47 Comments
I also wrote "Faridi is cleaning the pot" and it was marked wrong.. Should probably be fixed?
My dictionary says it's a metal cooking pot or a pan ... that's very different from a dish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufuria The top right picture shows sufurias - metal pots - it was expanded to mean any cooking pots, but in the picture you see what a native speaker would associate with the word (as those are most commonly used)
leviny8594, dishes would be "vyombo" (literally 'containers'); "kuosha vyombo" = (to) do the dishes
While British English uses "frying pan", "Pan" is more common and "Pot" is less used nowadays.
Pans and pots are different things. You can't use one for the other. Unless you're talking about British English in that regard too?
Pans are flatter without high sides and usually a long handle. Pots are deeper, with higher sides and generally two small handles, on on either side.
That is true, yet I have not found a different word for pan in Kiswahili anywhere. :)
1881
I wrote "Farida is cleaning the pot" and it was marked as wrong. From the comments below I'm not sure if "cleaning" is what made it wrong, or if it was "pot". If "sufuria" is the plural of "pot", what is the singular?
sufuria is both singular and plural - it depends on whether you use "wash" or "clean" (both are correct here) - not all alternations have been put in or reported yet, apparently.
My dictionary says, under the English entry for "wash": kuosha; (clothes) kufua; (hands) kunawa; (feet) kutawadha; (utensils) kuosha vyombo.
So it looks like "kuosha" is the general term for "wash", with "kufua" being specific to clothes, "kunawa" to hands, and so on.
Kufua basically means "beat". To say "wash clothes", you say you "beat" them. It makes sense if you think about how people wash clothes in a river.
I've also got the verb kuchachaga for "wash (clothes)" here. There's also kuchanyata "wash gently (fine fabrics)" ...
This is the dictionary I use: https://www.weltladen-moemlingen.de/download/swa_eng_dict_text.pdf ...
In American English, saucepan is a specific thing. Is it really interchangeable over there?
I repeat: The meaning was expanded to include that. My dictionary has no other word for it - there may be recent developments (or yet in the future) to either import it from English or find another Swahili word for it. So long you fare best calling a saucepan "sufuria ya..." describing it more clearly so the picture evoked differs from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufuria (The top right picture shows sufurias - metal pots - it was expanded to mean any cooking pots, but in the picture you see what a native speaker would associate with the word (as those are most commonly used))
No, not kettle as far as I know (probably some new construct) - I have only seen water heated in a sufuria/pot in traditional households; tea can would be birika (though google translate uses it for "kettle" ^^)
There is a word for kettle! It is "birika"--the same as Gazelle1596 mentionned above. for tea can. (Though I have never heard of a "Tea can" before--is that the same as a tea pot?) I always remember this because of a joke about a foreign priest coming into a kitchen and asking for a "bikira" (virgin) instead of a "birika."
The English to Swahili TUKI dictionary also gives the term "kandirinya" for kettle.
I wrote: "Faridi is washing the pot", and I got it wrong, the correct answer says "pots". If SUFURIA is both singuar and plural then both answers should be correct.
In England we would say "washing the pan" - the word pot is not usually used.
-We- in England say pan, but also pot - e.g. cooking pot, stock pot, tea pot, pot washer. Tough to generalise about a whole country!
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=693&ei=hUByWp-RCZHOsAexi4GQBg&q=sufuria&oq=sufuria&gs_l=img.3..0i19k1l10.2140.3114.0.3272.8.8.0.0.0.0.103.498.6j1.7.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.7.495.0..0j0i10k1j0i30k1j0i10i19k1.0.WwPGIlQXwwY The third and fourth picture are the cooking pots used in Tanzania, which has then been extended to any type of cooking pots - My dictionary also has it for saucepan, yes, though that would not be the image conjured up when you use "sufuria". (In a real-life-interaction probably would probably either point to it or add something descriptive for saucepan.) I hope this wasn't too lengthy. ;)
when i write cleaning it say i need to use washing when i write washing it says i need to write saucepan their is no winning
Because it is still in beta - so report it; it should be fixed within some weeks. :)
I just reported it. I regularly get notifications when they add answers, so it should be updated sometime within the next month or so :)
