"Karibu nyumbani kwangu"

Translation:Welcome to my house

September 11, 2017

15 Comments
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1407

But if you're welcoming someone to your house, you must be in your house-- so the house is near and specific. Ku- refers to a "general/non-specific/far away place" according to the tips. So why isn't it "pangu" or "mangu"? I don't get how one chooses the correct prefix with possessives.

January 5, 2019

AGreatUserName

Kwangu is not really about whether it’s near or far. Pangu can also be used for far away places or to show movement. The main factor is more about precision.

Kwangu is for general, non-specific or imprecise locations. Pangu is used mostly with precise locations like “right at”. A house is not a precise location. A person can be at someone’s house and it may still take you a moment to find them because a house is much larger than a person. For this reason, it’s common to say

nyumbani kwangu = to/at/from my house/home

mlangoni pangu = to/at/from my door

chumbani mwangu = into/in/out of my room

A door is a much more precise location than a house (for a human sized referent), so pangu is more common there. If you go to the door, there the person is. You’ll be expected to find them immediately.

That said, these “rules” really depend on perspective and they’re often broken. It’s best to think of them as guidelines and pay attention to actual use. Many speakers use predominantly the “ku-/kw-” forms.

January 16, 2022

adilalibra1

What is different between "Karibu nyumbani kwangu " and "Karibu nyumbani yangu "? Is the second question also correct?

March 18, 2018

PetterNord

It's kwangu because nyumbani (with the -ni suffix) is a place, and places are described with ku-, mu- or pu- (correct?). So ku-angu = kwangu, referring to the place that is my home. I think that's one of the most important lessons of this exercise, and it took me a while to grasp.

thanks.

Ku-, m(u)- or pa-, but otherwise correct.

January 16, 2022