If you're trying to learn Swahili Questions which is also called Kiswahili, check our courses about Questions and interrogative expressions... to help you with your Swahili grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Swahili. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!
Learning the Swahili Questions is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the Swahili language. But first we need to know what the role of Questions is in the structure of the grammar in Swahili.
Swahili questions may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. Usually it starts with why, how, where, when ...etc.
In Swahili, intonation is used to differentiate a question from a statement. There are mainly 2 ways of asking a question to get a yes or no answer, and they are the following:
-Pronoun+ verb: Like English, the auxiliaries do and does are used. Swahili uses auxiliary -na together with the personal pronouns. For example Nina wakati?( do I have time?), Una wakati?(do you have time) Ana wakati? (does she have time?)
So you realize ni- 1st person, u- 2nd person and a- 3rd person. So, the English does is used only in the 3rd person but can only be evident from the translation
*the issue f pronouns can be seen later.
-Pronoun + verb: Only the intonation makes the sentence interrogative. In this, there is also the aspect of tenses. For example: unaenda nyumbani(you are going home) ulienda nyumbani(you went home) utaenda nyumbani( you will go home)- these are just statements. When you use the intonation, they become questions. For example unaenda nyumbani?( are you going home?) ulienda nyumbani? ( did you go home), utaenda nyumbani? (will you go home?-Verb +...+ pronoun. The pronoun goes last
* You realise that in the above example i used the 2nd pesron pronoun. You can do the same with the pronouns of the first person and the second person
Here are some examples:
| English Questions | Swahili Questions |
|---|---|
| Questions | Maswali |
| how? | vipi? |
| what? | nini? |
| who? | nani? |
| why? | nini? |
| where? | wapi? |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Questions in Swahili has a logical pattern. Locate the Questions above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Kiswahili.
Below is a list of the Questions and interrogative expressions in Swahili placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Swahili vocabulary.
| English Questions | Swahili Questions |
|---|---|
| where is he? | yuko wapi? |
| what is this? | ni kitu gani? |
| why are you sad? | mbona una huzuni? |
| how do you want to pay? | wataka kulipa vipi? |
| can I come? | naweza kuja? |
| is he sleeping? | amelala? |
| do you know me? | wanijua? |
| do you have my book? | je, una kitabu changu? |
| how big is it? | waweza kueleza ukubwa wake? |
| can I help you? | ninaweza kukusaidia? |
| can you help me? | Unaweza kunisaidia? |
| do you speak English? | Waongea kiingereza |
| how far is this? | waweza kueleza umbali wake? |
| what time is it? | ni saa ngapi? |
| how much is this? | ni kiasi gani? |
| what is your name? | Jina lako? |
| where do you live? | Unaishi wapi? |
Questions and interrogative expressions have a very important role in Swahili, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with the Kiswahili Questions, you might want to check the rest of our Swahili lessons here: Learn Swahili. Don't forget to bookmark this page.
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