Breakdown of Wakati wa ziara hiyo, mwalimu ataonyesha jinsi ya kutumia kompyuta za maktaba kutafuta vitabu.
Questions & Answers about Wakati wa ziara hiyo, mwalimu ataonyesha jinsi ya kutumia kompyuta za maktaba kutafuta vitabu.
Wakati means time (or period), and wa is a possessive/prepositional marker meaning of.
So wakati wa ziara hiyo is literally the time of that visit, which in natural English is during that visit.
You need wa because Swahili expresses “during X” very often as “the time of X”:
- wakati wa vita – during the war (time of the war)
- wakati wa mchana – during the day
Without wa, wakati ziara hiyo would be ungrammatical.
Yes, you can say katika ziara hiyo, and it would still be understood as “during that visit”.
Nuance:
- wakati wa ziara hiyo – literally the time of that visit. It emphasizes the period/occasion as a block of time.
- katika ziara hiyo – literally in/inside that visit. It focuses slightly more on being within that event.
In practice, both are commonly used and often interchangeable in this kind of sentence. Learners will be fine using either.
In standard Swahili, demonstratives like hii/hiyo/ile normally come after the noun:
- ziara hiyo – that visit
- mwalimu huyu – this teacher
- vitabu vile – those books
So the normal pattern is: [noun] + [demonstrative].
Putting the demonstrative before the noun (hiyo ziara) is non‑standard in formal Swahili, though some speakers might say it informally or in certain dialects. For clear, correct Swahili, keep ziara hiyo.
Both hiyo and ile translate as that, but they differ in usage:
- hiyo – that (near the listener or already known/mentioned)
- ile – that (far away / more distant / more emphatic)
In many real situations, they overlap.
In your sentence, ziara hiyo suggests that visit we’re both thinking about / we already mentioned.
Ziara ile can sound more like that (other / more remote) visit, or add slight emotional/distance flavor.
You could say ziara ile, but ziara hiyo is more neutral and common when referring back to a previously mentioned visit.
Ataonyesha means he/she will show. It breaks down like this:
- a- – subject prefix for he/she (3rd person singular)
- -ta- – future tense marker
- -onyesha – verb stem onyesha = to show (causative form from ona, to see)
So: a‑ta‑onyesha = he/she will show.
Other examples with -ta-:
- nitaenda – I will go (ni-
- -ta-
- -enda)
- -ta-
- tutakula – we will eat (tu-
- -ta-
- -kula)
- -ta-
You add an object marker inside the verb, after the tense marker:
- mwalimu atatuonyesha – The teacher will show us.
Breakdown:
- a- – he/she
- -ta- – future
- -tu- – us (object marker)
- -onyesha – show
Compare:
- mwalimu ataonyesha jinsi… – The teacher will show how…
- mwalimu atatuonyesha jinsi… – The teacher will show us how…
Jinsi ya kutumia literally means the way of using or how to use.
- jinsi – way/manner/how
- ya – possessive of (agreeing with jinsi, which is class 9/10)
- kutumia – to use (infinitive)
So the structure is: jinsi ya + infinitive = how to + verb
Examples:
- jinsi ya kupika wali – how to cook rice
- jinsi ya kuandika barua – how to write a letter
You cannot drop ya here; jinsi kutumia is wrong. You need jinsi ya or namna ya.
Yes, you can:
- jinsi ya kutumia – how to use / the way to use
- namna ya kutumia – how to use / the method/way of using
They are very close in meaning.
Nuance (often very slight):
- jinsi – more about the manner or way in general
- namna – can sound a bit more like method, type, style
In your sentence, jinsi ya kutumia and namna ya kutumia are both acceptable and natural.
You have two infinitives in sequence:
- kutumia kompyuta za maktaba – to use the library computers
- kutafuta vitabu – to search for books
The idea is: “how to use the library computers to search for books”.
Swahili often expresses chained actions with two ku- verbs:
- alikuja kunisaidia – he came to help me
- naenda kununua chakula – I am going to buy food
So kutumia … kutafuta … is use … in order to search …. Both actions stay in the infinitive form because they depend on jinsi ya (“how to …”).
Literally, kompyuta za maktaba is computers of the library.
In natural English, that is the library computers / the library’s computers.
If you specifically wanted computers in the library (location), you could say, for example:
- kompyuta zilizopo maktaba – computers that are in the library
- kompyuta katika maktaba – computers in the library
But in normal context, kompyuta za maktaba is understood as the library’s computers, which is usually what you mean here.
The possessive marker must agree with the noun it follows, here kompyuta.
- kompyuta belongs to noun class 9/10 (the N class).
- The 9/10 possessive form is ya/za, but when plural (as here) you use za.
So:
- kompyuta za maktaba – library computers (class 10 → za)
Other examples:
- vitabu vya watoto – children’s books (class 8 → vya)
- mwalimu wa shule – teacher of the school (class 1 → wa)
So it’s za because kompyuta is treated as a plural N‑class noun in this phrase.
Swahili normally does not use separate words for “the” and “a/some”. The noun vitabu can mean:
- books
- the books
- some books
The exact sense comes from context, not from an article.
In your sentence, kutafuta vitabu is naturally understood as to search for books / to look for books (in general).
If you really needed to make it explicit, you can add words like:
- vitabu vile – those books
- vitabu fulani – certain/some specific books
- vitabu vyovyote – any books
But in normal speech, bare vitabu is enough.
Yes, that is also correct, and it slightly changes the emphasis:
Original: …jinsi ya kutumia kompyuta za maktaba kutafuta vitabu.
– how to use the library computers to search for books (focus more on using the computers).Alternative: …jinsi ya kutafuta vitabu kwa kutumia kompyuta za maktaba.
– how to search for books by using the library computers (focus more on the searching activity, and computers are the means: kwa kutumia = by using).
Both sound natural; they just highlight different parts of the action.