Breakdown of Leo tutatembea hadi uwanja wa michezo nyuma ya shule.
Questions & Answers about Leo tutatembea hadi uwanja wa michezo nyuma ya shule.
Tutatembea is made of three parts:
- tu- = subject prefix for “we”
- -ta- = future tense marker “will / shall”
- -tembea = verb root “to walk”
So tutatembea literally means “we will walk.”
The subject (we) and the tense (future) are both built into the verb form.
In Swahili, -ta- is the regular future tense and is fairly neutral.
Depending on context, tutatembea can cover both:
- English “we will walk”
- English “we’re going to walk” (if the plan is already made)
Swahili doesn’t draw the same sharp line between “will” and “going to” that English does; tutatembea works for both.
Leo means “today.” Putting it at the start:
- Leo tutatembea… = “Today, we will walk…” (emphasis on today)
You can also move it:
- Tutatembea leo hadi uwanja wa michezo…
- Tutatembea hadi uwanja wa michezo leo…
All are grammatically correct.
Beginning with Leo just makes “today” more prominent, which is very natural in Swahili.
In this sentence, hadi means “to” or “up to (a place)”:
- tutatembea hadi uwanja wa michezo
= we will walk (all the way) to the playground
Comparisons:
hadi / mpaka – very close in meaning; both can mean “up to / until / to.”
You could say mpaka uwanja wa michezo instead; it’s still natural.kwenye – more like “at / in / into / to (a location)”; focuses on being at a place:
Tutatembea kwenye uwanja wa michezo = We will walk to (and be at) the playground.
Here, hadi emphasizes the endpoint of the walking: up to the playground.
Uwanja wa michezo is a genitive (“of”) construction:
- uwanja = field, ground, open space
- wa = “of” (agreement marker linking the two nouns)
- michezo = games, sports (plural of mchezo, “game / sport”)
Literally: “field of games/sports”, which corresponds to “playground” / “sports field.”
So uwanja wa michezo is “the place (field) where games/sports are played.”
Swahili and English don’t always match singular/plural usage one-to-one.
- mchezo = game / sport (singular)
- michezo = games / sports (plural)
The phrase uwanja wa michezo literally is “field of games/sports”, but in natural English that becomes “playground” or “sports ground.”
So even though michezo is grammatically plural, the overall phrase refers to one place.
Nyuma is originally a noun meaning “back” / “rear.”
- nyuma = back, rear, the back side
- ya = “of” (agreement for shule, noun class 9/10)
- shule = school
So nyuma ya shule literally means “the back of the school.”
However, as a set phrase, nyuma ya X is usually translated as “behind X.”
So nyuma ya shule functions like “behind the school” in English.
The words wa and ya are both forms of the “of” connector (the associative marker), but they change depending on the noun class of the first noun:
uwanja is in noun class 11 (u-).
Its associative form is wa → uwanja wa michezo.nyuma is treated like a class 9/10 noun.
Its associative form is ya → nyuma ya shule.
So the choice between wa, ya, la, cha, etc. depends on the class of the noun that comes before it.
You could say:
- uwanja wa michezo ulio nyuma ya shule
literally: the playground which is behind the school.
Here:
- uwanja wa michezo = playground
- ulio = “which is” (relative form of -li- “be” for class 11)
- nyuma ya shule = behind the school
In your original sentence, nyuma ya shule modifies the verb phrase (where we will walk to).
With ulio nyuma ya shule, it more tightly attaches to uwanja wa michezo as part of its description.
- -tembea = to walk
- -enda = to go
So:
Tutatembea hadi uwanja wa michezo…
= We will walk to the playground. (focus on the manner of moving)Tutaenda hadi uwanja wa michezo…
= We will go to the playground. (movement, but not necessarily on foot)
Yes, Leo tutaenda hadi uwanja wa michezo nyuma ya shule is correct; it just doesn’t specify that you’ll go on foot.
Leo tutatembea hadi uwanja wa michezo nyuma ya shule is a plain future statement:
- It typically sounds like a plan or decision that has been made.
- It is not inherently polite or impolite—just neutral and factual.
If you wanted it to sound more like a suggestion, you might say, for example:
- Leo tutembee hadi uwanja wa michezo… (subjunctive: let’s walk…)
- Leo tutaenda… sawa? (We’ll go…, okay?)
To make the future negative, ha- replaces the positive subject prefix, and -ta- often stays:
- hatutatembea = ha- (negative) + tu- (we) + -ta- (future) + tembea (walk)
So the full sentence is:
- Leo hatutatembea hadi uwanja wa michezo nyuma ya shule.
= Today we will not walk to the playground behind the school.
Yes, the clause structure is broadly similar to English SVO, but the subject is baked into the verb:
- Leo – time adverb (“today”)
- tutatembea – verb with subject and tense (“we will walk”)
- hadi uwanja wa michezo – prepositional phrase (“to the playground”)
- nyuma ya shule – another prepositional phrase (“behind the school”)
So in English-like terms:
[Time] + [Subject+Verb] + [Destination] + [Location detail].
Approximate pronunciations (stress usually on the second-to-last syllable):
- tutatembea → too-tah-tem-BEH-ah
- uwanja → oo-WAN-jah
- michezo → mee-CHEH-zo (ch as in “church”)
- shule → SHOO-leh (sh as in “shoe”)
Swahili vowels are generally pure and consistent:
a (father), e (bet), i (machine), o (more), u (food).