Bunge litajadili sera mpya kesho asubuhi.

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Breakdown of Bunge litajadili sera mpya kesho asubuhi.

• kujadili: to discuss
• kesho asubuhi: tomorrow morning
• bunge: parliament

Questions & Answers about Bunge litajadili sera mpya kesho asubuhi.

Why is litajadili written as one word?

In Swahili, a finite verb is usually built as a single word.

litajadili breaks down like this:

• li- = subject marker agreeing with bunge
• -ta- = future tense marker
• jadili = verb stem discuss

So the whole word means it/parliament will discuss.

This is very normal in Swahili: subject agreement, tense, and the verb stem are often all combined into one word.

Doesn't li- usually mean past tense? Why is this sentence future?

That is a very common point of confusion.

Yes, -li- can be a past tense marker in many verbs, but in litajadili, the li- is not the tense marker. Here it is the subject marker for the noun bunge.

So:

• li-ta-jadili = bunge will discuss
• li-li-jadili = bunge discussed

Compare:

• Bunge litajadili... = Parliament will discuss...
• Bunge lilijadili... = Parliament discussed...

So in this sentence, the future meaning comes from -ta-, not from li-.

Why does bunge take instead of ?