Breakdown of Kulingana na shajara yangu, wiki hii nimekuwa nikijisikia mwenye nguvu kuliko wiki iliyopita.
Questions & Answers about Kulingana na shajara yangu, wiki hii nimekuwa nikijisikia mwenye nguvu kuliko wiki iliyopita.
Kulingana na comes from the verb -lingana (to correspond, to match, to be equal).
- ku-lingana = to correspond / to agree
- kulingana na X = according to X / in line with X
So kulingana na shajara yangu literally feels like “in agreement with my diary”, i.e. “according to my diary”.
You use kulingana na before the source of information or standard of comparison:
- Kulingana na habari – According to the news
- Kulingana na mwalimu – According to the teacher
- Kulingana na utafiti – According to the research
Yes. In kulingana na, the infinitive kulingana functions almost like a preposition.
In Swahili, infinitives (ku- + verb) often work as verbal nouns, and some of them form fixed expressions that behave like prepositions or conjunctions, for example:
- kwa sababu ya – because of
- kutokana na – resulting from / due to
- kulingana na – according to / in line with
So you don’t conjugate kulingana for tense or subject here. You keep the infinitive and just add na plus the noun: kulingana na shajara yangu.
Shajara means journal / diary, specifically a personal record of events, thoughts, or plans.
Daftari is more general: exercise book / notebook. You could keep a diary in a daftari, but if you want to emphasize that it’s a diary/journal, shajara is the more precise word.
So:
- shajara – a diary / journal (its main function is recording entries over time)
- daftari – any kind of notebook (school book, notes, lists, etc.)
In this sentence, shajara yangu clearly means my diary / journal.
Possessive agreement in Swahili follows noun classes.
Shajara belongs to noun class 9/10 (like nyumba, safari, barua). The possessive -angu agrees with that class:
- nyumba yangu – my house
- barua yangu – my letter
- safari yangu – my trip
- shajara yangu – my diary
Langu is used with class 5/6 nouns (e.g. nyama langu would be wrong; it’s nyama yangu). For example:
- gari langu – my car (class 5)
- jina langu – my name (class 5)
So shajara langu would be ungrammatical; shajara yangu is correct.
The standard, neutral order is NOUN + DEMONSTRATIVE, so:
- wiki hii – this week
- mji huu – this town
- mtu yule – that person
Putting the demonstrative first (hii wiki) is possible, but it’s marked or emphatic, and you’ll usually see it in special structures (especially with -o- type demonstratives like hii, hiyo, ile to show contrast or focus).
In normal speech, for “this week” you should typically say wiki hii. The sentence is using the ordinary, unmarked word order.
Nimekuwa nikijisikia is a compound form that expresses a continuous or repeated action from the past up to now – similar to English “I have been feeling…”
Breakdown:
- ni- – I
- -me- – perfect (have)
- kuwa – be / become
→ nimekuwa – I have been / I have become
Then:
- ni- – I
- -ki- – continuous/progressive marker
- -jisikia – to feel (oneself)
→ nikijisikia – (while) feeling (myself)
Put together:
nimekuwa nikijisikia ≈ I have been feeling (over a period of time, not just once).
It suggests that throughout this week, from some point in the recent past up to now, you’ve been feeling that way.
These all involve kujisik(i)a (“to feel”), but the aspect is different:
Nimekuwa nikijisikia mwenye nguvu
- “I have been feeling strong.”
- Ongoing state over a stretch of time (this week).
- Repeated/continuous feeling.
Ninajisikia mwenye nguvu
- “I feel strong (right now)” / “I am feeling strong.”
- Present tense, focuses more on the current moment or general present.
Nimejisikia mwenye nguvu
- “I have felt strong.”
- Perfect aspect, often more like a completed episode, or “at some point I felt strong.”
- Less clearly continuous; depending on context, it might be used where English would say “I’ve felt strong (since X),” but it doesn’t highlight the ongoing nature as strongly as nimekuwa nikijisikia.
In this sentence, nimekuwa nikijisikia is chosen to stress a continuous condition throughout this week.
