Breakdown of Juma ni mcheshi, lakini wakati wa mtihani huwa mtulivu kabisa.
Questions & Answers about Juma ni mcheshi, lakini wakati wa mtihani huwa mtulivu kabisa.
Ni is the Swahili equivalent of the English verb “to be” in simple statements like “X is Y.”
- Juma ni mcheshi = Juma is cheerful / Juma is a funny person.
- Structure: [Subject] + ni + [description / noun / adjective]
A few more examples:
- Asha ni mwalimu. – Asha is a teacher.
- Mji huu ni mkubwa. – This town is big.
Ni does not change for person or number. You use ni for I, you, he/she, we, they in these equational sentences:
- Mimi ni mwanafunzi. – I am a student.
- Wao ni wachezaji. – They are players.
Mcheshi describes someone who is:
- cheerful
- playful
- humorous
- sociable / fun to be with
It’s more like “a cheerful/funny person” than just “funny” in the narrow sense of “telling jokes.”
Grammatically, mcheshi is a noun in the m-/wa- (class 1/2) for people:
- singular: mcheshi – a cheerful person
- plural: wacheshi – cheerful people
Examples:
- Yeye ni mcheshi sana. – He/She is very cheerful.
- Watoto wale ni wacheshi. – Those children are cheerful.
You’ll often see mcheshi used as if it were an adjective, because it describes a person’s character, but grammatically it behaves like a noun.
Yes. Lakini means “but / however” and connects two contrasting statements.
In the sentence:
Juma ni mcheshi, lakini wakati wa mtihani huwa mtulivu kabisa.
we have:
- First idea: Juma ni mcheshi – Juma is cheerful.
- Contrast: lakini – but
- Second, contrasting idea: wakati wa mtihani huwa mtulivu kabisa – during the exam he is completely calm.
About punctuation:
- In writing, it’s common to put a comma before lakini:
…, lakini … - In speech, you just make a slight pause, like English “… but …”
You can start a sentence with Lakini too:
- Lakini wakati wa mtihani, huwa mtulivu kabisa. – But during the exam, he is completely calm.
Literally:
- wakati = time
- wa = of (a possessive/“of” linker)
- mtihani = exam
So wakati wa mtihani is “time of exam”, which in natural English is “during the exam / at exam time.”
Why wa?
- Wakati is a noun that takes the -wa form of the genitive (the “of” marker).
- wa links two nouns: wakati (time) + mtihani (exam) → time of exam.
You’ll see this pattern a lot:
- wakati wa kazi – work time / during work
- wakati wa mvua – rainy season / during the rains
So wakati wa X is a very common way to say “during X.”
Yes, in context it can refer to “exam time” in general, not just one single exam.
- wakati wa mtihani – literally “time of exam”, often understood as exam time (a type of situation).
- This can describe a general pattern: whenever it’s exam time, he’s calm.
If you really want to stress multiple exams, you can use the plural:
- wakati wa mitihani – during exams / at the time of exams.
Both are possible; the singular can still sound natural as a general situation: “during exam time.”
Huwa comes from the verb kuwa (to be), but in modern Swahili it is often used as a habitual marker meaning roughly “usually / tends to / as a rule.”
In this sentence:
- huwa mtulivu kabisa ≈ “is usually completely calm” / “tends to be completely calm.”
So the full sentence is more like:
- Juma ni mcheshi, lakini wakati wa mtihani huwa mtulivu kabisa.
→ Juma is cheerful, but during the exam he is usually completely calm.
If you say instead:
- Juma ni mcheshi, lakini wakati wa mtihani ni mtulivu kabisa.
it sounds more like a plain fact without that “usually, as a rule” nuance. Huwa makes it clear that this is Juma’s habitual behaviour in exam situations.
Other examples with huwa:
- Asubuhi huwa nakunywa kahawa. – In the morning I usually drink coffee.
- Wanafunzi huwa wanapiga kelele. – Students usually make noise.
In this usage, huwa is treated as a kind of fixed habitual marker and does not take a subject prefix.
You do not say:
- ✗ *ahuwa mtulivu
- ✗ *huwani mtulivu
Instead, you use huwa by itself, and the subject is:
- either clear from context (like Juma earlier in the sentence),
- or expressed separately with a noun or pronoun.
For example:
- Mimi huwa nachelewa. – I usually am late.
(subject mimi is separate; huwa itself is not inflected) - Juma huwa anaongea sana. – Juma usually talks a lot.
In your sentence, the subject (Juma / he) is obvious from the first clause:
- Juma ni mcheshi, lakini wakati wa mtihani huwa mtulivu kabisa.
→ the huwa mtulivu kabisa part is still talking about Juma.
You could repeat the subject if you wanted to emphasise it:
- … lakini wakati wa mtihani Juma huwa mtulivu kabisa.
- … lakini wakati wa mtihani yeye huwa mtulivu kabisa.
but it’s not necessary.
Mtulivu means calm, quiet, composed, even‑tempered.
It’s derived from kutulia (to settle / calm down). As an adjective for people, it agrees with the m-/wa- noun class:
- singular: mtulivu
- plural: w tulivu
Examples:
- Mwanafunzi mtulivu – a calm student.
- Wanafunzi watulivu – calm students.
- Juma ni mtulivu. – Juma is calm.
- Walimu wao ni watulivu sana. – Their teachers are very calm.
In your sentence:
- huwa mtulivu kabisa – he is (usually) very calm / perfectly calm.
Kabisa is an intensifier. Depending on context, it can mean:
- completely / absolutely / totally
- very (as a strong emphasis)
In mtulivu kabisa, it strengthens the adjective:
- mtulivu kabisa = completely calm / very calm / perfectly calm.
Position:
- It usually comes after the adjective or phrase it intensifies:
- sawa kabisa – completely right
- nimechoka kabisa – I’m totally tired
- sahihi kabisa – absolutely correct
- mtulivu kabisa – very calm
With negatives, kabisa can mean “at all”:
- Hapana, kabisa. – No, not at all.
- Siwezi kabisa. – I really can’t / I can’t at all.
Yes, that’s perfectly correct, and actually very natural.
Both are fine:
- Juma ni mcheshi, lakini wakati wa mtihani huwa mtulivu kabisa.
- Wakati wa mtihani, Juma huwa mtulivu kabisa.
Differences in feel:
- Version 1 uses the contrast setup:
[general character], but [exam-time character]. - Version 2 puts time first, which is very common in Swahili; it sets the scene:
“During the exam, Juma is usually completely calm.”
Swahili often likes to start with time or place expressions:
- Asubuhi, huwa tunafanya mazoezi. – In the morning, we usually exercise.
- Shuleni, wanafunzi huwa wapo mapema. – At school, students are usually there early.