Learn how to use the verb "to do"
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| Welcome to Swahilipod101.com, Karibuni kwa Swahilipod101.com, “Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu,” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Swahili. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb -enda, which means "to go" in Swahili. |
| In this lesson, we’ll continue our series dedicated to common Swahili verbs. |
| The second verb in our series is -fanya, which means "to do." |
| Here’s how the verb conjugates with pronouns. |
| Nafanya - “I do”, Unafanya- “You do”, Anafanya - “He/she does”, Tunafanya - “We do”. |
| So when someone asks you Unafanya nini? |
| it means "What are you doing?" |
| If you were just working on your homework, for example, you would say Ninafanya kazi ya ziada. |
| [slowly] Ninafanya kazi ya ziada. |
| This literally means “I am doing homework”. |
| Let’s break down this answer. |
| First we had- |
| Ninafanya, which is "I am doing." |
| Next is kazi ya ziada, which is a phrase for homework. Let’s zoom in on this further - we have kazi which means “work;” it is joined to ziada “extra” with ya, a preposition. |
| Here’s another example of how to use the verb fanya. |
| Let’s say you are doing a crossword puzzle. The Swahili word for “crossword puzzle” is fumbo. So what would the sentence be? |
| Are you ready? It would be: |
| Ninatatua fumbo. |
| You will notice that the verb -fanya has not been used. Usually, some actions are described with verbs that match them instead of -fanya, but the implication of “to do” still remains. |
| In the sentence Ninatatua fumbo we have: |
| Ninatatua which is “I am solving.” It is a one-word sentence, which you may have realized by now is common in Swahili. Ninatatua can be broken down further like this: |
| nina means “I am” |
| tatua is a verb for “solving” |
| fumbo stands for “puzzle.” |
| Together we have Ninatatua fumbo. |
| slow: Ninatatua fumbo. |
| Here are a few other ways you can use the word -fanya. |
| The question word, Nifanyeje? could be a useful phrase when you want to ask how to do something. Usually, to ask for a solution. Nifanyeje? means “How do I do it? In a situation where your car is broken you may ask, Nifanyeje gari langu lililoharibika? for “What do I do with my broken car?” implying how do I fix my car? |
| When this sentence is broken down, we have, |
| ni which indicates the person involved in the action. |
| fanye is derived from the root verb -fanya. |
| je is a question marker. |
| gari is “car” |
| langu is for “mine” |
| and lililoharibika stands for “that is broken” |
| Together we have, Nifanyeje gari langu lililoharibika? |
| (Slowly) Nifanyeje gari langu lililoharibika? |
| Now it’s time for Medina’s Insights. |
| Here’s a useful word derived from the verb fanya - mfanyikazi. In English it could be roughly translated as “worker.” |
| You can use it when you want to explain or to know something about some kind of work. For instance if you want to say “The office workers are relaxing.” you could say |
| Wafanyikazi wa ofisi wanastarehe. |
| Or if you want to explain which company you are working for, you could say |
| Mimi ni mfanyikazi katika kampuni ya kutafsiri. This means “I am a worker in a translation company.” |
| In this lesson, we learned how to use the verb fanya in different contexts. |
| In the next lesson, we’ll learn another very useful and romantic verb, penda. |
| Can you guess what it means? |
| I’ll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu. Tuonane! |
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