Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Persian, Dari

Persian, Western

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Swahili for Beginners

Kuwako - to be at a place

<table class="ui celled definition table">
 <tbody>
 <tr> 
 <td>Ni - ko</td>
 <td>I am at a place</td>
 
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>U - ko</td>
 <td>You are at a place</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Yu - ko</td>
 <td> He/she/ it is at a place</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Tu - ko</td>
 <td>We are at a place</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>M - ko</td>
 <td>You (pl) are at a place</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Wa - ko</td>
 <td>They are at a place</td>
 </tr>
 
 </tbody>
</table>


	Did you notice anything familiar ?


	The infinitive of our new verb is composed of two parts: 


	Kuwa (to be) and 'ko' (a non-specific place)


	We know the verb Kuwa (to be) already. The conjugation is exactly as we have learned, except for the 3rd person sg. We have learned 'A-na', so it should be 'A-ko', however it is 'Yu-ko'. We have to remember this.


Wapi - where


Hapa - here


Uko wapi? - Where are you?


Mimi niko hapa. - I am here.


 '-ko' talks about a vague location Somewhere here / hereabouts / around here It could also describe a location somewhat distant from the speaker.
 there / thereabouts / around there.


Niko jikoni. - I am in a kitchen.


Yuko kisiwani. - He is on an island.


Tuko juu ya kilima. - We are on a hill.


Wako nyumbani. - They are in a house. / They are home.


Uko nyumbani? - Are you in a house? / Are you home?


Mko baharini? - Are you somewhere at the sea?


Kiboko yuko majini. - The hippopotamus is in the water.


Paka yuko juu ya kitanda. - The cat is on a bed.


nje - outside


Mbwa wako nje. - The dogs are outside.


 Actually here we have an ambiguity. This sentence could also translate as: Your dog is outside. So let's add an adjective to be clear.


Mbwa wakali wako nje. - The sharp dogs are outside. They could be still yours... but at least we got them plural.

 If we want to talk about the location of N/N class nouns we need to change:

<table class="ui celled definition table">
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <td>yuko → </td>
 <td>iko</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>wako → </td>
 <td>ziko</td>
 </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

 Sahani iko wapi? Iko hapa kwenye meza. - Where is the plate? Here on the table.


 Sahani ziko kwenye meza. - The plates are on a table.

 If we want to talk about the location of Ki/Vi class nouns we need to change:

<table class="ui celled definition table">
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <td>yuko → </td>
 <td>kiko</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>wako → </td>
 <td>viko</td>
 </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

 Kitabu kiko wapi? - Where is the book?


 Vitabu viko wapi - Where are the books?


 Kisu kiko mezani. - The knife is on a table.


 Visu viko mezani. - The knives are on a table.

 I have kept translating all the -po locations with 'a' e.g. 'on a table'. That was for the purpose of avoiding confusion later on. However you might translate it as well as 'on the table at the other end of the room'. 


 As for 'kwenye meza' and 'mezani'... They both mean the same thing: at / on the table. In our sentence here you can use either.


 There is just one slight difference. If you want to use an adjective to describe the table, you can't use -ni. So 'on the big table' has to be: 


 kwenye meza kubwa


 Visu viko kwenye meza kubwa. - The knives are on the big table over there.


 Let me give you a past tense sentence. We didn't treat past tense yet... we ll get there later. Just notice the infix 'li' as a past tense marker and then happily forget it again :D 


 nilikuweko - I was there. / I was somewhere in the area.


 ajali - accident (N/N class)


 wakati wa - (at) the time of


 wakati wa ajali - (at) the time of the accident


 Wakati wa ajali nilikuweko. - At the time of the accident I was there.


 However, that doesn't necessarily imply that I was an eye witness. It might rather mean I was not far off, just two blocks around...

Question	Answer
I am (at a place)	niko
You are (at a place)	uko
I am home.	Niko nyumbani.
kitchen	jiko * intruder from a class we didn't see yet. (So: careful!)
You are in a kitchen.	Uko jikoni.
he is / she is	yuko ako
He is at the sea.	Yuko baharini.
The boy is at the harbour.	Mvulana yuko bandarini.
The girl is on the rock.	Msichana yuko kwenye mwamba.
where ?	wapi
Where are you?	Uko wapi?
here	hapa
I am here.	Niko hapa. This doesn't NOT mean: Turn around, I am right behind you. It is more like: I am close by, you ll see me in a minute.
The man is on an island.	Mwanaume yuko kisiwani.
The man is on a small island.	Mwanaume yuko kwenye kisiwa kidogo. We can't use 'kisiwani' here. The '-ni' suffix cannot be combined with adjectives.
we are (in a place)	tuko
We are on a hill.	Tuko juu ya kilima.
You (pl) are (at a place)	mko
Are you here ? / Are you there?	Mko hapa?
They are (at a place)	wako
They are in a house. / They are home.	Wako nyumbani.
Are you in a house? / Are you home?	Uko nyumbani?
Are you (pl) somewhere at the sea?	Mko baharini?
The hippopotamus is in the water.	Kiboko yuko majini.
The cat is on a bed.	Paka yuko juu ya kitanda.
outside	nje
The dogs are outside.	Mbwa wako nje. This sentence could also translate as: Your dog is outside. However it would be more correct to add 'yuko' in that case. Mbwa wako yuko nje.
The plates are on a table.	Sahani ziko kwenye meza.
Where is the book?	Kitabu kiko wapi?
Where are the books?	Vitabu viko wapi ?
The knife is on a table.	Kisu kiko mezani.
The knives are on a table.	Visu viko mezani.
The knives are on the big table over there.	Visu viko kwenye meza kubwa. We can't use 'mezani' here. The '-ni' suffix cannot be combined with adjectives.
I was there. / I was somewhere in the area.	nilikuweko
accident (N/N class)	ajali
(at) the time of	wakati wa
at the time of the accident	wakati wa ajali
At the time of the accident I was there.	Wakati wa ajali nilikuweko. However, that doesn't necessarily imply that I was an eye witness. It might rather mean I was not far off, just two blocks around...