There several words connectors that are commonly used in Kiswahili.
Some of these are : “ni” and “na”;
1. “ni” in Kiswahili is equivalent to “is” in English;
But in Kiswahili we don’t have plural of “ni” , this means in both plurality and singularity we still use “ni” ( in English for example , we have the plural of “is” that is “are”, in Kiswahili “ni” remains in both cases. We will see this soon.
2. “na” in Kiswahili is equivalent to “and” or “with”.
This is to say in Kiswahili, “na” can mean either “and” or “with” depending on the context its applied. For today, we only look it’s “and” context of application.
Let’s look them through examples, through this short story of young and old man.
#ni Connector
I. Juma ni mweusi, Anthony ni mweupe.
/ Juma is Black, Anthony is white
II. Juma ni kijana, Anthony ni mzee
/ Juma is young, Anthony is an old man.
#na connector
III. Juma na Anthony ni marafiki.
/
Juma and Anthony are friends.
IV. Juma na Anthony wanapenda muziki.
/
Juma and Anthony like music.
Enjoy Swahili
