Breakdown of Mimi nilikuwa nikijaribu kuandika sentensi ndefu, lakini kalamu yangu ilikosa wino.
Questions & Answers about Mimi nilikuwa nikijaribu kuandika sentensi ndefu, lakini kalamu yangu ilikosa wino.
You don’t need Mimi, because ni- in nilikuwa already means “I”.
- Mimi nilikuwa… = I, I was… / As for me, I was… (adds emphasis or contrast)
- Nilikuwa… = I was… (perfectly normal and often more natural in the middle of a conversation)
So:
- Mimi nilikuwa nikijaribu… – slightly more emphatic (e.g. contrasting with someone else)
- Nilikuwa nikijaribu… – neutral, completely correct
Using Mimi is not wrong; it just adds a bit of focus to the subject “I”.
Nilikuwa nikijaribu is a common way to express a past continuous / past progressive idea: “I was trying”.
Breakdown:
- ni- = I
- -li- = past tense marker
- -kuwa = to be
- ni- = I (again, for the second verb)
- -ki- = “while / in the middle of (doing)” – a continuous or background aspect
- -jaribu = try
So nilikuwa nikijaribu literally feels like:
I was (there), while I was trying…
→ I was trying…
It presents trying as an ongoing background action, which then gets interrupted by kalamu yangu ilikosa wino (my pen ran out of ink).
In Swahili, each finite verb normally has its own subject prefix, so you repeat ni-:
- ni-li-kuwa = I was
- ni-ki-jaribu = I was-while-trying
You cannot drop the ni- from nikijaribu:
- ✅ nilikuwa nikijaribu
- ❌ nilikuwa kijaribu
The -ki- form (nikijaribu) is itself a verb with subject and aspect marking, not just a bare participle, so it needs the ni-.
They are both correct but differ in aspect (how the action is viewed):
Nilikuwa nikijaribu kuandika…
- Focus: ongoing / in progress action in the past
- Feels like “I was in the middle of trying to write…”, background action
Nilijaribu kuandika…
- ni-li-jaribu = I-past-tried
- Focus: a completed attempt (or attempts)
- Feels like “I tried to write…” (you made the attempt; it’s viewed as a whole event)
In your sentence, nilikuwa nikijaribu matches well because the action gets interrupted by the pen running out of ink. It sets the scene like background in a story.
Both can express a past progressive idea, but they come from two slightly different systems:
nilikuwa nikijaribu kuandika
- Uses -ki- (nikijaribu) for a “while/ongoing” sense
- Feels a bit more narrative or background:
I was (there), while trying to write…
nilikuwa najaribu kuandika
- Here na- is the progressive marker attaching to jaribu
(ni-li-kuwa na-jaribu → nilikuwa najaribu) - Also means “I was trying to write”, and is widely used and understood.
- Here na- is the progressive marker attaching to jaribu
In everyday speech you will hear both. Many speakers might not feel a strong difference, but:
- -ki- often has a “while / in the middle of” flavour
- na- (progressive) can feel a bit more neutral continuous
For learning purposes, you can treat them as near-equivalents in this kind of sentence.
After verbs like kujaribu (to try), it’s very common to use the infinitive form (ku- + verb):
- nikijaribu kuandika = while I was trying to write
Patterns like:
- Jaribu kuandika. – Try to write.
- Alijaribu kufungua mlango. – He/She tried to open the door.
You can see structures like jaribu uniandikie (“try and write to me”), but that is different: uniandikie is a subjunctive form with an object (“write to me”).
For a simple “try to do X”, the natural pattern is:
kujaribu + ku-verb
nikijaribu kuandika = I was trying to write
The basic adjective for long / tall is -refu, but it changes form depending on the noun class.
- Sentensi is a class 9 noun (the “N-class” – many words that end in a consonant or -i, like barua, safari, kalamu, sentensi).
For class 9 nouns, -refu becomes ndefu:
- sentensi ndefu – a long sentence
- barua ndefu – a long letter
- safari ndefu – a long journey
So sentensi refu is wrong; the correct agreement form is ndefu.
Literal breakdown:
- kalamu = pen (class 9)
- yangu = my (agreeing with class 9)
- i-li-kosa = it (class 9) – past – lack / fail to have
- wino = ink
So literally:
kalamu yangu ilikosa wino ≈ my pen lacked ink / failed to have ink
In context, this is understood as:
my pen ran out of ink / my pen had no ink
About kukosa:
- kukosa means to lack, to miss, to fail to have, to be without.
- Used here, it describes the result: at that moment, the pen didn’t have ink (it was out of ink).
Other common ways to say “ran out of ink” include:
- kalamu yangu iliisha wino
- kalamu yangu iliishiwa na wino
Your sentence with ilikosa wino is still natural and clear.
Because kalamu is not a person, and it belongs to noun class 9.
In Swahili, the verb’s subject prefix changes with the noun class:
- Class 1 (person, singular): a-
- mtu alikosa – the person lacked / missed
- Class 9 (kalamu, safari, barua, etc.): i-
- kalamu ilikosa – the pen lacked / missed
So:
- ✅ kalamu yangu ilikosa wino (correct: i- for class 9)
- ❌ kalamu yangu alikosa wino (a- would be for a person)
Similarly, with the possessive:
- kalamu yangu (class 9 → yangu)
not kalamu wangu (that’s for class 1, like mtu wangu).
In Swahili, when a verb takes a direct object, you usually just put the noun straight after the verb without any “of”:
- alikula chakula – he/she ate food
- nimekunywa maji – I have drunk water
- alikosa usingizi – he/she lacked sleep
So:
- kalamu yangu ilikosa wino = my pen lacked ink
Here wino is a direct object; there’s no need for wa wino.
A phrase like wa wino would more likely be used in a noun–noun construction, for example:
- chupa ya wino – a bottle of ink
- rangi ya wino – the color of the ink
Basic, neutral Swahili word order is Subject – Verb – (Object / Complements), similar to English.
In your sentence:
- Mimi / nilikuwa nikijaribu… → Subject (I)
- kalamu yangu ilikosa… → Subject (my pen)
So:
- ✅ Mimi nilikuwa nikijaribu kuandika sentensi ndefu, lakini kalamu yangu ilikosa wino.
- ✅ Nilikuwa nikijaribu kuandika sentensi ndefu, lakini kalamu yangu ilikosa wino. (dropping Mimi)
Putting mimi at the end like:
- … kuandika sentensi ndefu mimi
would usually sound odd or emphatic in a strange way, and isn’t how you’d normally say it.
You can move Mimi for emphasis at the beginning or occasionally after a pause:
- Mimi, nilikuwa nikijaribu… (As for me, I was trying…)
but not naturally after the whole clause in this type of sentence.
Yes, lakini functions much like English “but” as a coordinating conjunction:
- Nilitaka kuja, lakini sikuweza. – I wanted to come, but I couldn’t.
In your sentence:
- …, lakini kalamu yangu ilikosa wino. – …, but my pen ran out of ink.
You can often use ila in a similar way; it also means “but / except”:
- Nilitaka kuja, ila sikuweza.
Both lakini and ila are common. Lakini is a bit more neutral / standard in many contexts, and works perfectly here.
The comma before lakini is used much like in English: it separates two clauses. In informal writing you might see it omitted, but your punctuation is good.