Mimi ninatembea kando ya barabara.

I am walking beside the road.

Breakdown of Mimi ninatembea kando ya barabara.

• mimi: I
• kutembea: to walk
• kando ya: beside
• barabara: the street

Questions & Answers about Mimi ninatembea kando ya barabara.

Why does the sentence use both Mimi and ni- in ninatembea? Don’t they both mean “I”?

Yes, both mimi and the prefix ni- refer to “I”, but they play different roles:

• ni- is a grammatical subject prefix that must appear on the verb:
  
  • ni- (I) + -na- (present tense) + tembea (walk) → ninatembea.
• mimi is an independent pronoun, used mainly for emphasis or contrast.

So:

• Ninatembea kando ya barabara. = I am walking along the road. (neutral)
• Mimi ninatembea kando ya barabara. = I am the one walking along the road (not someone else).

The pronoun is optional in form, but useful when you want to emphasize who is doing the action.

Is it okay to drop Mimi and just say Ninatembea kando ya barabara?

Yes. In normal conversation you would very often drop mimi and just say:

• Ninatembea kando ya barabara.

Because ni- already marks the subject as “I”, the sentence is perfectly complete without mimi. Adding mimi is more about highlighting the subject (e.g. in contrast with “you” or “they”).

Can I write ni na tembea as three words, or ninatembea instead of ninatembea?

You should keep it as one word, not three:

• ✅ ninatembea (most common spelling)
• ✅ ninatembea (also seen, especially in slower / clearer speech)
• ❌ ni na tembea (incorrect as separate words in standard writing)

Grammatically the verb is built from pieces:

• ni- = I
• -na- = present tense
• tembea = walk

Spoken quickly, ni-na-tembea often contracts to ninatembea, and that contracted form is widely accepted in writing. Some textbooks will show the “full” pattern as ninatembea, but you will encounter ninatembea a lot in real life.

Does ninatembea mean “I walk” or “I am walking”?

Swahili -na- present tense covers both meanings. Context tells you which is intended.

• Habit / regular action:
  
  • Kila siku ninatembea kando ya barabara.
    Every day I walk along the road.
• Action happening now:
  
  • Sasa hivi ninatembea kando ya barabara.
    Right now I am walking along the road.

In your sentence, if no time word is given, English speakers usually interpret it as “I am walking…” unless context suggests a habit.

What exactly does kando ya mean, and why is ya there?

kando ya is a common way to say “by / beside / along the side of” something.

• kando = side, edge, margin
• ya = “of” (a genitive connector that agrees with kando, which is in noun class 9)

So kando ya barabara is literally:

• “the side of the road” → idiomatically: “beside / along the road.”

You need ya to link the two nouns: kando (side) and barabara (road). Without ya, it would be ungrammatical.

Why is it kando ya barabara and not kando na barabara?

Because ya and na have different functions:

• ya = of → used in possessive / “of” relationships:
  
  • kando ya barabara = the side of the road
  • mlango wa nyumba = the door of the house
• na = and / with:
  
  • mwalimu na mwanafunzi = the teacher and the student
  • anatembea na rafiki yake = he walks with his friend

Since we want “the side of the road,” we use ya, not na.

Could I say Mimi ninatembea barabarani instead? How does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can, but the meaning shifts slightly:

• barabarani = “on the road / in the street” (using the locative -ni)
• kando ya barabara = “beside / along the side of the road”

So:

• Mimi ninatembea barabarani.
  → You’re on the road itself (e.g. walking in the street).
• Mimi ninatembea kando ya barabara.
  → You’re walking along the side of the road (e.g. on the shoulder / verge / sidewalk).

Both are correct; they just describe slightly different positions.

Are there other common ways to say “beside/along the road” in Swahili?

Yes, there are several options, with small nuance differences:

• kando ya barabara – beside / along the side of the road (what you have)
• pembeni mwa barabara – at the side of the road; very similar in meaning
• karibu na barabara – near the road (close to it, not necessarily right on the edge)
• mbali kidogo na barabara – a bit away from the road (not exactly “beside,” but related)

All of these can appear with kutembea (to walk), depending on how precisely you want to describe your location.

Can the word order change, for example: Kando ya barabara, mimi ninatembea?

Yes. Swahili word order is flexible for emphasis or topic-first structures.

All of these are possible:

• Mimi ninatembea kando ya barabara. (neutral: I am walking along the road.)
• Ninatembea kando ya barabara. (same meaning, no pronoun emphasis)
• Kando ya barabara ninatembea.
  → Emphasizes where: Along the road is where I’m walking.
• Kando ya barabara, mimi ninatembea.
  → Very similar; topicalizes the place, and mimi adds “I (as opposed to others).”

The most everyday word order is the original one, but the others are natural and used for focus or style.

How would the sentence change if the subject were “we” instead of “I”?

You change mimi to sisi and the subject prefix ni- to tu-:

• Sisi tunatembea kando ya barabara.
  
  • sisi = we (pronoun, optional for emphasis)
  • tu- = we (subject prefix on the verb)
  • -na- = present tense
  • tembea = walk

Without emphasis, you can just say:

• Tunatembea kando ya barabara. = We are walking along the road.

Does barabara have any other meanings, and which one is used here?

Yes, barabara primarily means “road”, but it’s also used in some expressions to mean “properly / correctly / well”, for example:

• Anafanya kazi barabara. = He/She is doing the work properly.

In Mimi ninatembea kando ya barabara, the word barabara clearly means “road” (a physical road), because it appears after kando ya, which refers to a place, and the whole phrase is a location: beside the road.