"Children be happy!"
Translation:Watoto Furahini!
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I don't think the order of the words should affect the meaning in Swahili, so why isn't "Furahini Watoto" accepted as well as "Watoto Furahini"?
In this instance it makes the command plural. Verbs ending in -a get the -eni ending. The rest get -ni.
You are thinking of the -ni which is appended to nouns, turning them into locatives ( chumba changu, "my room (as a concept)" vs nimo chumbani mwangu, "in (the location) my room").
If you see the -ni suffix, determine whether the word it is affixed to is a noun or verb (it shouldn't be too difficult to work out), and that should give y a clue to its usage.
What exactly is the verb of ''to be happy''? Kufurahi? kufuraha? kuwa furaha? I see different forms of ''happy'' and I am confused.
The two main words here are:
kufurahi (verb) "to become happy"
furaha (noun) "happiness"
Because kufurahi is one of these verbs of "becoming", i.e. a change of state, to talk about the static state, you use the perfect:
Nimefurahi. = I am happy. = I have become happy.
You can also use the noun to get the same meaning. Just use it with the equivalent of "have". To have happiness = to be happy.
Nina furaha = I am happy. = I have happiness.
Other examples:
watu wenye furaha = happy people = people with happiness
watu waliofurahi = happy people = people who became happy
tembea kwa furaha = walk happily = walk with happiness
Ah, thank you!
Now I have one question about your example. I don't think I have ever heard of ''wenye'' before. I'm not sure what it means and how it is used.
"-enye" means "having" or sort of "with" - kind of the opposite of "bila" meaning "without"
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The ni added at the end of the word threw me off and because of it I was marked wrong.