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- "Tungecheza muziki tungefurah…
"Tungecheza muziki tungefurahi"
Translation:If we were to dance to music, we would be happy
28 Comments
1073
Looks like they have now corrected this one. All the reporting pays off eventually.
I've also heard "piga" used as "to play" when it comes to music. Mostly for specific instrument "anapiga gita - he/she is playing guitar" or generalized to "piga muziki"
- 1073
That makes sense for actively making music. The lesson tips on piga say:
While the verb “kupiga” in Swahili literally means to beat or to hit, it is often used as an idiom.
Examples:
Kupiga kengele = to ring a bell
Kupiga kelele = to make noise / shout
Kupiga mluzi = to whistle
Kupiga makofi = to clap
From the other comments here I see that "kucheza muziki" unambiguously means dancing.
So how do you say "play music", as in switching on some music and listening to it?
This is wrong and makes no sense. Cheza can mean dance or play depending on the context.
- 14
Cheza means both to play and to dance. You could even use the word for playing games or sports. For example "kucheza mpira" would be understood as to play football.
Yep, but it is not used to mean “play music”. That’s “piga muziki”. “Cheza muziki” means “dance to music”.
In Kenya, I always heard "kucheza" as "to play", "kucheza dansi" as "to dance". Maybe this is a Tanzania specific thing to assume "kucheza" means "to dance" without further qualification.
It’s not without further qualification though. “Muziki” is after it, indicating that it means “dance”.
"Play" is not used for an instrument in all languages, though. In Swahili, "piga" is used when talking about playing an instrument. In Spanish, it's "tocar," to touch. Cheza is more like playing a game, being playful, or if it's with music, dancing.
- 1073
I think that is why they feel a need to write "dance music" in English. But we would never say that because "dance" is unambiguous in English.
- 1073
I think by this point in the course we can presume everyone spends half of the time reporting errors, unfortunately.
Oh yes, in most courses I do two new lessons per session, in this one, only one, because I have to report and repeat so many prompts. It interferes with learning, unlike most repetition, because I spend more effort remembering the odd English than I do remembering the Swahili.
I have not found that to be the case at all. In general, the English translations are either correct or nearly so. Of the three classes I've done in Duolingo, the Spanish is head and shoulders above the others, but the Swahili seems direct and understandable. The Vietnamese is just plain muddled. I do wish the Swahili moderators would take some tips from the Spanish course, as far as having a lot more recorded sound, and accepting multiple answers. But I really like the way you can pretty much guess on the multiple choice questions the way they have it set up (in Swahili)--it gives you the sense that you've learned SOMETHING, even if it's really more that you understand the system, lol. In Spanish (because I know it pretty well) and in Swahili I can do multiple courses in a day, easily, whereas in VN I have difficulty wading through even one.
You have come late so you don’t know. This course has been fixed up a lot. It used to be terrible and towards the end of the course, it probably more than half of the sentences had some weird or completely incorrect English that you had to memorise to be able to continue.
Also in Tanzania, the term used for to dance" was "kucheza" or "kucheza dansi." I only heard "kucheza muziki" used for playing music, as on the radio or a musical instrument.
I asked a native Swahili teacher and he said kucheza muziki always means "to dance to music" and never "to play music".
wouldn't the sentence also mean, "If we were to play music, we would be happy"?? So how would one know the difference?
If "kucheza" means both 'to play' and 'to dance' then why is the translation: "If we were to play music we would be happy" not accepted?
- 1073
See all the helpful comments above. In summary:
(vitoreiji) - Because "kucheza" means both 'to play' and 'to dance' (depending on the context), "kucheza musiki" is the way to specify that you mean 'to dance'. (His native Swahili teacher said that "kucheza muziki" always means 'to dance to music' and never 'to play music'.)
(vtopphol) - Specifying a different direct object would shift the focus to playing; for example, "kucheza mpira" = 'to play football'.
(SimonandNe) - People also say "kucheza densi/dansi" in Tanzania and Kenya, which would stop us arguing about it here.
(Tyler171) - "kupiga musiki" is the way to specify 'to play a musical instrument'. (See also the lesson tips on "piga".)
I think no one has translated "to play music (as in switching on some music and listening to it)" because I asked the wrong question. From a quick Google search, that would be, for example, "kusikiliza musiki kwenye redio" = 'to listen to music on the radio'.
Hopefully, a native speaker will correct me if I am wrong.
Because that would be “Tungepiga muziki, tungefurahi.”
kucheza muziki = to dance to music
kupiga muziki = to play music
