kukaa

Kukaa is a Swahili verb in its infinitive form meaning either to sit or to stay, reside, or live in a place. It is formed from the verb root kaa (to sit) with the infinitive marker ku-. The sense of the word can cover the literal act of sitting as well as the more extended idea of staying in a location for a period of time.

In practice, kukaa is used across tenses and aspects with standard Swahili subject prefixes. Common present forms include nakaa, unakaa, anakaa, tunakaa, mnakaa, and Wanakaa, which denote “I sit/stay,” “you sit/stay,” “he/she sits/stays,” and so on. The past tense is formed with the appropriate past subject marker, for example alikaa (he/she sat/stayed) and walikaa (they sat/stayed). The future can be expressed with tense markers such as tutakaa or tutajua contextually, meaning “we will stay” or “we will sit,” depending on the sentence. Kukaa also appears in phrases that emphasize duration or residence, for instance, kukaa hapa meaning “to stay here.”

Common usages encompass both physical sitting and longer-term staying. Examples include "Ninakaa hapa" meaning “I am staying here” or “I stay here,” and "Aliikaa mjini kwa mwaka mmoja" meaning “He stayed in the town for one year.” The verb can also appear in idiomatic expressions such as kukaa kimya (to sit/keep silent) or in constructions describing habitual or ongoing residence.

Linguistically, kukaa illustrates the typical Bantu pattern of forming infinitives by ku- plus a verb root, with a rich system of subject concords to mark person and number. It is a frequent and versatile verb in Swahili and is widely understood across Swahili-speaking regions.