"Mkasi wangu"

Translation: My pair of scissors

[RinnyJ]

Why is it wangu here, but yangu when used with nails? They are both from the M/Mi class. Is one for the plural and the other the singular?

[RudolfJan]

In English, scissors is plural, in Swahili apparently its singular In Dutch the translation for scissors is "schaar", which is singular as well. You can see it in the form mkasi not mikasi

[juryrigging]

Pretty much spot on.

[pablopublico]

"Mkasi" comes from Arabic "مَقَص‎" (maqaṣ, scissors [from the verb قَصَّ‎ (qaṣṣa, “to cut”), from the root ق ص ص‎ (q-ṣ-ṣ)]), of which Turkish "makas" also comes.

[BGXL5]

The Arabic word for scissors is Miqaṣ not Maqaṣ. مِقَصٌّ

[pablopublico]

I took the information from the Wiktionary:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mkasi

[dom346812]

Why is it "pair of" and not just "my scissors"?