The -po Locative
This is going to be a very easy lesson. Basically you have seen everything in the last lesson with the Locative '-ko'.
While '-ko' is used for vague location or a far off place, -po is used for a concrete location and a place close by.
In other words, the question 'Where are you?' is best asked using '-ko' since we don't know the location and answered with the '-po' suffix, because the person answering knows the location.
Uko wapi? - Where are you?
Nipo hapa? - I am here.
Of course everything is a bit relative, whether something is close or far, precise or vague. There are also regional preferences for using one suffix more than the other...
Let's look at the forms:
| Ni - po | I am at the place |
| U - po | You are at the place |
| Yu - po | He/she/ it is at the place |
| Tu - po | We are at the place |
| M - po | You (pl) are at the place |
| Wa - po | They are at the place |
The forms for the Ki/Vi class are: kipo and vipo
Choo kiko/kipo* wapi? Where is the toilet?
Vyoo vipo hotelini. The toilets are in the hotel.
*both precise and vague location can be used for the question.
We are talking locatons right? LET'S HAVE SOME FUNPLACES TO GO TO !
sinema cinema
baa bar
posta post office
benki bank
Did you notice, that they are all loan words from other languages ?
For this very reason they don't take the Swahili '-ni' suffix.
Aaah you remember still what that was?
Well, to be 'in /at' a place we needed to say place - ni
bahari - the sea
baharini - at the sea / in the sea
bandari the harbour
bandarini at the harbour
But now we have some words, that don't behave this way. To remedy we use the word 'kwenye'. (kwenye posta / kwenye benki...)
Ha ! We have done this before ! Do you remember the compound verbs as bandari ya bahari - the seaport. Those complex words also used 'kwenye' instead of '-ni'. In spoken language we also just drop the 'kwenyi' :D
Mhandisi yuko wapi ? - Where is the engineer ?
Yupo benki. / Yupo kwenye benki. - He is at the bank.
Benki ipi? - Which bank ?
Karibu na baa. - Near the bar.
karibu na - near the
ipi which (N/N class sg)
| M/Wa class sg | yupi | mtoto yupi | Which child ? |
| M/Wa class pl | wepi (It should be wapi, but wapi means already 'where'.) | Watoto wapi | Which children ? |
| Ki/Vi class sg | kipi | kitanda kipi | Which bed ? |
| Ki/Vi class pl | vipi | Vitanda vipi | Which beds ? |
| N/N class sg | ipi | chupa ipi | Which bottle ? |
| N/N class pl | zipi | chupa zipi | Which bottles ? |
Wageni wako wapi ? - Where are the guests ?
Wapo hotelini. - They are at the hotel. (Notice that 'hoteli' takes the '-ni' suffix.)
Hoteli ipi? - Which hotel ?
Karibu na sinema. - Near the cinema.
-
Kisu kiko wapi ? - Where is the knife ?
Kipo karibu na kijiko. - It is next to the spoon?
Kijiko kipi? - Which spoon ?
Kijiko kwenye meza. - The spoon on the table.
-
Hoteli yetu iko wapi? Where is our hotel?
Nyumba yenu iko wapi? Where is your (pl) house?
Paka wako yuko wapi? Where is your cat?
Paka wako wako wapi? Where are your cats?
Paka wangu wapo hapa. My cats are here.
Mtoto wake yuko wapi? Where is her child?
Watoto wake wako wapi? Where are her children?
Watoto wake wapo/ wako nyumbani. Her children are home. (wako is more commonly used with nyumbani, but both forms are correct.)
Wageni wao wako wapi? Where are their guests?
Wageni wapo hotelini. The guests are at the hotel.