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Ikiwa taa hizo zitafanya kazi vizuri, wageni watavutiwa na ukumbi wetu usiku.

Ikiwa taa hizo zitafanya kazi vizuri, wageni watavutiwa na ukumbi wetu usiku.
If those lamps work well, guests will be impressed by our hall at night.
FromLesson 39inHardcore Swahili
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Breakdown of Ikiwa taa hizo zitafanya kazi vizuri, wageni watavutiwa na ukumbi wetu usiku.

ikiwa
if
wetu
our
vizuri
well
na
by
usiku
at night
kufanya kazi
to work
hizo
those
taa
lamp
mgeni
guest
kuvutiwa
to be impressed
ukumbi
hall

Questions & Answers about Ikiwa taa hizo zitafanya kazi vizuri, wageni watavutiwa na ukumbi wetu usiku.

What is the role of ikiwa at the beginning of the sentence?
ikiwa is the conditional conjunction if. It introduces a condition that must be met before the main clause can occur.
Why does the sentence use taa hizo instead of taa hizi?

Swahili distinguishes between near and far demonstratives.
• taa hizi = these lights (close to the speaker)
• taa hizo = those lights (farther from the speaker)
Here the speaker chooses hizo to mean those lights.

How is zitafanya formed and what does it mean?

Breakdown of zitafanya:
• zi- = subject marker for class 9/10 nouns (here taa “lights”)
• -ta- = future tense marker
• fanya = verb root meaning do/make
So zitafanya literally means they will do but in context they will work or function.

What does kazi vizuri mean, and why is fanya kazi used?

• kazi = work, task
• fanya = do/make
Together fanya kazi = to work.
kazi vizuri adds well, so zitafanya kazi vizuri = they will work/function well.

How is the passive watavutiwa constructed and why is it used?

Active verb vutia = to attract. To form the passive:

  1. Replace final -a with passive suffix -wa → vutia → vutiwa
  2. Add subject marker wa- (class 2 for wageni) and tense -ta- (future):
    wa-ta-vuti-wa = watavutiwa
    It’s used to say they will be attracted rather than they will attract.
In watavutiwa na ukumbi wetu, what function does na serve?

In a passive sentence, na introduces the agent (the one doing the “attracting”), equivalent to English by.
So watavutiwa na ukumbi wetu = they will be attracted by our hall (or more naturally, to our hall).

Why is ukumbi followed by wetu instead of using sisi?

ukumbi is a class 3 noun with prefix u-, and its possessive pronoun for our is -etu.
So ukumbi wetu = our hall. You don’t use sisi directly here.

What does usiku at the end add to the meaning?
usiku means at night. Placed after the verb phrase, it functions as a time adverbial, telling us when the guests will be attracted.

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