"Mfereji wa maji machafu"
Translation:A canal of dirty water
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Because it's a canal of dirty water, not a dirty canal of water.
maji machafu = dirty water (ma class)
mfereji mchafu = dirty canal (m-mi class)
There's a table showing all the forms here https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chafu
Thanks! What if i wanted to say exactly that "[canal of water] that is dirty" rather than "canal of [water that is dirty]"? Does the same ambiguity exist in the grammar and it is resolved by the declination bcs of the noun class? Is that a correct sentence: "Mfereji wa maji mchafu"? If it was a grammatical sentence, does it express that we have a "canal of water" where the canal happens to be dirty (and may hold clean water)?
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I wrote, a dirty water canal! My answer was accepted but I think it's important to know the correct order.
If "mfereji wa maji machafu" refers to an open sewer, or something similar, as I suspect it does, then I don't think "canal" is the right English translation. I have heard "Mfereji wa Panama" as a translation for Panama Canal -- that makes sense. Here is the old TUKI entry (unfortunately no longer online as far as I can determine):
mfereji noun mi- ditch, trench, conduit, channel, canal, gutter: ~ wa Suez - Suez Canal
Another related TUKI entry, as someone mentioned in another comment section:
mtaro noun mi- [u-/i-] trench, ditch.
What about "wastewater" canal? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wastewater Would that be a possible translation?