Class 18: Inside Something (mu-)

01

The Concord

• Kuna kituo cha mafuta mwishoni mwa barabara.

  There is a petrol station at the end of the road.

The linking word is mwa and not wa or ya, because the end of the road is being treated as an inside rather than as a spot.

02

humu and Its Relatives

• humu - in here, inside this
• humo - in there, inside that already mentioned
• mle - in there, inside that yonder

Each is the plain place word with an m- on it, and each says the speaker is thinking of an enclosed space.

03

mna: There Is, Inside

Just as class 17 gives kuna for there is somewhere, class 18 gives mna for there is inside.

• m- the class 18 subject, an inside
• -na has, with

The difference from kuna is not politeness or formality. It is that the speaker has an enclosure in mind: a room, a bag, a fridge, a building.

04

The Same Noun, a Different Class

A place word takes class 18 agreement only when the inside is the point. The identical noun takes class 16 or class 17 when it is not.

• nyumbani pana watu - there are people at the house, at that spot
• nyumbani kuna watu - there are people around the house
• nyumbani mna watu - there are people inside the house

One noun, three claims. Nothing about nyumbani changes; the whole difference sits in the syllable that opens the next word.

05

Where It Is Heard

Class 18 is the rarest of the three in everyday speech, and you will be understood without ever producing one. It is worth recognising, because it survives in fixed expressions of place and time.

• mwanzoni mwa - at the beginning of
• mwishoni mwa - at the end of

• Niliweka viatu ndani ya kabati.

  I put the shoes inside the wardrobe.

That sentence uses the ordinary phrase ndani ya inside of instead, which is what a learner will reach for first and is never wrong.

06

The Three Place Classes Side by Side

One place word can take all three agreements, and the choice changes what the sentence claims.

• pa- an exact spot you could point at
• ku- a general area or a direction
• m- the inside of something

• Niko sokoni. Kuna harakati nyingi sana.

  I am at the market. There is a lot going on.

kuna is the ordinary choice here, because a market is an area rather than a room.