When to use it
Use it when driving into a city centre and you want cheap basement parking.
The sentence in English: “I'm looking for cheap underground parking.”
In “I'm looking for cheap underground parking.” two short adjectives sit before ‘parking’.
- I'm
- contractionbe · tense: present · person: first · number: singular · contraction of "I am"
- looking
- verblook · form: -ing form · "am looking for" is an action happening now
- for
- prepositionpreposition; "look for" means "search"
- cheap
- adjectiveadjective
- underground
- adjectiveadjective; below street level
- parking
- nounnoun
The sentence in Swahili: “Ninatafuta mahali pa kuegesha gari chini ya ardhi kwa bei nafuu.”
In “Ninatafuta mahali pa kuegesha gari chini ya ardhi kwa bei nafuu.” the single word ‘parking’ becomes ‘mahali pa kuegesha gari’ (a place to park a car). The adjectives become phrases after it: ‘chini ya ardhi’ (under the ground) and ‘kwa bei nafuu’ (at a low price).
- Ninatafuta
- verbtafuta · person: 1st singular · tense: present (-na-) · searching while driving in town
- mahali
- noun'place', PA class
- pa
- preposition'of', agreeing with mahali
- kuegesha
- verbegesha · form: infinitive (ku-) · ku- + egesha 'to park'; a place for parking
- gari
- noun'car'
- chini
- adverbchini ya = under
- ya
- preposition'of', after chini
- ardhi
- noun'ground'; chini ya ardhi = underground
- kwa
- preposition'at, for'
- bei
- noun'price'
- nafuu
- adjectivebei nafuu = cheap
What changes from one language to the other: English × Swahili
English stacks short words before the noun; Swahili explains with longer phrases after it.
Example conversation
— Ninatafuta mahali pa kuegesha gari chini ya ardhi kwa bei nafuu.
— I'm looking for cheap underground parking.
— Maegesho yaliyo chini ya duka kubwa ndiyo rahisi zaidi.
— The mall basement is the cheapest.