Je, umehesabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu?

Have you counted how old you will be by the end of this year?

Breakdown of Je, umehesabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu?

• je: do
• wa: of
• huu: this
• mwisho: the end
• wako: your
• mwaka: the year
• kuhesabu: to count
• umri: the age
• hadi: by

Questions & Answers about Je, umehesabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu?

What does Je do at the beginning of the sentence? Is it necessary?

Je is a question marker placed at the beginning of a yes–no question. It roughly signals “so / tell me / I’m asking a question.”

• With Je:
  Je, umehesabu umri wako…? – clearly marked as a question.
• Without Je:
  Umehesabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu? – still a question, understood from intonation and the question mark.

So Je is not grammatically required, but it’s very common, especially in more careful or polite speech, and it makes the question unmistakable in writing. It does not translate directly into English.

Where is the word “you” in this sentence?

The “you” is built into the verb umehesabu.

Breakdown of umehesabu:

• u- = subject prefix for you (singular)
• -me- = perfect aspect marker (“have done”)
• -hesabu = verb root “count / calculate”

So umehesabu literally encodes “you-have-counted.” Swahili normally does not need a separate subject pronoun like wewe (“you”) unless you want to emphasize it:

• Wewe umehesabu umri wako…? – You (as opposed to someone else), have you counted your age…?

What tense/aspect is umehesabu, and what nuance does it give?

Umehesabu uses the -me- perfect aspect, often translated as “have (already) done”.

Nuance:

• It suggests a completed action with present relevance – similar to English “Have you calculated… (yet)?”
• It often implies “up to now / by this point”.

So Je, umehesabu umri wako…? carries the idea:

• “Have you (already) calculated your age (by the end of this year)?”
  rather than a neutral “Do you calculate…?” or a simple past “Did you calculate…?”

What’s the difference between umehesabu, ulihesabu, and unahesabu here?

All three are from the root -hesabu (to count / calculate):

1. umehesabu – perfect aspect

   • u- (you) + -me- (perfect) + -hesabu
   • “you have counted / have calculated (already)”
   • Fits best in this question, implying “Have you worked it out (by now)?”

2. ulihesabu – simple past

   • u- (you) + -li- (past) + -hesabu
   • “you counted / you calculated”
   • Je, uliheshabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu?
     Sounds more like “Did you (at some specific time) calculate your age…?”—less about “by now” and more about a past event.

3. unahesabu – present / habitual

   • u- (you) + -na- (present) + -hesabu
   • “you are counting / you (usually) count”
   • Je, unahesabu umri wako…? = “Are you counting / Do you count your age…?” – a different meaning.

In this context, umehesabu is the natural choice to ask whether the calculation has already been done.

What does umri mean exactly, and how is it different from miaka?

Umri means “age” (as a general concept), while miaka means “years” (plural of mwaka, “year”).

• umri wako – “your age” (the concept or figure)
• miaka yako – “your years” (i.e., the number of years you have lived)

Examples:

• Umri wako ni miaka mingapi? – “What is your age (how many years is your age)?”
• Una miaka mingapi? – “How many years do you have?” = “How old are you?”

In the sentence umehesabu umri wako, the focus is on your age as a number, not just counting years one by one.

How does umri wako work grammatically? Why wako and not yako, and why is the order “age your”?

1. Word order

Swahili normally puts the possessed noun first, then the possessive:

• umri wako – “age your” = “your age”
• kitabu changu – “book my” = “my book”

So umri wako matches standard Swahili noun–possessor order.

2. Why “wako” and not “yako”?

The possessive form depends on the noun class of the possessed noun.

• umri is in noun class 3 (many nouns starting with m-/mu- when singular)
• Class 3 uses wa- as its possessive concord.
• For “your (singular)”, the ending is -ko.
• So: wa- + -ko ⇒ wako.

Compare:

• rafiki yako – “your friend” (rafiki is class 9, which uses ya- → yako)
• umri wako – “your age” (umri is class 3, which uses wa- → wako)

So wako is the correct possessive for umri.

What does hadi mean here, and can I use mpaka instead?

Hadi means “up to” / “until”.

In hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu:

• It indicates a limit in time: “up to the end of this year.”

You can almost always replace hadi with mpaka in this sense:

• umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu
• umri wako mpaka mwisho wa mwaka huu

Both mean “your age up to the end of this year,” and both are natural.
Mpaka tends to be slightly more informal in some regions, but both are very widely used.

How is mwisho wa mwaka huu put together, word by word?

Mwisho wa mwaka huu literally means “the end of this year”.

Breakdown:

• mwisho – “end”
• wa – “of” (possessive connector for class 3/4 nouns like mwaka)
• mwaka – “year”
• huyu / huu / hicho etc. are demonstratives; here:
  • huyu / hii / hiki… = “this (near speaker)”
  • huyo / hiyo / hicho… = “that (near listener or just mentioned)”
  • yule / ile / kile… = “that (far away / more distant)”
• For mwaka (class 3), “this” is huu.

So:

• mwaka huu – “this year”
• mwisho wa mwaka huu – “the end of this year” (literally: “end of year this”)

Is this the most natural way in Swahili to ask if someone has counted how old they will be at the end of the year?

Je, umehesabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu? is grammatically correct and understandable, and it does express:

• “Have you calculated how old you will be by the end of this year?”

However, in everyday speech, someone might phrase it more explicitly about the age you’ll reach, for example:

• Je, umeangalia utakuwa na umri gani mwisho wa mwaka huu?
  “Have you checked what age you will be at the end of this year?”
• Je, umehesabu utakuwa na miaka mingapi mwisho wa mwaka huu?
  “Have you calculated how many years old you will be at the end of this year?”

Your original sentence is fine, especially in a context where people already know you’re talking about age at the end of the year.

Can I move hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu to another position in the sentence?

Yes. Swahili word order is fairly flexible for adverbial phrases like hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu, as long as the verb phrase stays intact.

Some natural variations:

• Je, umehesabu hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu umri wako? – possible, though umri wako is more commonly kept right after the verb.
• Je, umri wako umehesabu hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu? – less natural; the usual pattern is verb before its object.
• Most natural choices keep the core as:
  • [Je,] umehesabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu?

In practice, the original order:

• Je, umehesabu umri wako hadi mwisho wa mwaka huu?
  is both clear and idiomatic.