When to use it
Use it to say where someone you know works, such as a nurse.
The sentence in English — “He works at a hospital.”
In “He works at a hospital.” ‘He’ marks a man, and ‘works’ takes ‘-s’ for the third person.
- He
- pronounpersonal pronoun, third person singular
- works
- verbwork · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · the -s marks the third person singular
- at
- prepositionpreposition of place
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- hospital
- nounnoun
The sentence in Swahili — “Anafanya kazi hospitalini.”
In “Anafanya kazi hospitalini.” the prefix ‘a-’ means he or she, without saying which. ‘fanya kazi’ (do work) is how Swahili says ‘work’, and ‘-ni’ on ‘hospitalini’ replaces ‘at a’.
- Anafanya
- verbfanya · person: 3rd singular · tense: present (-na-) · a- (he or she) + -na- + fanya 'do'
- kazi
- noun'work'; fanya kazi = to work
- hospitalini
- nounhospitali + locative -ni 'at'
English × Swahili — What changes from one language to the other
English must choose ‘he’ or ‘she’; Swahili does not. English ‘at a’ is just the suffix ‘-ni’ in Swahili.
Example conversation
— Anafanya kazi hospitalini.
— He works at a hospital.
— Ni muuguzi au daktari?
— Is she a nurse or a doctor?