Breakdown of Sasa dada yangu haandiki shajara; anasoma kitabu cha hadithi.
Questions & Answers about Sasa dada yangu haandiki shajara; anasoma kitabu cha hadithi.
Sasa literally means “now”. In this sentence it sets the time: right now / at this moment.
It can also function a bit like English “so / well / now,” to introduce a new topic or contrast, depending on tone.
You can move it around without changing the basic meaning:
- Sasa dada yangu haandiki shajara; anasoma kitabu cha hadithi.
- Dada yangu sasa haandiki shajara; anasoma kitabu cha hadithi.
Both are acceptable. Putting sasa at the very start is very natural when you’re contrasting with what she usually does or what she did before.
The difference comes from noun classes and how possessives agree with them.
- dada (“sister”) belongs to the N-class (class 9/10).
- N-class nouns take possessive forms with y-, so -angu → yangu.
- That’s why we say dada yangu = my sister.
The possessive patterns (singular) are:
- Class 1 (m-/wa-): wangu → mtoto wangu (my child)
- Class 7 (ki-/vi-): changu → kitabu changu (my book)
- Class 9/10 (N-class): yangu → dada yangu, nyumba yangu
So dada wangu is not standard; dada yangu is the correct form.
Literally, dada yangu just means “my sister” and does not by itself mark older vs younger in a strict way.
However, in many descriptions of Swahili:
- dada tends to be associated with an older sister.
- To be explicit, speakers often say:
- dada yangu mkubwa – my older sister
- dada yangu mdogo – my younger sister
In everyday speech, people may simply use dada yangu and let context make it clear, especially if they only have one sister, or if the age difference is not important.
Swahili normally does not use separate subject pronouns (I, you, she, etc.) the way English does. Instead, the subject is built into the verb prefix.
- anasoma = a- (she/he) + -na- (present) + soma (read)
So:
- Anasoma kitabu already means “She is reading a book”.
- You could say Yeye anasoma kitabu, but yeye (she/he) is only added for emphasis or contrast, not because it’s required grammatically.
In this sentence, dada yangu is the subject noun, and the verb prefix a- agrees with it, so there is no need for an extra “she.”
The dictionary form is kuandika = to write.
Affirmative present (“is writing / writes”):
- anaandika
- a- = she/he
- -na- = present tense
- -andika = write
Negative present:
- haandiki
- ha- = negative marker for 3rd person singular
- -andik- = verb root
- -i = final vowel used in many present negatives
The reason you see haa- is that:
- The negative prefix is ha-.
- The verb stem starts with a (andika).
- When you put them together, you get ha + andik + i → haandiki.
So haandiki means “she does not write / she is not writing.”
Both verbs are in the present, but:
anasoma (a-na-soma) is present / present continuous:
- “she reads” / “she is reading” (context decides whether it feels like a general habit or something happening now).
haandiki is the present negative:
- “she does not write” / “she is not writing.”
In this particular sentence, because of sasa (now), the natural reading is:
- haandiki – is not writing (right now)
- anasoma – is reading (right now)
So the sentence contrasts what she is not doing with what she is doing at this moment.
- shajara usually means a diary / journal / personal record book.
- daftari is a more general notebook / exercise book (e.g., for school notes).
So:
- haandiki shajara – she is not writing (in) her diary / journal.
- haandiki daftari – she is not writing in her notebook (more generic).
In this sentence, shajara suggests something more personal, like a diary of daily events or thoughts.
Swahili often omits prepositions where English would require them, especially with certain verbs and objects.
For many activities, the object alone implies the preposition:
- kuandika shajara – to write (in) a diary
- kupiga simu – to make a phone call (literally “hit phone”)
- kusoma kitabu – to read a book
So haandiki shajara is understood as “she is not writing in her diary” without needing to say katika shajara (“in the diary”).
cha is a possessive / genitive connector meaning “of”, agreeing with the noun class of kitabu.
- kitabu is class 7 (ki-/vi-), which uses cha for “of my/your/his/her/its” type connections.
- hadithi means story / stories.
So kitabu cha hadithi literally = “book of story / stories”, i.e.:
- a story book,
- a book of stories,
- depending on context, it could also be a novel or similar narrative book.
Because kitabu belongs to the ki-/vi- noun class (class 7/8), the possessive / “of” form must agree with that class.
Common “of” connectors (singular) are:
- Class 1 (m-/wa-): wa → mtoto wa jirani (the neighbour’s child)
- Class 3 (m-/mi-): wa → mti wa matunda (fruit tree)
- Class 4 (mi-): ya
- Class 5 (ji-/ma-): la
- Class 7 (ki-/vi-): cha → kitabu cha hadithi
- Class 9/10 (N-class): ya
Since kitabu is class 7, you must use cha, not ya. So kitabu cha hadithi is the correct form.
hadithi is an N-class noun whose singular and plural look the same: hadithi.
In kitabu cha hadithi, it can be understood as:
- “book of a story”
- “book of stories”
In practice, kitabu cha hadithi is almost always interpreted as a book of stories / storybook / narrative book, so the precise distinction between singular and plural is not crucial in this phrase; context does the work.
The semicolon in writing shows that the two parts are closely related:
- Now my sister is not writing her diary; she is reading a storybook.
In everyday Swahili writing and speech, you’d very often just use a comma or a conjunction, especially:
- lakini – but
- bali – but rather / instead
For example:
- Sasa dada yangu haandiki shajara, bali anasoma kitabu cha hadithi.
= Now my sister is not writing her diary, but rather she is reading a storybook.
So the semicolon is a stylistic choice in writing; in spoken Swahili you’d usually link the ideas with lakini or bali, or just intonation and a pause.