kweli
noun · adverb
Truth; reality. As an adverb: truly; really; certainly.
Use kweli for truth or to emphasize that something is really so. In -a kweli, the linking word changes with the noun: rafiki wa kweli, “a true friend”.
Also truly; really; certainly. (adverb)
Use kweli for truth or to emphasize that something is really so. In -a kweli, the linking word changes with the noun: rafiki wa kweli, “a true friend”.
Origins
Kweli belongs to Swahili’s earlier Bantu vocabulary. Its noun meaning “truth” sits alongside the adverb meaning “truly” or “really”, and the expression -a kweli means “true” or “genuine”.
Sources3
Haspelmath and Tadmor / Lexibank, World Loanword Database CLDF (2009), wold-master/cldf/forms.csv row 48240.
Kweli is classified as earlier Bantu vocabulary, with no evidence for borrowing.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (1903), 216.
Truth/reality; truly/really/certainly. -a kweli expresses true, truthful or genuine.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (1884), 131.
-a kweli expresses true, truthful or genuine.
Examples
Nataka kujua kweli.
I want to know the truth.
Sema kweli.
Tell the truth.
Hiyo ni kweli.
That is true.
Hiyo si kweli.
That is not true.
Alifika kweli.
He really did arrive.
Umechoka kweli.
You really are tired.
Huyu ni rafiki wa kweli.
This is a true friend.
Kwa kweli, sina muda leo.
In truth, I have no time today.
Ni habari za kweli.
It is true news.
