Wivu unaweza kuharibu urafiki wetu.

Jealousy can destroy our friendship.

Breakdown of Wivu unaweza kuharibu urafiki wetu.

• kuweza: to be able
• wetu: our
• urafiki: the friendship
• kuharibu: to destroy
• wivu: the jealousy

Questions & Answers about Wivu unaweza kuharibu urafiki wetu.

What does wivu mean exactly? Is it jealousy or envy, and how is it used in Swahili?

Wivu is a noun meaning jealousy or envy in a general, abstract sense.

• It covers both:
  • Jealousy (fear of losing what you have, e.g. a partner, attention)
  • Envy (wanting what someone else has)
    Context usually makes it clear which shade is meant, and often people don’t distinguish the two very strictly in everyday speech.

Grammatically:

• Wivu behaves like a singular abstract noun (you normally don’t pluralize it).
• It takes u- agreement on the verb:
  • Wivu unaweza kuharibu… – Jealousy can ruin…
    (u- is the subject prefix here, matching wivu.)

You can also say things like:

• Ana wivu sana. – He/She is very jealous.
• Wivu wake unaweza kusababisha matatizo. – His/Her jealousy can cause problems.

How is unaweza formed, and what exactly does it mean here?

Unaweza comes from the verb kuweza – to be able (to), can.

Inside unaweza you have:

• u- – subject prefix (here, matching the noun wivu, which uses u- agreement)
• -na- – present tense marker (present/habitual)
• -weza – the verb root be able / can

So:

• u-na-weza → unaweza = is able to / can

In this sentence:

• Wivu unaweza kuharibu urafiki wetu.
  = Jealousy can ruin our friendship.

The idea is general ability or potential: jealousy has the power / tendency to ruin the friendship.
Depending on context, unaweza can feel like English can, is capable of, or can potentially.

What does kuharibu mean, and what does the ku- at the beginning do?

Kuharibu is the infinitive form of the verb haribu, meaning:

• to ruin
• to destroy
• to spoil
• to damage

The ku- at the beginning is the usual infinitive marker in Swahili:

• haribu – ruin (bare verb stem)
• kuharibu – to ruin (infinitive, like English to ruin)

After a verb like kuweza (to be able to), you normally keep the ku-:

• Wivu unaweza kuharibu urafiki wetu.
  Jealousy can ruin our friendship.

Other examples:

• Anaweza kuharibu kila kitu. – He/She can ruin everything.
• Usiharibu chakula. – Don’t ruin/spoil the food. (here the negative command uses the stem haribu, without ku-)

What is urafiki, and how is it related to rafiki (friend)?

Rafiki means friend.
Urafiki is a related noun meaning friendship.

So:

• rafiki – friend
• urafiki – friendship

You can think of u- here as a prefix that often turns something into an abstract noun:

• rafiki → urafiki (friend → friendship)
• mzuri (good, nice) → uzuri (goodness, beauty)

In this sentence:

• urafiki wetu – our friendship

It refers to the relationship itself, not to the individual people.

Why is it urafiki wetu and not wetu urafiki? What is the normal word order for possessives?

In Swahili, the possessed noun comes first, and the possessive word comes after it:

• urafiki wetu – friendship our → our friendship
• kitabu changu – book my → my book
• gari lao – car their → their car

So:

• ✅ urafiki wetu – correct
• ❌ wetu urafiki – wrong word order

The same pattern holds almost all the time:

• mtoto wako – your child
• nyumba yake – his/her house

What does wetu mean, and why is this particular form used with urafiki?

Wetu means our.

Swahili possessives change form depending on the noun class of the noun they describe.
Urafiki belongs to a noun class that uses w- as the possessive prefix, so:

• w-
  • -etu (our) → wetu

Compare with other classes:

• mtoto (child, class 1) → mtoto wetu (our child)
• kitabu (book, class 7) → kitabu chetu (our book)
• nyumba (house, class 9) → nyumba yetu (our house)

So here:

• urafiki
  • wetu = urafiki wetu – our friendship

The -etu part is always “our”; the first consonant changes (w-, ch-, y-, etc.) to match the noun class.

What is the overall word order of this Swahili sentence compared to English?

The sentence:

• Wivu unaweza kuharibu urafiki wetu.

Breakdown:

1. Wivu – subject: jealousy
2. unaweza kuharibu – verb phrase: can ruin
3. urafiki wetu – object: our friendship

So the pattern is:

• Subject – Verb – Object
  exactly like English:

• Jealousy can ruin our friendship.

Inside the verb phrase, the structure is:

• unaweza – can / is able to
• kuharibu – to ruin

How would I say “Jealousy cannot ruin our friendship” in Swahili?

To make it negative, you change unaweza to its negative form hauwezi:

• Wivu hauwezi kuharibu urafiki wetu.
  Jealousy cannot ruin our friendship.

Changes:

• u- → ha-u- on the verb:
  • unaweza (can) → hauwezi (cannot)

Other examples:

• Moto unaweza kuunguza nyumba. – Fire can burn a house.
• Moto hauwezi kuungua chini ya mvua nyingi. – Fire cannot burn under heavy rain.

Can wivu refer to someone’s personal jealousy, and how would I say “her jealousy” in Swahili?

Yes, wivu can refer to a specific person’s jealousy.

To say “her jealousy” (or his jealousy, since Swahili doesn’t mark gender), you use a possessive after wivu:

• wivu wake – his/her jealousy
• wivu wa Asha – Asha’s jealousy
• wivu wa mume wangu – my husband’s jealousy

Example sentences:

• Wivu wake unaweza kuharibu urafiki wetu.
  Her/His jealousy can ruin our friendship.

• Wivu wa Asha umekuwa mkubwa sana.
  Asha’s jealousy has become very great.

Are there other natural ways to express the same idea in Swahili?

Yes, you can change the verb or the object slightly while keeping the same basic meaning. For example:

• Wivu unaweza kuvunja urafiki wetu.
  Jealousy can break our friendship.

• Wivu unaweza kuharibu mahusiano yetu.
  Jealousy can ruin our relationship.

• Wivu unaweza kuua urafiki wetu.
  Jealousy can kill our friendship. (more dramatic)

• Wivu unaweza kuleta matatizo katika urafiki wetu.
  Jealousy can bring problems into our friendship.

All of these sound natural; the original kuharibu urafiki wetu is a very common and clear way to say it.