Swahili distinguishes:
kusikia – to hear; also to feel in a more external sense (“I feel the cold”):
- Ninasikia baridi – I feel cold / I’m cold.
kuhisi – to sense, to feel (often more mental/emotional, or used in more formal/abstract situations):
- Ninahisi huzuni – I feel sadness.
kujisikia – to feel (oneself) in a general physical or emotional sense, often about one’s state or condition:
- Najisikia vizuri/mbaya – I feel good/bad.
- Najisikia mgonjwa – I feel sick.
In nimekuwa nikijisikia mwenye nguvu, you’re talking about your own overall condition or state (energy level, strength), so kujisikia is natural and idiomatic. It’s like saying “I’ve been feeling (in myself) strong.”
Yes, literally mwenye comes from -enye, meaning “having / possessing”.
So:
- mwenye nguvu – having strength → strong
- mwenye pesa – having money → rich (colloquially)
- mwenye furaha – having happiness → happy
- mwenye hasira – having anger → angry
This mwenye + noun structure is very common and often corresponds to English adjectives. In this sentence, mwenye nguvu is best understood simply as “strong”.
Kuliko is a standard word to introduce a comparison: “than / compared to.”
Structure:
- [More/less X] kuliko [comparison term]
Examples:
- Yeye ni mrefu kuliko mimi. – He is taller than me.
- Leo ni baridi kuliko jana. – Today is colder than yesterday.
In your sentence:
- mwenye nguvu kuliko wiki iliyopita
– (feeling) stronger than (I did) last week
Often, what would be a repeated verb in English is omitted in Swahili after kuliko, because it’s understood from context. Full version could be something like:
- …mwenye nguvu kuliko nilivyokuwa wiki iliyopita
– stronger than I was last week
But it’s natural and idiomatic to drop nilivyokuwa and just say kuliko wiki iliyopita.
Wiki iliyopita is a relative construction:
- wiki – week (class 9)
- iliyo- – relative marker for class 9 in the past tense (li + yo)
- -pita – pass
So iliyo + pita → iliyopita (phonological adjustment).
Thus:
- wiki iliyopita – the week that passed → last week
Common mistakes:
- iliyo pita (with a space) – sometimes seen, but standard spelling joins them: iliyopita.
- ilopita – wrong; it drops the y from -yo which marks the relative.
Compare with another noun class:
- mwezi uliopita – last month (mwezi is class 3; relative marker is uliyo- → uliopita)
So wiki iliyopita is the grammatically correct and standard form.
The comma mainly reflects natural pausing in speech and helps clarity.
Kulingana na shajara yangu, wiki hii nimekuwa nikijisikia…
You could technically omit it in informal writing, and the sentence would still be grammatically fine. However, separating the introductory phrase (Kulingana na shajara yangu) with a comma is common and makes the sentence easier to read, similar to English:
- “According to my diary, this week I’ve been feeling…”
So it’s stylistically good, but not a hard grammar requirement.
Yes, there are natural variants, each with a slightly different flavor:
Kwa mujibu wa shajara yangu, wiki hii nimekuwa nikijisikia mwenye nguvu kuliko wiki iliyopita.
- kwa mujibu wa is a bit more formal/official than kulingana na, but the meaning (“according to”) is very similar.
Kulingana na shajara yangu, wiki hii nimejisikia mwenye nguvu zaidi kuliko wiki iliyopita.
- Here you can add zaidi to intensify the comparison: mwenye nguvu zaidi kuliko… (“even stronger than…”).
- Note you changed nimekuwa nikijisikia → nimejisikia, which slightly weakens the “continuous over time” nuance.
Kulingana na shajara yangu, wiki hii nimekuwa nikijisikia mwenye nguvu zaidi ya wiki iliyopita.
- zaidi ya can also mean “more than,” functioning similarly to kuliko.
- kuliko is more common for comparisons, but zaidi ya is also used and understood.
The original sentence is already natural and idiomatic; these are just viable stylistic alternatives.