"We had books."

Translation: Tulikuwa na vitabu.

[DJdMbP]

Why the "na"?

[machieng]

this would be directly translated as 'we were with books'. 'Kuwa na' means 'to have', or more literally, 'to be with'

[CeeCeeSong]

yeah, that is definitely not something we would know without it being introduced to us! When there is something weird/different like this, it should always be first given to us in the Swahili with the English translation, rather than us trying (impossibly!) to just know what to put down! I am not sure if there is an algorithm to these lessons that mixes them up randomly, but if there's not, then it should go in the order where we have the translation given to us first, before we try to write it in Swahili!

[Daleswords]

CeeCeeSong it is in the lesson material for this section. https://www.duolingo.com/skill/sw/Past-Tense/tips-and-notes
If you're using the mobile app, I think the only way to get to these is to open Duo in the browser.

[david337604]

Would "tuli vitabu" be correct? Kind of like how youd say "tuna vitabu" or "we have books"?

[machieng]

no, 'tuna' originates from 'tuko na' ('to have' is 'kuwa na'). I covered this verb here