Daktari anasema nina maumivu katika pafu langu.

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Breakdown of Daktari anasema nina maumivu katika pafu langu.

• kuwa na: to have
• katika: in
• kusema: to say

Questions & Answers about Daktari anasema nina maumivu katika pafu langu.

What does anasema tell me about the tense, and why isn’t it translated as “said”?

In daktari anasema, the verb anasema is:

• a- = subject prefix for he/she/it (here: the doctor)
• -na- = present tense marker
• -sema = verb root “to say”

So anasema means “(he/she) says / is saying” in the present.

Swahili present tense with -na- usually covers both English simple present and present continuous:

• Daktari anasema… = “The doctor says / is saying…”
• Daktari alisema… = “The doctor said…” (past: a-li-sema)

So the sentence is about what the doctor is saying now (or generally says), not what the doctor said in the past.

Why is it nina maumivu and not something like naumwa or ninaumwa?