Watoto walikuwa wakiwafukuza bata, lakini babu aliwaambia waache.

The children were chasing the ducks, but grandfather told them to stop.

Breakdown of Watoto walikuwa wakiwafukuza bata, lakini babu aliwaambia waache.

• mtoto: the child
• lakini: but
• kuambia: to tell
• kuacha: to stop
• babu: the grandfather
• bata: the duck
• kufukuza: to chase

Questions & Answers about Watoto walikuwa wakiwafukuza bata, lakini babu aliwaambia waache.

What is the difference between waliwafukuza and walikuwa wakiwafukuza? Why use the longer form here?

Waliwafukuza means they chased them (away), a simple past action, with no special focus on it being ongoing.

Walikuwa wakiwafukuza is a past continuous / progressive form:

• walikuwa = they were
• wakiwafukuza = (while) they were chasing them

So the whole phrase walikuwa wakiwafukuza means they were chasing them (an action in progress at that time).

Structurally:

• wa- = they (subject, class 2 – people)
• -li- (inside walikuwa) = past tense of kuwa (to be)
• -ki- (inside waki-) = progressive/“while doing” marker
• -wa- (inside wakiwafukuza) = them (object, here = the ducks)
• fukuza = chase (away)

Using walikuwa wakiwafukuza makes it clear the children were in the middle of chasing the ducks when the grandfather spoke, not just that they did it at some point in the past.

How exactly is wakiwafukuza built up, piece by piece?

Wakiwafukuza can be broken down like this:

• wa- = they (subject prefix, class 2 – watoto)
• -ki- = progressive marker (“while doing, as they were doing”)
• -wa- = them (object prefix, referring to bata – the ducks)
• fukuza = root meaning to chase away, drive away

So wakiwafukuza literally means they-ki-them-chase-away → as they were chasing them (away).

Combined with walikuwa, you get walikuwa wakiwafukuza → they were (busy) chasing them.

Why is the object marker -wa- used in wakiwafukuza for bata? Shouldn’t ducks be non-human and use something like -zi-?

In strict noun-class terms, bata (duck/ducks) is usually class 9/10, whose object marker would be -i- / -zi-.

However, in real Swahili usage, animate beings (especially animals) are very often treated with human/animate agreement, especially in pronouns and object markers. So -wa- is used to refer to the ducks as animate plural beings, not as inanimate objects.

So:

• Grammatically strict: ducks = class 9/10 → object -zi-
• Natural spoken/written Swahili (as here): ducks = animate plural → object -wa-

Thus, wakiwafukuza = as they were chasing them (the ducks, treated as animate).

How do we know that bata is plural here, since the form bata can be both singular and plural?

The noun bata itself does not change form between singular and plural; context and agreement tell you which it is.

Here, there are two clues that bata is plural:

1. The object marker -wa- in wakiwafukuza

   • -wa- indicates a plural animate object (them), not a single duck.

2. The logic of the situation

   • Children (watoto, plural) chasing only one duck is possible, but more naturally we imagine several ducks.

So even though bata itself doesn’t change, wakiwafukuza strongly suggests bata = ducks (plural).

What does lakini mean and how is it used in Swahili?

Lakini means but / however, and it’s used as a conjunction to contrast two clauses, much like but in English.

In the sentence:

• Watoto walikuwa wakiwafukuza bata, lakini babu aliwaambia waache.
  → The children were chasing the ducks, but grandfather told them to stop.

Lakini introduces the contrasting action: the grandfather’s intervention opposed the children’s behavior.

How is aliwaambia formed and what exactly does it mean?

Aliwaambia breaks down like this:

• a- = he/she (subject prefix, class 1 – here refers to babu)
• -li- = past tense marker
• -wa- = them (object prefix – here refers to watoto, the children)
• ambi = verbal root from ambia, to tell, inform, say to someone
• -a = final vowel of the verb

So aliwaambia literally means he-past-them-tell → he told them.

In context: it’s babu (grandfather) telling watoto (the children) something: aliwaambia waache = he told them to stop.

What form is waache, and why does it end in -e instead of -a like kuacha?

Waache is the subjunctive (or jussive) form of the verb kuacha (to stop / to leave / to abandon).

Breakdown:

• wa- = they (subject prefix, referring to the children)
• ach- = verb root (from kuacha)
• -e = subjunctive final vowel

The -a → -e change is standard for the subjunctive in Swahili:

• kuenda → waende (that they go)
• kula → wale (that they eat)
• kuacha → waache (that they stop / that they leave it)

The subjunctive is used after verbs of saying, telling, ordering, wishing, etc.:

• aliwaambia waache
  → he told them (that) they should stop.

In waache, is wa- the subject (they) or the object (them)? Who is supposed to stop?

In waache, wa- is the subject prefix, so it means they should stop.

Why?

Swahili verb template (simplified) is:

• Subject – (Tense/Aspect/Negation) – (Object) – Verb root – Final vowel

If wa- were an object marker, there would need to be a separate subject marker before it (for example a-wa-ache = that he leave them).

But in waache we have just:

• wa- (subject) + ach- (root) + -e (subjunctive)

So:

• waache = that they stop (subject = the children, watoto)

The thing they are to stop is understood from context (stop chasing the ducks). A more explicit version would be:

• Aliwaambia waache kuwafukuza bata.
  → He told them to stop chasing the ducks.

Could aliwaambia waache ever mean “he told them to leave them (the ducks) alone”?

Yes, that is a very natural interpretation in English, even though the Swahili doesn’t explicitly repeat the object.

Swahili:

• Aliwaambia waache.

Literal structure:

• he told them that they should stop (it / that action).

From context, what they should stop is clear: wakiwafukuza bata (chasing the ducks). In English, we often express this nuance as:

• He told them to stop.
• He told them to leave them alone.

If you wanted to be explicitly Swahili-clear that the ducks are the ones to be left alone, you could say:

• Aliwaambia waache kuwafukuza bata.
  → He told them to stop chasing the ducks.

Why is kuwa used here (walikuwa wakiwafukuza) instead of just a simple tense like walifukuza?

Using kuwa plus a -ki- verb (walikuwa wakiwafukuza) creates a past continuous idea: the action was ongoing at that moment.

Compare:

• Watoto walifukuza bata.
  → The children chased the ducks. (a simple, completed action)

• Watoto walikuwa wakiwafukuza bata.
  → The children were chasing the ducks. (we imagine them in the middle of the act when something else happens—in this case, grandfather speaking)

This is similar to English was/were + -ing:

• They chased the ducks vs. They were chasing the ducks.

Does babu always mean grandfather, or can it also mean old man?

Babu generally means:

1. Grandfather (most common, especially in family contexts)
2. By extension, an old man / elder, sometimes used respectfully or semi-colloquially.

In this sentence, given the family-like storyline, babu is most naturally understood as grandfather:

• Watoto (children)
• babu (grandfather)

So the usual translation is:

• The children were chasing the ducks, but grandfather told them to stop.

Could this sentence also be written as “Watoto waliwafukuza bata, lakini babu aliwaambia waache”? If so, what changes in meaning?

Yes, it is grammatically correct to say:

• Watoto waliwafukuza bata, lakini babu aliwaambia waache.

Compared to walikuwa wakiwafukuza, here waliwafukuza is simple past:

• waliwafukuza = they chased them (away)
• walikuwa wakiwafukuza = they were chasing them (continuous, in progress)

So:

• waliwafukuza: more like a completed action at some past time.
• walikuwa wakiwafukuza: paints the scene as ongoing when the grandfather intervenes.

Both are correct; the original version just gives a more vivid, in-progress feel.