Learn how to ask "Why?"
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Welcome to Swahilipod101.com’s “Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu,” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Swahili. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask questions with "Who" in Swahili. |
| In this last lesson, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word "Why?" |
| So imagine it’s already midnight, you can’t sleep, and you decide to call your friend. He will probably want to know why you are still awake, and ask you. |
| Mbona bado umekaa macho? |
| [slowly] Mbona bado umekaa macho? |
| So let’s break down this question. |
| First we had- |
| Mbona, which is the basic question word "Why" in Swahili. |
| bado means “still”. |
| ume is the conjugated form of kuwa, “to be”. |
| kaa literally means “sit” but when used together with macho “eyes,” it means “awake.” That is kaa macho. |
| When umekaa macho is used together, it means “to be awake”. |
| All together, it is Mbona bado umekaa macho? |
| “Why are you still awake?” |
| So in Swahili, mbona is the translation for "Why", and it’s used to ask the reason for something. For example, if you skipped school, your teacher would ask "Why were you absent?" |
| In Swahili, that would be Mbona ulighibu shule? |
| Ulighibu basically means “to be away”, and shule is “school”. |
| Here, your teacher uses "Why" in order to get an explanation. |
| Let’s look at some other uses for mbona. |
| If your friend has a strong opinion about an issue and you want to know why, you could ask Mbona unadhania hivyo? “Why do you think so?” |
| [slowly] Mbona unadhania hivyo? |
| Or if you are upset about unpleasant things always happening to you, you can say with a sigh, |
| Mbona mimi kila wakati! |
| “Why always me!” |
| [slowly] Mbona mimi kila wakati! |
| And remember to add the sigh at the end for effect! |
| If you want to avoid giving a long explanation or simply don’t know the reason, you can answer |
| Sijui mbona. “I don’t know why”. |
| Now it’s time for Medina’s Insights. |
| How about if you want to make it a negative “Why not”? The direct translation would be mbona sivyo, but because Kenyans love to make words shorter and easier, it becomes sivyo? This is a really commonly used expression! For example, when one is doing something contrary to the traditional way, you may ask sivyo saa mbili asubuhi unapaswa kuwa kazini? Which sounds like “is it not at eight o'clock in the morning when you are supposed to be at work?” |
| And as we learned in lesson 14, the conjugation of “to be”, kuwa, is applicable here. So if you want to know “Why don’t you like him?” it would turn into Mbona haumpendi? |
| Here the conjugated kuwa becomes u for “you” and m for “him.” |
| Just like in English, “Why not” can also have a positive meaning, for example if you are invited to a party and after a moment of thinking you respond “Sure, why not!”. In the same way in Swahili you can just answer Mbona sivyo! |
| Before ending this lesson, let’s review the ways of using "Why" in Swahili. |
| - Mbona is the basic translation of "Why," as in Mbona umechelewa? |
| "Why are you late?" |
| - Sijui mbona is "I don’t know why.” |
| And finally, mbona sivyo? is "Why not?" |
| This lesson is the last of this Absolute Beginner video series. |
| Hopefully you will continue learning Swahili from here on too! To take your language ability to the next level, check out SwahiliPod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Swahili. |
| Kwaheri! |
Comments
Hide