una njaa?
In Swahili, the phrase for "are you hungry?" is una njaa?
The phrase una njaa? is used to ask if someone wants to eat food.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of the verb una (you have) and the noun njaa (hunger).
Which one should you use?
In Swahili, hunger is treated as a state of having hunger rather than being hungry.
How does it change in a sentence?
To respond that you are hungry, you change the subject prefix from u- (you) to ni- (I) to say nina njaa.
Did you know?
- In many Swahili-speaking cultures, asking una njaa? is often used more as a social gesture of hospitality than a literal inquiry into someone's physical state.
- The word njaa also serves as a noun for a famine or a period of widespread food shortage in a region.
- The noun njaa traces its roots back to the Proto-Bantu word *njàdà, a linguistic ancestor shared by many languages across Africa.
Example conversation
Bakari is asking Neema if she wants to eat lunch.
- BakariNeema, una njaa?Neema, are you hungry?
- NeemaNdiyo, nina njaa sana.Yes, I am very hungry.
- BakariTwende tukule chakula.Let's go eat some food.
- NeemaSawa, twende.Okay, let's go.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries njaa, CC BY-SA 4.0.
