Learn how to make questions and question tags in Swahili
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Intro |
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| Antoni: How are questions made in Swahili? |
| Gertrude: And what about question tags? |
| Antoni: At SwahiliPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Mary Ouma is asking his neighbor whether they'll join their party. Mark Lee wants to join but seeks confirmation from his wife. |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mary Ouma: Je, mnakuja katika karamu yetu? |
| Dialogue |
| Mary Ouma: Je, mnakuja katika karamu yetu? |
| Mark Lee: Tunakuja, sindio? |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mary Ouma: Je, mnakuja katika karamu yetu? |
| Antoni: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mark Lee: Tunakuja, sindio? |
| Antoni: "We are coming, aren't we?" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will learn how to form questions in Swahili. Forming questions in Swahili is very straightforward. There are a couple of ways you can do this, but the most common one is by using the interrogative expressions "who," "where," "when," "what," "why," and "how." For instance, if you want to ask for someone's name, you can say, |
| Gertrude: Unaitwa nani? |
| Antoni: or "What is your name?" The word for "what" in Swahili is actually |
| Gertrude: nini |
| Antoni: But, when inquiring about a person, the word to use is "who" or |
| Gertrude: nani |
| Antoni: Speaking of the question word "what," here’s an example sentence: |
| Gertrude: Ulikula nini? |
| Antoni: This means "What did you eat?" Notice that the question word is placed at the end of the sentence. Question words in Swahili are often placed at the end, except for "why," or |
| Gertrude: kwa nini |
| Antoni: which is always placed at the beginning of the sentence. For instance, you say, |
| Gertrude: Kitabu changu kiko wapi? |
| Antoni: or "Where is my book?" Here, the question word "where" is at the end of the sentence. The same is true when using the question word "when:" |
| Gertrude: Unaondoka lini? |
| Antoni: "When are you leaving?" This time, let’s try a why-question. |
| Gertrude: Kwa nini uko hapa? |
| Antoni: "Why are you here?" Here, the question word is at the beginning of the sentence. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Mary Ouma asks "Are you coming to our party?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Gertrude: Je, mnakuja katika karamu yetu? |
| Antoni: One question word we haven’t discussed yet is |
| Gertrude: Je |
| Antoni: This word can function as the question word "how" and is used in two different ways. For one, it can function as a clitic attached to verbs. For instance, if you want to ask "how will we do it?," you can say, |
| Gertrude: tutafanyaje? |
| Antoni: Here, it is attached to the verb phrase |
| Gertrude: tutafanya |
| Antoni: or "we will do" and then transforms it into a question. Another way this question word is used can be seen in Mary Ouma’s statement where it is placed at the beginning of the question. Unlike in English where the position of the verb and the subject are interchanged when converting a declarative sentence into an interrogative one, in Swahili, simply adding the question word will turn it into a question. In this case, we turn the regular statement, |
| Gertrude: Mnakuja katika karamu yetu |
| Antoni: or "You are coming to our party" into a question by adding the word, |
| Gertrude: Je. |
| Je, mnakuja katika karamu yetu? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mark Lee says "We are coming, aren't we?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Gertrude: Tunakuja, sindio? |
| Antoni: What we have here is a tag question, with Mark Lee asking his wife whether they’re attending the party or not. In Swahili, forming a tag question is simple. Just like in English, the formula is a regular statement followed by a mini question. In this case, the statement is |
| Gertrude: Tunakuja |
| Antoni: or "We are coming," followed by the mini question |
| Gertrude: sindio, |
| Antoni: which is an expression that could mean "not so." |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you've learned how to ask questions in Swahili using interrogative words like "who," "where," "when," "what," "why," and "how." Let’s practice with some sample sentences starting with |
| Gertrude: Hii ni nini? |
| Antoni: or "What is this?" Here, we used the question word "what" or |
| Gertrude: nini |
| Antoni: As mentioned, question words in Swahili are usually placed at the end of the sentence with the exception of the question word "why" or |
| Gertrude: kwa nini |
| Antoni: Let’s hear an example for that: |
| Gertrude: Kwa nini unapenda kiswahili? |
| Antoni: "Why do you love Swahili?" Notice that the question word "why" is placed at the beginning of the sentence. Here’s another example: |
| Gertrude: Rafiki yako ni nani? |
| Antoni: "Who is your friend?" Here, we used the interrogative word "who" or |
| Gertrude: nani |
| Antoni: Let’s try another example: |
| Gertrude: Utatutembelea lini? |
| Antoni: This one means "When will you visit us?" And, finally, here’s an example using the question word "how." Earlier, we’ve learned that "how" in Swahili is |
| Gertrude: Je |
| Antoni: There is another Swahili word for "how" and that is |
| Gertrude: vipi |
| Antoni: Unlike the other question words, this one can appear anywhere within a sentence. Here’s one example: |
| Gertrude: Vipi hali? |
| Antoni: This means "How are you?" or literally "How is your situation?" Here, the question word appears at the beginning of the sentence. Let’s hear an example of when it appears at the end of a sentence. |
| Gertrude: Tutafanya vipi? |
| Antoni: "How are we going to do it?" |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: This time, let’s learn another way to construct yes-no questions in Swahili. In our dialogue, we learned that one way to ask a yes-no question is with the use of the word |
| Gertrude: Je |
| Antoni: Let’s take this statement as an example: |
| Gertrude: Utaenda huko |
| Antoni: "You will go there." We can turn this into an interrogative statement using a question word. |
| Gertrude: Je, utaenda huko? |
| Antoni: or "Will you go there?" Another way to turn this into a yes-no question is by simply changing the intonation. This means that there is no need to change the word order of the statement. So, if you want to ask "Will you go there," you can simply say, |
| Gertrude: Utaenda huko? |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: Earlier, we learned that the Swahili word for "why" is |
| Gertrude: kwa nini |
| Antoni: There’s actually an alternative to this word, which is |
| Gertrude: Mbona |
| Antoni: This word is used when you’re inquiring about the reason for something, particularly about something that’s bad or surprising. Also, this word cannot be used by itself, but only in an interrogative sentence. Here’s an example: |
| Gertrude: Mbona umechelewa kwenye darasa? |
| Antoni: "Why are you late for the class?" |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Gertrude: Nitakuona hivi karibuni! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Gertrude (Swahili, Kenya), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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