In asking questions about people, things ,time or place, the following words are used:
Nani?Who?e.g.Nani wewe? Who are you?
We nani?Whose?Mtoto wa nani?Whose child?
Watoto wa nani?Whose children?
Nini?What?e.g.anasema nini?What does he say?
Wapi?Where?e.g unakwenda wapi?Where are you going?
Hapa,here;e.g Nani yupo hapa?Who is here?
Lini?When?e.g.lini alikuja hapa?When did he come here?
Kwa nini?why?e.g.kwa nini unacheka?Why are you laughing?
Kwa sababu ,because;e.g.ninacheka kwa sababu nimefurahi,I am laughing because I am happy.
Likewise,”whose book?”Kitabu cha nani? Whose books? Vitabu vya Nani?
It is obvious from the examples given here that “whose”(nani)in Swahili takes class prefixes.
It is composed of ,”of” and nani”who” for more on nominal prefixes, see lesson 20.
-pi?which? Mtoto yupi?Which child
Ki/vi. Kitabu kipi?Which book?
Vitabu vipi?Which books?
M/mi. Mti upi?Which tree?
Miti ipi?Which tree?
N/N. Nyumba ipi?Which house?
Nyumba zipi?Which houses?
J/MA. Jina lipi?Which name?
Majina yapi?Which names?
- Ukuta upi? Which wall?
Kuta zipi?Which walls.
- Pahali gani?Which place?
(Here we use another word,parallel papi .
Is not usual. Likewise, we say ,kula gani, what kind of eating
