Breakdown of Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku, usingizi hautakuja.
Questions & Answers about Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku, usingizi hautakuja.
Ukiendelea is a conditional‐verb form made up of:
- U- (2nd person singular subject prefix “you”)
- -ki- (conditional/when marker)
- endelea (verb root “continue”)
- -a (final vowel)
Together it means “if/when you continue.”
kunywa is the infinitive “to drink.” In this conditional‐result structure, Swahili often uses the infinitive after the conditional clause:
Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa…
Literally: “If you keep on drinking coffee…”
usiku (“at night”) is an adverb of time. Swahili is flexible with adverb placement, but putting it after the main verb phrase emphasizes the action first, then the time:
“… drinking coffee at night.”
You could also say Usiku ukiendelea kunywa kahawa… without changing the core meaning.
hautakuja breaks down into:
- ha- (negative prefix for class 3 noun usingizi)
- -ta- (future tense marker)
- -kuja (verb root “come”)
Thus usingizi hautakuja = “sleep will not come.”
In Swahili, negation of a noun clause (here “sleep will not come”) uses the negative subject prefix on the noun class:
usingizi is class 3; its negative subject prefix is ha-.
So you get usingizi hautakuja rather than si-usingizi uta-kuja.
Yes. You can say:
Usingizi hautakuja ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku.
It still means “Sleep will not come if you continue drinking coffee at night,” though native speakers often put the conditional clause first.