Tafadhali soma mstari wa tatu kwenye ukurasa wa mbele.

Please read the third line on the front page.

Breakdown of Tafadhali soma mstari wa tatu kwenye ukurasa wa mbele.

• kusoma: to read
• tafadhali: please
• kwenye: on
• mstari: the line
• wa tatu: third
• ukurasa wa mbele: the front page

Questions & Answers about Tafadhali soma mstari wa tatu kwenye ukurasa wa mbele.

What does tafadhali mean exactly, and do I always need to use it to be polite?

Tafadhali means please. It’s a straightforward, polite word used before or after a request:

• Tafadhali soma… – Please read…
• Soma tafadhali. – Read, please.

You don’t have to use tafadhali every time, especially in contexts where tone and relationship already make it polite (e.g. teacher to student). Other polite ways to soften a request include:

• Naomba usome mstari… – I kindly ask that you read the line…
• Samahani, soma mstari… – Excuse me, (please) read the line…

But tafadhali is the most direct and neutral way to say please.

What form is soma here? Is it a command?

Yes. Soma here is the imperative form of the verb kusoma (to read), addressing one person:

• Soma. – (You, singular) Read.

If you’re speaking to more than one person, you use:

• Someni. – (You all) Read.

So with the rest of the sentence:

• Tafadhali soma mstari wa tatu… – Please (you, one person) read the third line…
• Tafadhali someni mstari wa tatu… – Please (you all) read the third line…

Why is there no word for “the” in mstari wa tatu? How do I know it means the third line?

Swahili does not have separate words for “a / an / the”. Nouns are usually bare:

• mstari – a line / the line
• ukurasa – a page / the page

Context tells you whether English would use a or the. Here, because you’re clearly talking about a specific line (the third one on that page), English naturally translates it as “the third line”, but Swahili just says mstari wa tatu without any article.

What exactly does mstari mean? Is it only “line” of text?

Mstari primarily means a line, and it’s quite flexible:

• a line of text in a book: mstari
• a line in a drawing: mstari
• a queue / line of people: mstari (e.g. msimame mstari mmoja – stand in a single line)

The plural is mistari:

• mstari mmoja – one line
• mistari mitatu – three lines

Why is it mstari wa tatu and not mstari tatu?

Because mstari wa tatu is an ordinal (third), while mstari tatu would sound like a cardinal number (three lines).

• mstari wa tatu – the third line (ordinal)
• mistari mitatu – three lines (cardinal)

Pattern:

1. Cardinal (how many?): noun + agreeing number

   • mistari mitatu – three lines
   • kurasa mbili – two pages

2. Ordinal (which one?): noun + connector wa

   • number
   • mstari wa tatu – third line
   • ukurasa wa pili – second page
   • siku ya nne – fourth day (here class uses ya instead of wa)

Why is the connector wa used in mstari wa tatu and ukurasa wa mbele, and not something like ya or la?

Wa / ya / la / cha / vya… are all forms of the possessive/linking particle -a, which changes form according to the noun class of the word it follows.

• mstari is in a class that takes wa
  → mstari wa tatu – line of third → “third line”

• ukurasa also uses wa in this pattern
  → ukurasa wa mbele – page of front → “front page”

Other nouns might use different forms:

• siku ya tatu – the third day (uses ya)
• gari la kwanza – the first car (uses la)

So wa is chosen because mstari and ukurasa are in classes that require wa in this construction.

How do I make other ordinals like “first line”, “fourth page”, etc.?

Use the same pattern [noun] + wa/ya/la… + [number]. The connector changes with noun class, but the structure is the same:

• mstari wa kwanza – the first line
• mstari wa pili – the second line
• mstari wa tatu – the third line
• ukurasa wa kwanza – the first page
• ukurasa wa nne – the fourth page
• siku ya tano – the fifth day

As you learn noun classes, you’ll learn which connector goes with which noun, but the ordinal pattern itself is very regular.

What does kwenye mean exactly, and how is it different from katika or juu ya?

Kwenye is a common preposition meaning roughly in / on / at, depending on context. It’s quite flexible and often interchangeable with katika.

In your sentence:

• kwenye ukurasa wa mbele – on the front page

Rough guidelines:

• kwenye – very common, conversational; “in/on/at” (general location)
• katika – often a bit more formal or written; also “in/within”
• juu ya – literally “on top of”, usually on (top of) something physical

So:

• kwenye meza – on/at the table
• katika kitabu – in the book
• juu ya meza – on top of the table

In your example, kwenye ukurasa wa mbele is the natural choice. Katika ukurasa wa mbele would also be understood.

What exactly does ukurasa wa mbele mean? Is it the first page or specifically the front page like in a newspaper?

Ukurasa = page.

Ukurasa wa mbele literally means the page of the front, and is usually understood as:

• the front page, especially of a newspaper, booklet, exam paper, etc.
• the side that faces front, as opposed to the back page (ukurasa wa nyuma)

If you specifically mean the first page in a sequence (page 1, page 2, …), you’d usually say:

• ukurasa wa kwanza – the first page
• ukurasa wa pili – the second page

So:

• ukurasa wa mbele – the front page (front side)
• ukurasa wa kwanza – page one (first in order)

Can I move kwenye ukurasa wa mbele somewhere else in the sentence, or does it have to stay at the end?

You can move it, as Swahili word order is fairly flexible for these adverbial phrases. These are all acceptable:

• Tafadhali soma mstari wa tatu kwenye ukurasa wa mbele.
• Tafadhali soma kwenye ukurasa wa mbele mstari wa tatu. (less common, but possible)
• Kwenye ukurasa wa mbele, tafadhali soma mstari wa tatu. (quite natural, with a pause)

The most neutral and common choice is the original: place kwenye ukurasa wa mbele at the end.

Who is being spoken to in this sentence? There’s no word for “you”.

The subject “you” is implied by the imperative soma. In Swahili, imperatives don’t usually include a subject pronoun:

• Soma. – (You) read.
• Someni. – (You all) read.

If you really want to make the subject explicit (for emphasis), you could say:

• Wewe soma mstari wa tatu… – You (in particular), read the third line…
• Ninyi someni mstari wa tatu… – You all, read the third line…

But in normal speech, just soma already means you (singular), read.

How would I say this to a group instead of one person?

Change the singular imperative soma to the plural someni:

• Tafadhali someni mstari wa tatu kwenye ukurasa wa mbele.
  – Please (you all) read the third line on the front page.

How would I say “Please don’t read the third line on the front page”?

Use the negative imperative, which for wewe (you, singular) starts with usi-:

• Tafadhali usisome mstari wa tatu kwenye ukurasa wa mbele.
  – Please don’t read the third line on the front page.

For you (plural):

• Tafadhali msisome mstari wa tatu kwenye ukurasa wa mbele.
  – Please don’t (you all) read the third line on the front page.