Breakdown of Katika zahanati ya kijiji, muuguzi aliangalia shingo yangu na kunipa dawa.
Questions & Answers about Katika zahanati ya kijiji, muuguzi aliangalia shingo yangu na kunipa dawa.
Katika is a preposition meaning in / inside / at / within. It often sounds a bit more formal or “bookish” than some alternatives.
In this sentence it introduces the place: Katika zahanati ya kijiji = At the village dispensary.
You could also say:
- Kwenye zahanati ya kijiji – very common in everyday speech, also “at / in the village dispensary”.
- Hapo zahanati ya kijiji – “there at the village dispensary”, but this usually needs some previous context (you already know which place you’re talking about).
All three are possible in the right context; katika and kwenye are the most interchangeable here.
No, it’s not necessary; it’s a stylistic choice.
- Katika zahanati ya kijiji, muuguzi aliangalia shingo yangu na kunipa dawa.
- Muuguzi aliangalia shingo yangu na kunipa dawa katika zahanati ya kijiji.
Both are correct. Swahili often puts time or place expressions at the beginning to set the scene, similar to English “At the village dispensary, the nurse…”.
Zahanati means a small health facility / dispensary / clinic, usually smaller and less equipped than a hospitali (hospital).
Noun class:
- It’s in the N class (9/10), where singular and plural often look the same:
- singular: zahanati
- plural: zahanati (same form; context shows plural)
Because it’s class 9/10, its agreements use y- (e.g. ya, yake, hii, ile).
The choice of ya vs wa comes from the noun class of zahanati, not from kijiji.
- zahanati is class 9/10 (N-class)
- Possessive/“of” for this class uses ya:
- zahanati ya kijiji – dispensary of the village / village dispensary
Wa is used with class 1/2 (people) nouns like mtu / watu:
- mtu wa kijiji – person of the village, villager
So “zahanati wa kijiji” would be wrong because zahanati is not in the class that takes wa.
- kijiji = village (basic noun form, class 7)
- kijijini = in the village / at the village (locative form with -ni)
In zahanati ya kijiji, kijiji is just “village” in a genitive phrase:
- zahanati ya kijiji = the village’s dispensary / the village dispensary
If you said zahanati ya kijijini, it would literally be “the dispensary of in the village”, which sounds odd. To say “in the village”, you’d typically change the main location phrase, for example:
- Katika kijiji, kuna zahanati. – In the village, there is a dispensary.
- Zahanati ya kijiji iko kijijini. – The village dispensary is in the village.
So in this sentence, ya kijiji is the natural form.
Muuguzi means nurse.
Formation (simplified):
- verb kuuguza – to nurse, to care for a sick person (related to kuugua, to be ill)
- noun with m(u)- prefix: muuguzi – “one who nurses / caregiver” → nurse
Noun class:
- Class 1/2 (m-/wa-):
- singular: muuguzi – the nurse
- plural: wauguzi – the nurses
Agreements use m-/wa- and a-/wa-:
- muuguzi mzuri – good nurse
- wauguzi wazuri – good nurses
- muuguzi aliangalia… – the nurse looked…
- wauguzi waliangalia… – the nurses looked…
In Swahili, the subject pronoun is usually built into the verb as a subject prefix.
In aliangalia:
- a- = he / she (3rd person singular subject marker)
- -li- = past tense
- -angalia = look at
So aliangalia literally encodes “he/she looked at”. There is no separate word for “he” or “she” unless you want to emphasize it (e.g. Yeye aliangalia…).
Aliangalia breaks down as:
- a- – subject prefix for he / she (class 1, 3rd person singular)
- -li- – past tense marker (completed action in the past)
- -angalia – verb root “look at / watch”
So aliangalia = he/she looked at (simple past). It refers to a completed action in the past, similar to English “looked at”.
The possessive form agrees with the noun class of the thing possessed, not with the owner.
- shingo (neck) is class 9/10 (N-class).
- The 1st person singular possessive for this class is yangu:
- shingo yangu – my neck
Compare with other classes:
- mkono wangu – my arm (mkono = class 3)
- mguu wangu – my leg (mguu = class 3)
- nywele zangu – my hair (nywele = class 10 plural, uses zangu)
So:
- shingo langu – wrong (would match a different class)
- shingo zangu – “my necks” (also wrong because we normally have one neck)
Correct is shingo yangu.
Kunipa breaks down as:
- ku- – infinitive marker “to …”
- -ni- – object marker “me”
- -pa – verb root meaning “give (to)”
So kunipa literally = to give me.
In the sentence … aliangalia shingo yangu na kunipa dawa, we have a common pattern:
- First verb conjugated: aliangalia – he/she looked at
- Second verb in infinitive form with ku-: kunipa – and (then) gave me
This is like many Swahili sequences:
- Alifungua mlango na kuingia. – He opened the door and (then) entered.
- Alikaa chini na kuanza kuandika. – He sat down and (then) began to write.
You could also say … aliangalia shingo yangu na alinipa dawa, but na kunipa (with ku-) is very idiomatic when the subject and tense are already clear from the first verb.
Na is the conjunction “and”.
The structure is:
- muuguzi aliangalia shingo yangu – the nurse looked at my neck
- na kunipa dawa – and (then) gave me medicine
You only need na once to connect the two actions. It sits between the two verb phrases, just as in English “looked at my neck and gave me medicine”. Repeating na would be unusual and not needed.
Dawa is usually a mass noun meaning medicine, drug, remedy in general:
- dawa – medicine (non-count, like “water”, “sugar”)
If you need to be more specific, you add descriptors:
- dawa ya maumivu – painkillers
- dawa ya kikohozi – cough medicine
- dawa za malaria – malaria drugs (here dawa is treated as countable and takes plural za)
So in this sentence, dawa most naturally means “some medicine / the medicine” without specifying type or number. Context would tell you whether it’s pills, syrup, an injection, etc.