"Osha vyombo"

Translation: Wash the dishes

[chaered]

Is this an imperative form?

[likes2hike]

Yes. Using the verb stem alone (here, "osha") is one of a couple different ways to construct an imperative in Swahili.

[chaered]

asante!

[Ollie-Benson]

Would it also be correct to use "kuosha"?

[machieng]

no, 'kuosha' translates to 'to wash'

[NotaFakena1]

So would the singular of vyombo be chombo?

[Ollie-Benson]

Correct! At least according to wikitionary

[Jannis]

I'm confused. In the rest of this lecture osha is "to wash" only here its "to clean". Am I missing something?

[AGreatUserName]

It accepts "Wash the dishes!" too and that's how I'd say it in English ... or "Do the dishes!"

Clean is just more general ... when you clean something, you don't always wash it (eg. computer keyboard), but when you wash something, you clean it ... (well ... ideally).

[Jannis]

Oh so it does accept to wash now? that wasn't the case when I posted.

[AGreatUserName]

Yeah, it's still in beta mode and it needs a lot of work. I'm being quite aggressive with my reporting, deliberately writing answers that they might not have thought of and reporting them. It must be a lot of work for the mods.

(PS. Ninakaa Berlin pia :-) Je, unajua watu katika Berlin, ambao wanasema kiswahili?)

[DenisOkell]

:-) are you looking for people in Berlin who "say" but might not necessarily "speak" kiswahili?

[AGreatUserName]

Hahaha, I think that's a bit easier. You can just ask people "What's this word?" and they'll say it. ;-)

I'd prefer the challenge of finding speakers.

[AGreatUserName]

(Unakaa Berlin pia?)

[deactivated user]

So when did (a/the) become important? Also they stopped allowing us to report issues?