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- "Tunavaa viatu"
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With -vaa “wear/be wearing”, a verb of action that triggers a state of being, the perfect marker -me- may also express the notion of “completed state”, while the present tense marker -na- refers to an action that is just taking place. English uses the pattern “be + present participial (-ing form)” in both cases. a. Juma anavaa shati “Juma is wearing a shirt (is putting on a shirt)/Juma wears a shirt” b. Juma amevaa shati “Juma is wearing a shirt (is dressed in a shirt)/Juma has worn a shirt”
1110
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Note though that, in English, "Juma is wearing a shirt" is not the same meaning as "Juma is putting on a shirt". It is just the same tense (present continuous).
It's interesting that in speaking of one's garb, in Swahili, one doesn't "possess" his items of clothing, as we do in English and in many other languages. One speaks, e.g, of putting on "the shirt", not "my shirt", etc. I like this feature. The same feature is practiced in Russian. What about other languages you all are studying?