Learn Hardcore Swahili: Sasa katika uzee wake, anacheka akisema bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha. - Now in his old age, he laughs saying the lottery did not change his life.

Sasa katika uzee wake, anacheka akisema bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha.

Now in his old age, he laughs saying the lottery did not change his life.

Breakdown of Sasa katika uzee wake, anacheka akisema bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha.

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Swahili grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Swahili now

Questions & Answers about Sasa katika uzee wake, anacheka akisema bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha.

What does Sasa katika uzee wake literally mean, and how is it best translated into natural English?

Literally, Sasa katika uzee wake is:

Sasa – now
katika – in / within
uzee – old age
wake – his / her (agreeing with uzee)

So word-for-word: “Now in his old age.”

In natural English, it’s often better rendered as:

“Now that he is old…”
“Now, in his old age…”

Both keep the idea that some time has passed and his situation (being old) is relevant to what follows.

Why is it wake and not yake in katika uzee wake? Aren’t they both “his/her”?

The ending -ake does mean his/her, but the first consonant changes to agree with the noun class of the noun it refers to.

uzee belongs to noun class 14 (the u- abstract noun class).
The class 14 possessive for -ake is w- + -ake = wake.

Other examples:

uzuri wake – his/her beauty (uzuri, class 14)
umaskini wake – his/her poverty

Meanwhile:

kitabu chake – his/her book (kitabu, class 7 → chake)
rafiki yake – his/her friend (rafiki, class 9/10 → yake)

So wake is not a different word from yake; it’s the same possessive -ake, just with a different agreement prefix for the class of uzee.

What is the role of akisema after anacheka in anacheka akisema?

akisema is a kind of “-ing” form that links two actions with the same subject.

anacheka – he/she is laughing
akisema – (while) saying / as he says

The pattern [finite verb] + [a- + verb stem in -a] often means “doing X while doing Y” or “doing X as he/she does Y.”

So anacheka akisema = “he laughs, saying…” or “he laughs as he says…”

The subject prefix a- in akisema refers back to the same subject as anacheka (he/she), so you don’t repeat the pronoun.

Why use anacheka akisema instead of anacheka na anasema? Do they mean the same thing?

They’re related, but not identical in feel.

anacheka na anasema = he laughs and he says
- More like two separate, coordinated actions.
anacheka akisema = he laughs (while) saying…
- Emphasizes that the laughing and the saying happen at the same time, and that laughing is the manner in which he says it.

So anacheka akisema is tighter and more idiomatic when you want “laughs, saying…” in English. na + full verb is more like listing separate actions; akisema is more “simultaneous action / manner”.

What does bahati nasibu mean exactly, and how is it different from bahati on its own?

bahati by itself means luck or chance.
- e.g. Ana bahati – He/She is lucky.
bahati nasibu is a fixed expression meaning lottery, raffle, or sometimes a game of chance.

So:

bahati = luck (general concept)
bahati nasibu = a specific institution or game where you buy tickets and might win money

In the sentence bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha, the subject is the lottery, not just luck in general.

What’s going on inside the word haikumbadilishia? How is it built up from smaller parts?

haikumbadilishia can be broken down like this:

ha- – negative marker
-i- – subject prefix for noun class 9 (used here because bahati nasibu is in class 9)
-ku- – past tense marker (did)
-m- – object marker: him/her
badilish- – verb root: -badilisha = to change (something)
-ia – applied / benefactive extension: “change for (someone)” / “change on behalf of (someone)”

So structurally:

ha-i-ku-m-badilish-ia
NEG–class9–PAST–him/her–change–for

Meaning: “it did not change (something) for him.”

In context: bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha =
“the lottery did not change his life (for him).”

The -ia is what adds that “for him”/“for her” nuance, together with the object marker m-.

Why is it haikumbadilishia maisha and not something like haikubadilisha maisha yake?

Both are possible, but they differ subtly in focus:

bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha
- Uses -badilishia (change for someone) with m- “him/her”.
- The structure is: The lottery did not change life for him.
- The person (him) is more foregrounded; the life is what gets changed on his behalf.
bahati nasibu haikubadilisha maisha yake
- Uses -badilisha (plain “change”) and maisha yake (“his life”).
- The structure is: The lottery did not change his life.
- Here the focus is more directly on the life itself as the object.

In many contexts, they translate the same way into English, but -badilishia + object marker is a bit more personal/benefactive in Swahili.

How does maisha work here? Why isn’t it maisha yake when English says “his life”?

maisha means life / lives and is grammatically plural (class 6), but often used as an uncountable “life” in the abstract.

In haikumbadilishia maisha:

The verb already has -m- (him/her) and -ia (for), so the idea “his life” is effectively “life for him”.
Because the “for him” is built into the verb, speakers don’t always feel the need to add yake explicitly.

So:

haikumbadilishia maisha ≈ did not change life (for him) → did not change his life.
You could also say haikumbadilishia maisha yake, and that is grammatical, just slightly more explicit.

Swahili often allows this kind of economy when the possessor is already clear from object markers or context.

What tense is haikumbadilishia? Is it a specific kind of past tense?

haikumbadilishia is in the negative past:

-ku- is the general past marker (equivalent to a simple “did” in English).
With a negative, you get ha- + subject + -ku- + verb → “did not [verb].”

Examples:

Alisaidia – He helped.
Hakusaidia – He did not help.
Ilichangia – It contributed.
Haikuchangia – It did not contribute.

So:

haikumbadilishia = it did not change (for him), simple past, negative.
It doesn’t necessarily mark a “distant past” the way some languages do; it’s the normal simple past in the negative. Context decides how far back in time it is.

What noun class is bahati nasibu, and how does that affect the verb haikumbadilishia?

bahati nasibu is treated as a class 9 noun (same class as bahati, rafiki, nguo, etc.).

Class 9 subject prefix: i-
Negative + class 9 subject in the past: ha- + i + -ku- … → haiku…

So:

bahati nasibu ilimbadilishia maisha – The lottery changed his life.
bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha – The lottery did not change his life.

The i of the class-9 subject is the i inside hai-: ha-i-ku-… → haiku…

Could Sasa katika uzee wake be phrased differently, like Sasa akiwa mzee? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you could say:

Sasa akiwa mzee, anacheka akisema…

akiwa mzee = when/now that he is old, using the a- subject + -ki- “when/while” + wa (“be”).

Differences:

katika uzee wake – literally “in his old age”; emphasizes that he is in the period of his life called old age.
akiwa mzee – “when/now that he is old”; emphasizes his state (being old).

Meaning-wise in this sentence, they are very close; both are natural. katika uzee wake sounds a bit more stylistic or literary; akiwa mzee is very common and conversational.

If I wanted to say “Now, in her old age, she laughs, saying …”, is the sentence the same, or do I have to change anything for gender?

You don’t need to change anything for gender:

Sasa katika uzee wake, anacheka akisema bahati nasibu haikumbadilishia maisha.

In Swahili:

a- can mean he or she (3rd person singular, human).
m- as an object marker in haikumbadilishia also covers both “him” and “her”.

Gender is not marked in the verb; it’s understood from context. So the same sentence can mean either:

“Now in his old age, he laughs, saying…”
or
“Now in her old age, she laughs, saying…”

depending on who you’re talking about.