elewa
verb
to understand; to comprehend.
Everyday mental verb for grasping meaning, a situation, or an instruction.
Origins
Elewa is the everyday Swahili verb for understanding. Historical dictionaries record the -elea / -elewa family around clarity and comprehension.
Sources4
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), derivation notes for -elea / -elewa.
Records the -elea / -elewa derivation chain around intensified or related clarity senses.
J. L. Krapf, A Dictionary of the Suahili Language (London: Trübner & Co., 1882), alphabetical entry: Elewa.
Records Elewa with the sense of being made to understand.
Meg Arenberg, Swahili Poetry’s Digital Geographies: WhatsApp and the Forming of Cultural Space, 4.
Elewa means “understand”.; The final -e in nielewe marks the subjunctive.
University of Georgia, KIKO Unit 1 Grammar Notes, C. The verb structure.
The final -e in nielewe marks the subjunctive.
Examples
Sasa naelewa.
Now I understand.
Je, unaelewa swali?
Do you understand the question?
Tueleze ili tuelewe.
Explain to us so that we understand.
Ninaelewa swali hili.
I understand this question.
Watoto wanaelewa somo hili.
The children understand this lesson.
Sikuelewa ulichosema.
I did not understand what you said.
Ananielewa bila maneno mengi.
She understands me without many words.
Tumeanza kuelewa shida.
We have begun to understand the problem.
Elewa kwamba muda ni mfupi.
Understand that time is short.
