Breakdown of Sipendi kufanya kitu cha kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
Questions & Answers about Sipendi kufanya kitu cha kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
In Swahili, the subject (I, you, he/she etc.) is usually built into the verb as a prefix.
- penda = to like / to love (verb root)
- ni- = I (subject prefix, positive)
- si- = I (subject prefix, negative)
In the present habitual tense:
- Positive: napenda = I like
- Negative: sipendi = I don’t like
So sipendi already means I don’t like. You don’t add a separate word for I or don’t; the prefix si- takes care of both.
Yes, it works very similarly to English I don’t like to do X / I don’t like doing X.
- kufanya = to do / doing (the infinitive form of fanya)
In Swahili, after kupenda / kupenda + infinitive, it’s normal to say:
- Napenda kusoma. = I like to read / I like reading.
- Sipendi kufanya kazi. = I don’t like to work / I don’t like working.
So Sipendi kufanya kitu… is literally I don’t like to do something… or I don’t like doing something…. Both English translations are acceptable; Swahili just uses the infinitive form ku- + verb.
Kitu is a noun meaning thing, from noun class 7 (ki-/vi-).
In this sentence, kitu is being used in an indefinite sense, so in natural English it comes out as something:
- kitu cha kutia wivu…
≈ something that makes … jealous
Literal: a thing of causing jealousy, but we would normally translate it as something that makes…. This is a common way to express something that… in Swahili.
Cha is the associative / possessive agreement marker for noun class 7 (ki-/vi-). It often corresponds to of or that in English, depending on context.
- Noun class 7 singular: kitu
- Its cha form: kitu cha … = thing of … / thing that …
In kitu cha kutia wivu, the structure is:
- kitu (thing / something)
- cha (class 7 associative)
- kutia wivu (to cause jealousy / to make jealous)
So kitu cha kutia wivu literally is a thing of causing jealousy, which functions like something that makes [someone] jealous. This cha + infinitive pattern is a very common way to say something to do X / something that does X.
Yes, you can, and the meaning is very close.
kitu cha kutia wivu marafiki wangu
- Structure: [kitu] [cha] [kutia wivu] [marafiki wangu]
- Literally: a thing of causing jealousy to my friends
- Natural English: something that makes my friends jealous
kitu kinachowatia wivu marafiki wangu
- Structure: [kitu] [kinacho-] [wa-tia wivu] [marafiki wangu]
- kinacho- is a class 7 relative marker (ki-
- -nacho-) = which / that
- Literally: a thing which puts jealousy into them, my friends
Both are grammatical. The cha + infinitive version feels a bit more compact and is very common in everyday speech. The kinachowatia version uses an explicit relative verb form and can sound a bit more formal or explicit, like the thing that makes my friends jealous.
Breakdown:
- tia = to put, to insert, to cause
- wivu = jealousy
So kutia wivu literally means to put jealousy (into someone), and idiomatically to make someone jealous / to cause jealousy.
Compare:
- kuwa na wivu = to have jealousy / to be jealous
(describes the feeling in the person who is jealous) - kutia wivu mtu = to make someone jealous
(what you do that causes the other person’s jealousy)
In your sentence, kitu cha kutia wivu marafiki wangu means something that makes my friends jealous, not something that is jealous.
Yes. Marafiki wangu (my friends) are the people who become jealous; they are the object of what is being caused:
- kutia wivu mtu = to make a person jealous
- kutia wivu marafiki wangu = to make my friends jealous
So the structure is:
- kitu cha [kutia wivu] [marafiki wangu]
= something that [causes jealousy in] [my friends]
Word order in Swahili here is:
- Verb phrase: kutia wivu
- Direct object: marafiki wangu
That’s normal: [verb] [object], just like kula chakula, kusoma vitabu, kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
Both forms are heard, but there is a grammatical explanation.
The noun rafiki / marafiki behaves a bit unusually:
Many speakers (and many modern descriptions) treat rafiki / marafiki like a class 1/2 (m-/wa-) human noun:
- singular: rafiki yangu (my friend)
- plural: marafiki wangu (my friends)
- Here wangu agrees with class 2 (wa-).
More traditionally, rafiki is class 9/10, with a plural that is sometimes still rafiki or marafiki, and adjectives/possessives would take yangu / zangu:
- singular: rafiki yangu
- plural: marafiki zangu / rafiki zangu
In current everyday usage, marafiki wangu is extremely common and widely accepted, especially in Kenya and Tanzania. So the phrase in your sentence, marafiki wangu, is natural modern Swahili.
Yes, you can say:
- Sipendi kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
= I don’t like making my friends jealous.
The difference is nuance:
Sipendi kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
Focuses directly on the action of making them jealous.Sipendi kufanya kitu cha kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
Emphasizes doing some kind of thing / any action that has the effect of making them jealous. It sounds slightly more indirect: I don’t like to do anything that would make my friends jealous.
So the longer version stresses any kind of thing / any action, not just the act of making them jealous in a direct sense.
Sipendi is negative present habitual:
- Napenda = I like / I love (generally, habitually, right now in a general sense)
- Sipendi = I don’t like / I don’t love
It describes a general preference or attitude, not just one time.
Sikupenda is negative past:
- Nilipenda = I liked / I loved (in the past)
- Sikupenda = I did not like / I did not love (that time / then)
So:
Sipendi kufanya kitu cha kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
= I generally don’t like doing anything that makes my friends jealous.Sikupenda kufanya kitu cha kutia wivu marafiki wangu.
= On that particular occasion / in that situation, I did not like doing something that made my friends jealous.