- Forum >
- Topic: Swahili >
- "Umeamkaje?"
54 Comments
If you break is down using the STROVE method:
Subject: U- ('You') Tense: Me (Present Perfect)- ('Have/Did') Relative: Not used Object: Not used Verb: (Ku)amka ('Wake Up') Ending: Je- ('How?')
Putting it back together- 'How have you awoken?' or as someone else pointed out 'how did you sleep last night?'
Oh my gosh! Thank you so much. I will do my best to remember this method. As an English speaker, this is a very interesting method of asking a question.
I was confused, since there was only one word and an entire sentence to go with it. Note to self: use STROVE for Swahili. It shouldn't get lost in all of the other languages I'm learning.
Let me correct you as follows:
Wanakulana = They are eating each other.
In English Grammar. We use each other and one another to show that each person in a group of two or more people does something to the others where in Swahili we simply fix the pronoun ‘na’ at the end of the verb to mean the same in English.
Wa-na-kula-na = They eat each other
The negative is made by fixing ‘ha’ before the subject marker prefix ‘wa’ and change last letter of the pronoun ‘na’ from ‘a’ to ‘i’ and for the case of the monosyllable verb ‘la’ the infinitive part ‘ku’ is dropped leaving the monosyllable verb ‘la’ by itself.
Ha-wa-la-ni NOT ha-wa-kula-ni.
If you do not want to drop the infinitive part ku’ you may write as follows:
Ha-wa-kula-ni = Hawakulani.
There is no such thing like Hawakulikani. Let me correct you as follows:
Wanakulana = They are eating each other.
In English Grammar. We use each other and one another to show that each person in a group of two or more people does something to the others where in Swahili we simply fix the pronoun ‘na’ at the end of the verb to mean the same in English.
Wa-na-kula-na = They eat each other
The negative is made by fixing ‘ha’ before the subject marker prefix ‘wa’ and change last letter of the pronoun ‘na’ from ‘a’ to ‘i’ and for the case of the monosyllable verb ‘la’ the infinitive part ‘ku’ is dropped leaving the monosyllable verb ‘la’ by itself.
Ha-wa-la-ni NOT ha-wa-kula-ni.
In the past tense wa-li-kula-na = They ate each other
The negative is ha-wa-ku-la-na = Hawakulana = they did not eat each other
If you do not want to drop the infinitive part ku’ you may write as follows:
Ha-wa-kula-ni = Hawakulani.
There is no such thing like Hawakulikana.
If you use wewe, you stress you. You could always use wewe, but it might be more appropriate in an exchange like this:
-
Umeamkaje? (How did you wake up?)
-
Salama. Umeamkaje wewe? OR
-
Salama. Wewe umeamkaje? (Safe/good. How about you?)
You could also drop the wewe in the reply, but it feels natural to include it.
50
Eh?? I've just been told "salama" means "hello" after I typed"peace to you" now you say it means safe?!
Frankly speaking "Hello" to me means something like Hi! and in Swahili I will link to Habari! to alert someone for more greetings if any. But before I explain anything to anyone where he/she is a Swahili or Foreigner I like to break down the entire Swahili word or sentence into parts of speech and by doing so I have to pre-translate them literally before I joined them back into an entire word or sentence and give a proper meaning in general which is not necessarily a literal translation again. Therefore salama literally means safe. For example "How was your wake up today"? Or "How did you wake up"? You may then reply like "my wake up was safe" or I woke up peacefully = Nimeamka salama. (where there is peace there is safety) and everything goes well enough to be safe and peaceful.
wewe is not used if speaking to one person as it already used in the word. However, you can use it when you want someone to know you are talking to the question is for them to them e.g wewe,'person addressing' umeamukaje? Translate to' you, how did you wake up?
hope that makes sense and answers your question
It will only accept the given answer (How did you wake up?) even if you enter what is more correct English like how did you sleep? etc and ask it to accept your answer. Otherwise it won't let you proceed further without entering the given answer. In Kenya the stock phrase was indeed 'lala nzuri?' or umelalage in brief or as part of a longer sentence (jinsi gani..).