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LESSON 12. COMPARISON
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32 SWAHILI MADE EASY LESSON 12 COMPARISON In Swahili, adjectives do not change in order to express degrees of comparison. Swahili expresses equality and inequality by using the following words. 1. To express equality (or positive degree) sawa na “equal to “ or kama “as...as”, are used; e.g. Tatu ni mrefu kama wewe, “Tatu is as tall as you.” Kusoma ni kugumu sawa na kulima, Reading is as hard as cultivating”. 2. To denote inequality kuliko or zaidi ya, “more than” are used, e.g. Tatu ni mzuri kuliko Pendo, “Tatu is prettier than Pendo”. Tatu ni mwema zaidi ya Pendo. “Tatu is kinder than Pendo”. 3. To express the highest degree (superlative) -ote, is used after the words kuliko or zaidi ya, e.g. a. Babu ni mzee kuliko wote,“Grandfather is the oldest of all”. b. Ana kitabu kizuri kuliko vyote, “He has the nicest book”. c. Ana akili zaidi ya watoto wote “She is the most intelligent child”. As you may have noticed, -ote, “all “ , agrees with the nouns being compared and takes their nominal prefixes. Compare a) and b) above and you will see that -ote takes the plural prefixes. PART ONE 33 EXERCISE 15 Translate into Swahili: 1. Tatu is the nicest girl here but she is not the tallest. 2. Mashaka is as big as you, but he is shorter than you. 3. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in10 Africa. 4. Tanzania is bigger than Kenya, but Nairobi is bigger than Dar es Salaam. 5. Is New York the largest city in the world11 ? 6. Learning is better than swimming (use the adjective bora)12 10 “in” is usually not translated when referring to the towns, countries and places. 11 “in the world” – duniani 12 Other forms of expressing degrees of comparisons include the verbs: kupita “to surpass, kuzidi “ to excel “kushinda” to beat” ...