Breakdown of Wakati wa ujana, kaka yangu alinunua tiketi za bahati nasibu kila wiki.
kila
every
yangu
my
kununua
to buy
kaka
the brother
Questions & Answers about Wakati wa ujana, kaka yangu alinunua tiketi za bahati nasibu kila wiki.
What does wakati wa ujana literally mean, and how does it end up meaning “in his youth” / “when he was young”?
Literally, wakati wa ujana is “the time of youth”.
- wakati = time / period
- wa = of (the possessive connector -a agreeing with wakati)
- ujana = youth (the stage of life)
So the phrase is “the time of youth”, which is naturally understood as “during youth / in (someone’s) youth”.
In context, because the sentence is talking about kaka yangu, it will usually be understood as “in my brother’s youth” or “when my brother was young”, even though “his” is not explicitly said.
Why is there no separate word for “in” before wakati wa ujana? Why not katika wakati wa ujana?
Swahili often expresses “in/at the time of …” simply with wakati wa … without adding katika.
- wakati wa ujana = “the time of youth” → understood as “during youth / in youth”
- Adding katika (katika wakati wa ujana) is not wrong, but it sounds a bit heavier and is less common in a simple sentence like this.
So wakati wa ujana on its own already carries the idea of “during / when”, and that is usually enough.
How do we know refers to youth and not someone else’s?