ya mlango wa nyumba.

Please park the car beside the house door.

Breakdown of Tafadhali egesha gari kando ya mlango wa nyumba.

• wa: of
• gari: the car
• nyumba: the house
• mlango: the door
• tafadhali: please
• kando ya: beside
• kuegesha: to park

Questions & Answers about Tafadhali egesha gari kando ya mlango wa nyumba.

What does the word tafadhali mean, and why is it at the beginning of the sentence?

Tafadhali means “please.” It’s a courtesy marker (borrowed from Arabic) placed before an imperative verb to soften the command. Here it turns egesha (“park”) into a polite request.

What kind of verb form is egesha and what is its root?

Egesha is the 2nd person singular imperative of the verb egesha (“to park”). The verb root is egesh-, and as a transitive verb it takes its direct object (gari) immediately after it.

How would I address more than one person or be extra polite when telling someone to park the car?

For plural or more deferential commands you add -ni to the imperative, giving egesheni. So you can say:
Tafadhali egesheni gari kando ya mlango wa nyumba.

Why isn’t there any word for “the” before gari? How do I know which car is meant?

Swahili has no articles like “the” or “a.” Definiteness or specificity comes from context. In our sentence, gari is understood as “the car we have in mind.”

Why is gari placed directly after egesha without a preposition?

In Swahili, transitive verbs take their object directly. Egesha (“park”) is transitive, so you simply say egesha gari (“park [the] car”) without adding any extra word.

What does kando ya mean, and what role does it play in the sentence?

Kando means “side,” and when you add the genitive marker ya, it forms a locative phrase “at the side of.” Thus kando ya mlango wa nyumba tells you exactly where to park: “at the side of the house’s door.”

Why do we use ya after kando but wa in mlango wa nyumba?

Both ya and wa are genitive concords meaning “of.” Which one you use depends on the noun class of the head noun:

• Kando belongs to a class that takes ya, so kando ya mlango (“side of door”).
• Mlango belongs to a class that takes wa, so mlango wa nyumba (“door of house”).

Could I say karibu na mlango wa nyumba instead of kando ya mlango wa nyumba? What’s the difference?

Yes, karibu na mlango wa nyumba means “near the door of the house,” but kando ya implies directly alongside or right at the side of the door. Karibu na is more general “close to.”

How would I use the same structure to say “Park the car behind the house”?

Replace kando (“side”) with nyuma (“back”): Tafadhali egesha gari nyuma ya nyumba
(“Please park the car behind the house.”)