Breakdown of Tafadhali funga bomba vizuri; maji yanapotea kwa sababu ya bomba hilo.
Questions & Answers about Tafadhali funga bomba vizuri; maji yanapotea kwa sababu ya bomba hilo.
Here, funga bomba means “close/turn off the tap.” In everyday Swahili:
- funga = close/shut (a tap, door), lock
- fungua = open (a tap, door)
- zima = turn/switch off (lights, engine, fire), not usually a tap
So you say: funga bomba (close the tap) and fungua bomba (open the tap). You’d say zima taa (turn off the light), not “funga taa.”
- vizuri is an adverb: “well/properly.” So funga bomba vizuri = “close the tap properly.”
- nzuri is an adjective agreeing with certain noun classes: “good/nice.” They aren’t interchangeable in this sentence. You could also use vyema (also spelled vema) as a slightly more formal/old-fashioned synonym of “properly.”
Maji (“water”) behaves like a class 6 plural noun (ma- class). Verbs agreeing with class 6 use the subject marker ya- in the present: ya- + na- + verb → yanaverb. So:
- Correct: maji yanapotea (“water is being lost/disappearing”)
- Wrong: maji inapotea (the i- subject marker fits class 9/10, not class 6)
- ya- (class 6 subject marker for maji)
- -na- (present/progressive/habitual)
- potea (verb “be lost/disappear”) So yanapotea ≈ “are being lost/are disappearing” (ongoing or general/habitual, depending on context).
Often, yes:
- kuvuja = to leak (best when the tap/pipe is faulty): Maji yanavuja kutoka kwenye bomba hilo.
- kumwagika = to spill (accidentally pour out): Maji yanamwagika.
- kupotea = to be lost/disappear (more general). If you want “you’re wasting water,” you could say: Unapoteza maji.
The -a “of” agreement is with the head noun sababu (reason), not with bomba. Sababu is class 9, and the class-9 associative is ya. Hence:
- kwa sababu ya
- X = “because of X” Even if X is class 5 (bomba), you still use ya because it agrees with sababu, not with X.
Demonstratives typically follow the noun: bomba hilo. For class 5 nouns (like bomba):
- hili = this (near speaker)
- hilo = that (near listener/already mentioned)
- lile = that (far/over there) You can front them (hilo bomba) for emphasis, but the neutral position is after the noun. Choose hili/hilo/lile according to distance/reference.
Yes. Options include:
- Period: Tafadhali funga bomba vizuri. Maji yanavuja…
- Conjunction: Tafadhali funga bomba vizuri kwa sababu maji yanapotea…
- Clause after “kwa sababu”: Tafadhali funga bomba vizuri, kwa sababu bomba hilo linavuja. The semicolon is also fine—punctuation follows English-like conventions.
Yes:
- Naomba ufunge bomba vizuri. (I request that you close the tap properly.) Note the subjunctive ufunge after naomba.
- Tafadhali, usisahau kufunga bomba. (Please don’t forget to close the tap.)
- Tafadhali funga bomba kabisa. (Please close the tap completely.)
Use intensifiers:
- kabisa (completely): Funga bomba kabisa.
- vizuri sana (very well): Funga bomba vizuri sana.
- If you mean “tighten it a bit”: Funga bomba kwa nguvu kidogo (literally “with a bit of force”).
It’s flexible, but most natural is after the object:
- Most common: Funga bomba vizuri.
- Also possible: Funga vizuri bomba. (acceptable, but less common) Keeping vizuri near the verb is usual.
Without kwa, sababu ya means “the reason for,” not “because of.” For “because of,” use kwa sababu ya.
- Kwa sababu ya mvua, hatuendi. (Because of the rain, we’re not going.)
- Sababu ya mkutano ni kutangaza matokeo. (The reason for the meeting is to announce the results.)
- bomba (class 5): adjectives take the class-5 form, e.g. bomba zuri (“a good tap”), bomba hili (this tap).
- mabomba (class 6 plural): mabomba mazuri (good taps).
- maji (class 6): e.g. maji mengi (a lot of water), maji machafu (dirty water). Remember, nzuri is for class 9/10 nouns (e.g., chai nzuri), not for class 5/6.
- Bomba linavuja. If you want to keep the original structure but make the cause explicit:
- Maji yanavuja kwa sababu bomba hilo linavuja.
- Or more idiomatically: Maji yanavuja kutoka kwenye bomba hilo.