Breakdown of Nilikuwa nikisoma habari kwenye tovuti ya shule wakati umeme ulipozima.
Questions & Answers about Nilikuwa nikisoma habari kwenye tovuti ya shule wakati umeme ulipozima.
Nilikuwa nikisoma expresses a past continuous action: I was reading (an action in progress in the background).
- Nilikuwa = I was
- nikisoma = reading (ongoing action)
So the whole first part means: I was in the middle of reading.
If you say Nilisoma habari…, that normally means I read the news… (a completed event), not something that was happening when another event interrupted it. The double-verb structure (Nilikuwa… nikisoma…) makes it clear the reading was ongoing when the power went out.
nikisoma breaks down like this:
- ni- = I (subject prefix for 1st person singular)
- -ki- = marker often used for continuous / ongoing action in the past, or while / when doing X depending on context
- soma = to read
So nikisoma literally has the idea I‑(was)‑reading / I‑while‑reading.
In Nilikuwa nikisoma, the -ki- mainly shows that the action is in progress at that time in the past.
You can say it, and people will understand, but it sounds less natural for the idea of an interrupted ongoing action.
- Nilisoma habari… → I read the news… (a simple completed event)
- Nilikuwa nikisoma habari… → I was (in the process of) reading the news…
In your sentence, you want to show the reading was in progress when the electricity went off. That’s why Nilikuwa nikisoma is preferred.
Yes, you can.
- Nilikuwa nasoma habari…
- Nilikuwa nikisoma habari…
Both are commonly used to express past continuous (I was reading…). The difference is subtle and varies by region:
- Many speakers use Nilikuwa nasoma in everyday speech as the normal past progressive.
- Nilikuwa nikisoma can sound a bit more careful/formal or slightly more explicit about the ongoing nature of the action.
For your sentence, Nilikuwa nasoma habari kwenye tovuti ya shule wakati umeme ulipozima is also correct and natural.
habari is a noun in the N-class (same form for singular and plural).
- It can mean news, information, or reports.
- In this context, habari = news items or simply the news (like in English, news is grammatically singular but conceptually plural).
You don’t change its form to mark plural; habari already works as news / information without an extra plural ending.
kwenye is a common preposition meaning roughly in / on / at.
- kwenye tovuti ya shule = on the school website
You have options:
- kwenye tovuti ya shule – very common, everyday style.
- katika tovuti ya shule – a bit more formal; also correct.
- tovuti ya shule (no preposition) – sometimes used in fast/informal speech, but it can sound a bit clipped or less clear in this exact sentence.
So kwenye is a natural, neutral choice here for “on” (a website).
This is about noun classes and possessive agreement:
- tovuti (website) is typically treated as N-class (same form singular/plural).
The possessive for N-class nouns is ya (of):
- tovuti ya shule = website of the school / the school’s website
If the head noun were in a different class, the connector would change:
- mtandao wa shule – the school network/website (mtandao is class 3/4, so it takes wa)
Here, since tovuti is N-class, ya is the correct form: tovuti ya shule.
Breakdown:
- wakati = when / the time when / while
- umeme = electricity / power
- ulipozima = when it went off
Inside ulipozima:
- u- = subject prefix for class 3 (here referring to umeme)
- -li- = past tense marker
- -po- = relative/locative time marker (when / at the time that / at the place where)
- zima = to go off / to be switched off / to extinguish
So wakati umeme ulipozima literally has the sense:
at the time when the electricity went off.
It introduces the interrupting event that happened while you were reading.
The -po- in ulipozima is very typical after wakati. It creates a kind of relative/time clause:
- wakati umeme ulipozima ≈ the time when the power went off
You can say:
- wakati umeme ulizima
and people will still understand when the power went off, but:
- wakati … ulipozima sounds more standard and natural in careful Swahili.
- The -po- ties the verb more tightly to wakati, clearly giving a “the time at which…” meaning.
So ulipozima fits the pattern wakati + [verb with -po-].
All three can describe losing power, but there are nuances:
umeme ulipozima – when the electricity went off
- zima = to go out / to be turned off
- Very common in this kind of narrative sentence.
umeme ulikatika – the electricity was cut / the power cut
- katika (in this sense) = to be cut / interrupted
- Often used for power cuts and also network cuts (e.g. mtandao umekatika).
umeme ulizimika – the electricity went out / extinguished by itself
- -zima vs -zimika: -zimika is more clearly intransitive (“to go out by itself”).
In everyday speech, you’ll often hear umeme ulikatika or umeme umekatika. In your sentence, ulipozima fits well with the specific timing idea after wakati.
Yes. Both orders are correct:
- Nilikuwa nikisoma habari kwenye tovuti ya shule wakati umeme ulipozima.
- Wakati umeme ulipozima, nilikuwa nikisoma habari kwenye tovuti ya shule.
Swahili allows this kind of reordering. Putting wakati umeme ulipozima first slightly emphasizes the time of the power cut, but the meaning is the same.
Both actions are in the past, so both clauses take past marking:
- Nilikuwa nikisoma – I was reading (background past action)
- umeme ulipozima – when the electricity went off (past event)
If you change the tense, you change the time frame or meaning:
- Nilikuwa nikisoma… wakati umeme unazima – would sound strange: I was reading… when the power is going off (mismatched times).
- Ninasoma habari… wakati umeme unazima – would describe something that happens now / habitually, not a specific past event.
For a single event in the past, both parts naturally use past forms, as in your sentence.