When to use it
Use it in an unfamiliar area to ask a local where to eat.
“Where can I find a good restaurant nearby?” · The sentence in English
In “Where can I find a good restaurant nearby?” ‘good’ precedes the noun and never changes.
- Where
- adverbquestion word asking about place
- can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- find
- verbfind · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after a modal or after "help me"
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- good
- adjectiveadjective
- restaurant
- nounnoun
- nearby
- adjectiveadjective placed after the noun
“Naweza kupata mgahawa mzuri wapi karibu na hapa?” · The sentence in Swahili
In “Naweza kupata mgahawa mzuri wapi karibu na hapa?” the adjective ‘mzuri’ (good) follows the noun and takes ‘m-’ to agree with ‘mgahawa’ (restaurant). ‘wapi’ (where) can sit mid-sentence, and ‘nearby’ is ‘karibu na hapa’ (near to here).
- Naweza
- auxiliary verbweza · person: 1st singular · tense: present (-a-) · 'I can', at the start without Je
- kupata
- verbpata · form: infinitive (ku-) · ku- + pata 'to find, get'
- mgahawa
- noun'restaurant', M-MI class
- mzuri
- adjective'good'; m- agrees with mgahawa
- wapi
- adverb'where', mid-sentence
- karibu
- adverbkaribu na = near
- na
- prepositionwith karibu: 'near (to)'
- hapa
- adverbkaribu na hapa = nearby
What changes from one language to the other · English × Swahili
English adjectives are fixed and come first; Swahili adjectives follow and agree with the noun class.
Example conversation
— Naweza kupata mgahawa mzuri wapi karibu na hapa?
— Where can I find a good restaurant nearby?
— Jaribu ule wa ufukweni, samaki ni wabichi.
— Try the place by the beach, the fish is fresh.