"Mwuguzi yupo hospitalini"
Translation:The nurse is at the hospital
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Does Swahili require both -po and -ni at the same time to say someone/thing is in somewhere? Can we just use one and be correct? It seems to alternate in the course (and so much of the course has errors) that it's hard to know whether there is a rule or not.
137
This is something which is hard to get used to. I find it helpful to think of the -po as a replacement for 'is'. So instead of 'is', Swahili speakers need to use 'po/ko/mo' which means essentially 'is located'. But then you still need the equivalent of 'at' which is the '-ni'. So, he/she is at home "Yupo nyumbani." They are at the market, "Wapo sokoni." In some cases the -ni is not required, like with place names, "Yupo Nairobi" (he/she is at Nairobi).
- 137
This may vary between British and American English (at hospital vs. in hospital), but Swahili does have a different way to say that someone is specifically 'in' or 'inside' the hospital. Rather than yupo, it would be yumo (I think...).
When it comes to locatives, -ku is more general, -po is more specific, -mu/-mo is specifically 'inside of'.