Breakdown of Leo tutaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu.
Questions & Answers about Leo tutaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu.
tutaandika is one Swahili verb made of several pieces stuck together:
- tu- = subject prefix for “we”
- -ta- = future tense marker (“will”)
- -andika = verb root “write”
So: tu- + -ta- + -andika → tutaandika = “we will write.”
In Swahili, these pieces are always written together as one word, not separated like English “we will write.”
In Swahili the subject is normally built into the verb:
- tu- in tutaandika already means “we”.
Because of that, you usually do not need an extra subject pronoun like sisi (“we”).
You can say Sisi tutaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu, but then sisi is for emphasis, like:
- We (as opposed to someone else) will write a short essay about our family.
So:
- tutaandika = we will write (neutral)
- Sisi tutaandika = we will write (emphatic)
Leo is flexible in position. All of these are possible and natural:
- Leo tutaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu.
- Tutaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu leo.
- Leo, tutaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu. (with a pause/comma in speech)
Putting leo at the beginning is very common, but placing it at the end is also fine and does not change the basic meaning. The difference is mainly in rhythm and slight emphasis:
- Start: Leo is highlighted (Today, we will write…)
- End: The action is described first; leo just adds when.
tutaandika is specifically future tense and always means “we will write.”
Depending on context, English might translate it as:
- we will write
- we are going to write
But grammatically in Swahili, it is always future, not present.
To talk about something you do regularly, you’d use the present tense:
- Tunaandika insha kila wiki. = We write essays every week.
To say you are writing right now:
- Tunaandika insha sasa. = We are writing an essay now.
So:
- tutaandika → future
- tunaandika → present / present progressive
Yes. insha usually means a school composition or essay, the kind of thing students write in language class.
Typical uses:
- Kuandika insha = to write an essay/composition
- Insha ya Kiswahili = a Swahili composition
It strongly suggests that this is a school-type writing task, not, for example, a scientific paper or a literary novel.
In Swahili, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe:
- mtoto mdogo = small child
- kitabu kizuri = good book
- insha fupi = short essay
So:
- insha = essay
- fupi = short
Putting them together: insha fupi = “essay short” in word order, but in English we say “short essay.”
Saying fupi insha would be ungrammatical in standard Swahili.
Yes. Adjectives in Swahili must agree with the noun class of the noun they modify.
- insha belongs to noun class 9/10 (often called the N-class).
- The adjective -fupi (“short”) takes different forms in different classes, for example:
- mtu mfupi (class 1: a short person)
- watu wafupi (class 2: short people)
- insha fupi (class 9: a short essay)
In noun class 9/10, many adjectives don’t add a visible prefix; the form appears simply as fupi. That’s why we see insha fupi, not insha mfupi or something similar.
kuhusu is a preposition (or prepositional verb form) that usually means:
- about, regarding, concerning
In this sentence:
- insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu
= a short essay about our family
You can use kuhusu with many nouns:
- kitabu kuhusu historia = a book about history
- mazungumzo kuhusu kazi = a conversation about work
A rough pattern is:
- X kuhusu Y = X about Y
Yes, you can. Both are used to mean “about”:
- insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu
- insha fupi juu ya familia yetu
They’re both understandable and accepted. Small nuances (which many speakers don’t even feel strongly):
- kuhusu – very common for “about/regarding” (quite neutral).
- juu ya – literally “on/over,” but widely used for “about,” sometimes feels a bit closer to “on the topic of.”
In everyday speech and writing, they are often interchangeable in sentences like this.
Yes. In Swahili, possessive adjectives normally follow the noun:
- kitabu changu = my book
- rafiki yako = your friend
- familia yetu = our family
So the order is:
- Noun
- Possessive
yetu familia would be wrong in standard Swahili.
The word familia is in noun class 9/10 (same as insha, safari, ndizi, etc.).
Possessives change form depending on the noun class. For class 9/10, the possessive forms are:
- yangu – my
- yako – your (sg.)
- yake – his/her
- yetu – our
- yenu – your (pl.)
- yao – their
So:
- familia yetu = our family
- familia yao = their family
The y- at the start of yetu is the agreement marker for this noun class.
Yes, you can say:
- Leo tunaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu.
But the meaning changes:
- tutaandika = we will write (future)
- tunaandika = we are writing / we write (present)
So:
- Leo tutaandika… = Today we will write… (future plan)
- Leo tunaandika… = Today we are writing… (happening now, or at least already under way)
Both are grammatical; which one you use depends on the time meaning you want.
In the middle of the sentence, the order is fairly stable:
- Verb – tutaandika
- Object noun phrase – insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu
Within the object phrase:
- insha (noun)
- fupi (adjective)
- kuhusu familia yetu (prepositional phrase)
You generally cannot reorder these like English:
- ❌ tutaandika fupi insha kuhusu familia yetu
- ❌ tutaandika kuhusu familia yetu insha fupi (sounds awkward and wrong)
So the natural order is:
- Verb + [Noun + Adjective + kuhusu + [Noun + Possessive]]
- tutaandika insha fupi kuhusu familia yetu.
You can, however, as mentioned, move leo (time word) to the beginning or end without trouble.