Breakdown of Napenda kuvaa sketi ya njano na koti la zambarau wakati wa sherehe.
Questions & Answers about Napenda kuvaa sketi ya njano na koti la zambarau wakati wa sherehe.
In Swahili, the subject (like I, you, he, she) is usually built into the verb, not written as a separate word.
- Napenda is made of:
- ni- = I (1st person singular subject marker)
- -na- = present tense marker
- -penda = like / love
So ni + na + penda → ninapenda / napenda = I like / I love.
Because ni- is already inside the verb, you normally don’t add a separate pronoun like mimi (I) unless you want to emphasize it, e.g. Mimi napenda kuvaa… = Me, I like to wear…
Both are understood as I like / I love.
- Ninapenda is the full, clear form: ni- (I) + -na- (present) + -penda.
- Napenda is a very common shortened form in speech and informal writing. The ni- is often dropped because it’s predictable from context and pronunciation.
You can treat them as equivalent for meaning. In careful or beginner-focused materials you will often see ninapenda; in everyday Swahili you’ll hear napenda a lot.
Kuvaa means to wear / to put on (clothes).
The ku- at the start is the infinitive marker, similar to English to before a verb:
- vaa = wear
- kuvaa = to wear
So:
- Napenda kuvaa sketi… = I like to wear a skirt…
In Swahili it’s very common to have a finite verb (with subject and tense, like Napenda) followed by an infinitive (kuvaa) to express things like I like to wear, I want to go, I like to eat, etc.
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.
Napenda sketi ya njano
= I like the yellow skirt / I like yellow skirts.
(focus: you like the skirt itself, as an object)Napenda kuvaa sketi ya njano
= I like to wear a yellow skirt.
(focus: you like the activity of wearing it)
So kuvaa is important if you want to emphasize the action of wearing, not just liking the skirt.
The words ya and la are agreement markers that link a noun to another noun or a descriptive noun (like a color). They must match the noun class of the main noun.
sketi (skirt) behaves like a class 9 noun.
- The linking word (associative marker) for class 9/10 is ya.
- So we get: sketi ya njano = skirt of yellow (a yellow skirt).
koti (coat/jacket) is usually treated as class 5.
- The linking word for class 5/6 is la.
- So we get: koti la zambarau = coat of purple (a purple coat).
So:
- ya agrees with sketi.
- la agrees with koti.
The choice is not random; it’s controlled by noun class agreement.
Many Swahili color words are originally nouns meaning “the color X”, not “X-colored”. For those, the typical pattern is:
[noun] + [associative marker] + [color noun]
sketi ya njano = a skirt of (the color) yellow
Here:
- njano originally means “yellow color”.
- zambarau originally means “plum / purple color”.
So:
- sketi ya njano = skirt of yellow (a yellow skirt)
- koti la zambarau = coat of purple (a purple coat)
Some basic colors work more like adjectives and don’t need ya/la, e.g.:
- gari jekundu = a red car
- nguo nyeupe = white clothes
But for many colors used as nouns (especially those named after things like plants, metals, fruits), you’ll see the [noun] + ya/la + color pattern.
Grammatically, both njano and zambarau behave more like nouns meaning “yellow (color)” and “purple (color)”.
- The structure sketi ya njano literally means “a skirt of yellow (color)”.
- koti la zambarau literally means “a coat of purple (color)”.
In English we treat yellow and purple here as adjectives. In Swahili, many such color words are historically nouns, and that’s why they take ya / la / za / wa etc., depending on the noun class of the thing being described.
Wakati wa sherehe literally means the time of the party / celebration.
- wakati = time / period
- wa = of (agreement with wakati, which is class 11)
- sherehe = party / celebration
So wakati wa sherehe functions like an adverbial phrase of time:
- Napenda kuvaa … wakati wa sherehe.
= I like to wear … during the party / at party time / on party occasions.
You could translate it more naturally as during parties or when there’s a party, depending on context.
Yes, and it’s very natural.
- kwenye sherehe = at the party / at parties
- wakati wa sherehe = during the time of the party / during parties
They overlap in meaning:
- Napenda kuvaa sketi ya njano na koti la zambarau kwenye sherehe.
- Napenda kuvaa sketi ya njano na koti la zambarau wakati wa sherehe.
Both can be understood as: I like wearing a yellow skirt and a purple coat at parties / during parties.
Wakati wa sherehe puts a tiny bit more focus on the time period of the event; kwenye sherehe focuses more on the place/occasion of being at a party. In many contexts, they are interchangeable.
Yes. Time expressions are flexible in Swahili word order.
- Wakati wa sherehe napenda kuvaa sketi ya njano na koti la zambarau.
This still means the same thing: During parties, I like to wear a yellow skirt and a purple coat.
Moving wakati wa sherehe to the front is a way to emphasize “as for when it’s party time…” and then state what you like to do.
You need wa to connect wakati (time) and sherehe (party) in a grammatical way.
- wakati wa sherehe = time of the party
- The wa is the genitive/associative marker agreeing with wakati (class 11).
Without wa, wakati sherehe would be ungrammatical or at least feel very wrong to native speakers. Swahili usually doesn’t connect two nouns directly; it uses a linking element like wa, ya, la, cha, etc., depending on the class of the first noun.
Sherehe is one of those nouns where the form can be used for both singular and plural, depending on context.
- sherehe (class 9/10)
- can mean a party / celebration
- or parties / celebrations
In wakati wa sherehe, the context and your English translation decide:
- It can be understood as at the time of the (specific) party.
- Or more generally as on party occasions / at parties.
If you really wanted to emphasize “all parties” or many parties, you might change the structure slightly, but in normal speech sherehe alone handles both.
Swahili doesn’t use separate words for a / the like English does, so sketi and koti here are neutral:
- They can refer to a specific skirt and coat (the ones you usually wear).
- Or they can refer to that type of clothing in general (a yellow skirt, a purple coat, not specific ones).
Context decides. If you wanted to clearly talk about plural items, you could say:
- Napenda kuvaa sketi za njano na makoti ya zambarau wakati wa sherehe.
= I like wearing yellow skirts and purple coats at parties.
But the original sentence is perfectly fine for the habitual/general sense.
Here na is joining two full noun phrases:
- sketi ya njano = a yellow skirt
- koti la zambarau = a purple coat
So:
- sketi ya njano na koti la zambarau
= (a) yellow skirt and (a) purple coat
The na is coordinating the two clothing items, not the colors. Each item keeps its own color phrase (ya njano, la zambarau) attached to it.