“Where is the bus stop?” in Swahili

When to use it

Use it in Nairobi or Dar es Salaam when you need a bus and ask a passer-by for the stop.

The sentence in English (“Where is the bus stop?”)

In “Where is the bus stop?” the question word leads, then ‘is’, then the subject with ‘the’.

Where

adverbquestion word asking about place

is

verbbe · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · form of "to be"; here it says where something is

the

determinerdefinite article

bus

nounnoun; it says what kind of stop

stop

nounnoun; the main word of "bus stop"

The sentence in Swahili (“Kituo cha basi kiko wapi?”)

In “Kituo cha basi kiko wapi?” the verb ‘kiko’ starts with ‘ki-’ because ‘kituo’ (stop) belongs to the KI-VI noun class; ‘-ko’ means ‘is located’. The question word ‘wapi’ (where) stays at the end.

Kituo

noun'stop, station'; KI-VI noun class

cha

preposition'of', agreeing with kituo (KI class)

basi

noun'bus', from English

kiko

verb-ko · class: KI · tense: present · ki- (for kituo) + -ko 'is located'

wapi

adverbquestion word 'where', at the end

What changes from one language to the other (English × Swahili)

English fronts the question word; Swahili keeps it last. English says ‘bus stop’; Swahili ‘kituo cha basi’ (stop of bus), and the verb agrees with the noun's class.

Example conversation