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Tafadhali hifadhi siri ya rafiki yako, usiisimulie mtandaoni bila ruhusa.

Tafadhali hifadhi siri ya rafiki yako, usiisimulie mtandaoni bila ruhusa.
Please keep your friend’s secret; do not tell it online without permission.
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Questions & Answers about Tafadhali hifadhi siri ya rafiki yako, usiisimulie mtandaoni bila ruhusa.

What does tafadhali do in this sentence, and where can it appear?

Tafadhali means please. It softens the command and makes it polite.

Typical positions:

  • At the beginning: Tafadhali hifadhi siri ya rafiki yako…
  • At the end: Hifadhi siri ya rafiki yako, tafadhali.

Both are fine; sentence‑initial tafadhali is very common in written Swahili.

What form is hifadhi here? Is it present tense or something else?

Hifadhi here is an imperative (a command) addressed to you (singular).

Key points:

  • No subject prefix (u-, m-, etc.) → that’s typical for a direct positive command.
  • The same form hifadhi is also the dictionary (infinitive) stem without the ku-:
    • kuhifadhi = to keep/store/save
    • Hifadhi! = Keep!/Store!/Save!

So Tafadhali hifadhi… = Please keep…, not You keep / you are keeping in the ordinary present-tense sense.

How does siri ya rafiki yako literally work, word by word?

siri ya rafiki yako literally is secret of friend your.

Breakdown:

  • siri = secret
  • ya = of (possessive connector, agreeing with siri, which is a class 9 noun)
  • rafiki = friend
  • yako = your (possessive, agreeing with rafiki, also class 9)

So the structure is:

siri (secret) + ya (of) + rafiki yako (your friend)

This corresponds to English “your friend’s secret”, but Swahili uses the “X of Y” pattern: siri ya rafiki yako.

Why is it rafiki yako and not rafiki wako?

In standard Swahili, rafiki (friend) is treated as a class 9 noun in the singular.
Class 9 nouns use the y- series for possessives:

  • rafiki yangu = my friend
  • rafiki yako = your friend
  • rafiki yake = his/her friend

By contrast, wangu / wako / wake are used with class 1 (m‑/wa‑) nouns like mtu wangu (my person), mwalimu wako (your teacher).

You will hear some speakers say rafiki wako, but for clear, standard Swahili you should learn rafiki yako.

What exactly does usiisimulie mean, and how is it built?

Usiisimulie means roughly “(that) you should not tell/narrate it” or as a command “don’t tell it / don’t share it”.

Morphological breakdown:

  • u- = you (subject prefix, 2nd person singular)
  • si- = negative marker used in negative subjunctive/imperatives
  • -i- = object marker for class 9/10 (here referring to siri, the secret = it)
  • simuli- = verb root (from -simulia, to tell/narrate a story)
  • -e = subjunctive ending (used in polite / soft commands, wishes, etc.)

So:

u-si-i-simulie = you‑not‑it‑narrate‑(subjunctive)
→ (that) you should not tell it / don’t tell it

Where is the word “it” in usiisimulie mtandaoni? Why isn’t there a separate “it”?

The “it” is inside the verb as the object marker -i-:

  • u-si-i-simulie → you should not tell it

The -i- refers back to siri (secret), which is class 9, and class 9 uses -i- as its object marker.

Swahili often builds pronouns into the verb like this, so you usually don’t add a separate word for it unless you want to emphasize something.

Why is it usiisimulie (subjunctive) and not something like a normal negative present tense?

Negative commands in Swahili use a pattern with usi-…-e (for you singular):

  • Positive command: simulia! = tell!
  • Negative command: usiisimulie! = don’t tell it!

Compare patterns:

  • Positive present: unasimulia = you (are) telling / you tell
  • Negative present: husimuli = you don’t tell
  • Negative command: usiisimulie = don’t tell it

So when you want to tell someone “don’t do X”, you generally use usi‑ + verb + ‑e (for singular you), not the ordinary negative present.

Could we drop the object marker and say Usisimulie siri ya rafiki yako mtandaoni bila ruhusa instead?

Yes, that is also grammatically correct:

  • Usisimulie siri ya rafiki yako mtandaoni bila ruhusa.
    = Don’t tell your friend’s secret online without permission.

Differences:

  • usiisimulie (with -i-) is slightly more compact: don’t tell it, with siri understood from context.
  • usisimulie siri… explicitly repeats siri as the object.

Both are natural. The original version chooses to mention the secret once, then refer to it with the object marker (-i-) in the second clause.

What does mtandaoni literally mean, and how is it formed?

Mtandaoni is commonly used for “online / on the internet”, but literally it means “in/on the network”.

Formation:

  • mtandao = network, internet
  • -ni = locative suffix meaning in / on / at

So:

mtandao + -ni → mtandaoni = in/on the network

You could also say kwenye mtandao or katika mtandao, which also mean on the internet / online, but mtandaoni is a very common single-word form.

How does bila ruhusa work, and how would you say “without asking for permission”?

Bila ruhusa = without permission.

  • bila = without
  • ruhusa = permission

To add a verb like asking:

  • bila kuomba ruhusa = without asking for permission
    • kuomba ruhusa = to ask for permission

So the full idea could be expanded to:

…usiisimulie mtandaoni bila kuomba ruhusa.
= …don’t tell it online without asking for permission.

Does rafiki yako mean only “your friend” (one person), or can it also mean “your friends”?

Rafiki yako is normally understood as singular: your friend.

For plural, you would usually change the noun and the possessive to class 6:

  • marafiki zako = your friends

So:

  • siri ya rafiki yako = your friend’s secret (one friend)
  • siri za marafiki zako = your friends’ secrets (more than one friend, more than one secret)