Breakdown of Mwalimu alisimama upande mmoja wa ubao na akatoa msisitizo juu ya sarufi mpya ya “-enye”.
Questions & Answers about Mwalimu alisimama upande mmoja wa ubao na akatoa msisitizo juu ya sarufi mpya ya “-enye”.
Ali- is the past tense marker plus subject agreement for he/she:
- a- = subject marker for he/she (3rd person singular)
- -li- = past tense marker
- simama = verb root meaning to stand / to stand up / to stop (moving)
So alisimama literally breaks down as:
- a- (he/she) + -li- (past) + simama (stand)
→ he/she stood / he/she stood up.
In this sentence it means “the teacher stood (up)”.
Upande mmoja wa ubao breaks down like this:
- upande = side
- mmoja = one (here: one single)
- wa = of (genitive connector)
- ubao = board (here: blackboard / whiteboard)
Literally: “one side of the board.”
So alisimama upande mmoja wa ubao = “(he/she) stood on one side of the board.”
The connector wa / ya / cha / la etc. must agree with the noun class of the first noun.
- upande belongs to a class that takes wa in this construction.
- So we say upande mmoja wa ubao (side of the board).
If the first noun were different, the connector would change, for example:
- kitabu cha mwalimu = the teacher’s book (because kitabu takes cha)
- meza ya mwalimu = the teacher’s table (because meza takes ya)
Here, upande happens to pair with wa, so upande … wa ubao is correct.
Kweye ubao means “on the board” in a more general sense (on its surface).
Upande mmoja wa ubao is more specific: “on one side of the board.”
- kwenye ubao → location on the board
- upande mmoja wa ubao → one particular side/edge/position relative to the board
So they’re not interchangeable; the original phrase emphasizes that the teacher was on one side of the board, not just anywhere “on” it.
Each version has a slightly different feel:
na akatoa msisitizo…
Literally: and he gave emphasis….
The a- repeats the subject, so it feels like “and then he (also) did…”, marking a second, separate action.na kutoa msisitizo…
Literally: and (he) to give emphasis…
Here, kutoa is an infinitive, and it sounds more like a continuation of the first action rather than a clearly separate step. It’s less natural in this particular sentence.Just akatoa msisitizo…
You’d lose the explicit “and”. It’s grammatical but loses the clear “stood and then emphasized” link.
Using na akatoa nicely shows two successive actions in the past: he stood, and then he emphasized.
- toa = to give, to take out, to bring out
- msisitizo = emphasis (noun derived from kusisitiza = to emphasize)
kutoa msisitizo literally: “to give emphasis”, which corresponds to English “to put emphasis (on)” or “to emphasize.”
Swahili often uses kutoa + abstract noun to express actions:
- kutoa mfano = to give an example
- kutoa maelezo = to give an explanation
- kutoa ruhusa = to give permission
So kutoa msisitizo is a natural collocation: “to give/lay emphasis.”
Yes, juu ya literally means “on / on top of.” But it also has a figurative meaning: “about, regarding, concerning.”
In this sentence:
- msisitizo juu ya sarufi mpya ya -enye
= “emphasis on the new grammar of -enye”
→ figuratively: “emphasis about / regarding the new ‘-enye’ grammar.”
Other examples of the figurative use:
- tutaongea juu ya kazi = we will talk about work
- kitabu juu ya historia = a book about history
So here juu ya is best understood as “on / about / concerning.”
- sarufi = grammar
- mpya = new
- ya = of (agreeing with sarufi)
- -enye = the grammatical element being discussed
So sarufi mpya ya -enye literally means:
- “the new grammar of -enye”
→ more naturally: “the new grammar topic about -enye” or “the new -enye grammar.”
Structurally it’s:
sarufi (grammar) + mpya (new) + ya (of) + -enye
-enye is a special adjectival/relative stem meaning roughly “having / with / that has.”
It agrees with the noun class of the noun it describes:
- mtu mwenye pesa = a person with money / who has money
- nyumba yenye milango mingi = a house with many doors
- kiti chenye miguu minne = a chair with four legs
- shida zenye ufumbuzi rahisi = problems that have an easy solution
You don’t use -enye alone; it combines with a class prefix:
- mwenye, wenye
- chenye
- lenye
- yenye, zenye, etc.
In the sentence, -enye is being mentioned as a grammatical item (a topic), not actually used in a phrase.
Because here -enye is being referred to as a piece of grammar, not as a normal word in a sentence.
- The hyphen shows that -enye is a bound stem, not a free word; it must attach to something (like mwenye, yenye, chenye, etc.).
- The quotation marks indicate that it is being talked about as a term, like saying “the suffix -ing” in English.
So sarufi mpya ya “-enye” means “the new grammar (topic) about the element -enye.”
Yes, but there is a nuance.
- alisimama = he/she stood (plain past event)
- akasimama often appears in narratives to mark a next step in a sequence (“and then he stood…”).
If you said:
- Mwalimu akasimama upande mmoja wa ubao na akatoa msisitizo…
it would sound a bit more like storytelling: “Then the teacher stood on one side of the board and then emphasized…” The original alisimama … na akatoa… is a straightforward past description without that extra narrative flavor.
Very briefly:
- mwalimu (teacher) → class 1 (singular person), plural walimu (class 2)
- upande (side) → usually treated in the u- class (often class 11/14 in grammar tables)
- ubao (board/plank) → also an u- class noun
- msisitizo (emphasis) → class 3 (singular), plural would be misisitizo (class 4)
- sarufi (grammar) → class 9/10 (same form singular and plural)
You don’t need to memorize the numbers immediately, but knowing the prefixes (m- / wa-, u-, m-/mi-, etc.) helps you choose the right agreements like wa, ya, cha, la, yenye, and so on.