Mama alipiga picha nzuri karibu na maporomoko yale.
Mother took a nice picture near those waterfalls.
Breakdown of Mama alipiga picha nzuri karibu na maporomoko yale.
mama
the mother
nzuri
nice
karibu na
near
yale
those
Questions & Answers about Mama alipiga picha nzuri karibu na maporomoko yale.
What does alipiga break down into?
Alipiga can be split into:
- a- = he/she
- -li- = past tense marker
- -piga = the verb stem
So alipiga means he/she did ... in the past.
In this sentence, the subject is Mama, so alipiga means Mother took.
A useful thing to know is that -piga often literally means hit/strike, but in some expressions it has a different meaning. Here, in kupiga picha, it means to take a photo.
Why does -piga mean take here if it usually means hit?
This is because kupiga picha is a fixed expression in Swahili meaning to take a photo / take a picture.
So even though piga often means hit, you should learn piga picha as a whole phrase.
Some languages use a verb like make or do in expressions where English uses a different verb. This is similar.
- kupiga picha = to take a picture
- literally, not translated word-for-word into natural English
Why is picha nzuri in that order? Why not put nzuri before picha like in English?