nĩkwarĩ
- there was. There was. An existential construction used to introduce the existence or presence of something in past time, formed from the copula with locative meaning.
Example: Na rĩrĩ, o hau aarĩ, nĩkwarĩ mũndũ warĩ na ihu rĩa mũthuthuma. (In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Dropsy : an abnormal swelling of the body because of the retention and accumulation of fluid.); Nĩkwarĩ arĩa maatungaga nyĩmbo, na angĩ maathondekaga marebeta, (Composers of melodious psalms, writers of lyric poems;)