jali
verb
to care about or pay attention to someone or something.
Use jali for caring about something or taking notice of it. It can also mean respecting or heeding someone. Sijali means “I do not care”; kabisa can make that dismissal emphatic.
Also to respect, honour, or heed.
Use for showing respect or giving weight to someone’s words.
Forms
- kujali
- infinitive
- sijali
- first-person singular negative present · I do not care
Lyric usage
Origins
Jali has been recorded in Swahili dictionaries for more than a century. The deeper source of the word is not established by the evidence reviewed here.
Sources3
Baylor University Libraries, Elementary Swahili I: negation of the present tense (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Libraries, 2024), Lesson 4.
Explains first-person singular negative si-, omission of the present marker, and retention of a final i, supporting the form sijali.
TUKI, Kamusi ya Kiswahili–Kiingereza: jali (Dar es Salaam: Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili, University of Dar es Salaam, 2000), entry: jali.
Records care and attention as well as respect, honour, and heed senses for jali.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), printed 112.
Records jali as a verb for honouring, heeding, and respecting.
Examples
Anajali familia yake.
They care about their family.
Tunajali usalama wako.
We care about your safety.
Jali afya yako.
Take care of your health.
Wazazi wanajali elimu ya watoto.
Parents care about their children’s education.
Ukijali maelezo, utaelewa.
If you pay attention to the explanation, you will understand.
Alijali ushauri wa mwalimu.
They heeded the teacher’s advice.
Wanafunzi humjali mwalimu wao.
The students respect their teacher.
Sijali walichosema.
I do not care what they said.
Usipojali muda, utachelewa.
If you do not pay attention to the time, you will be late.
