Questions & Answers about Nunua unachotaka sokoni.
What does each word in Nunua unachotaka sokoni literally mean?
Breakdown:
- nunua – buy (imperative: a command to you)
- unachotaka – literally you that‑which want → what you want
- u- = you (singular subject marker)
- -na- = present tense marker
- -cho- = relative marker meaning that which / what (thing)
- -taka = want
- sokoni – at the market
- soko = market
- -ni = locative ending meaning in/at/on
So the whole sentence is: Buy what you want at the market.
Why isn’t there a separate word for “what” in this sentence?
Swahili often expresses “what / that which” with a relative marker inside the verb, not with a separate word.
In unachotaka, the -cho- part means “that which / what (thing)”.
So instead of something like “ununua kitu ambacho unataka”, Swahili can compress it to unachotaka:
- nunua unachotaka ≈ buy (the thing) that you want → buy what you want.
How exactly is built up, grammatically?