In the Shona language (or Chivanhu), ziya has three main meanings:
- Sweat: The wet liquid from your skin when you are hot, sick, or afraid.
- Very hungry: Feeling a strong need for food, like you haven't eaten in a long time.
- To know something or someone.
Meaning 1: "Sweat"
- Ndiri kubuda ziya nekuda kwekupisa. (I am sweating because of the heat.)
- Ainge achibuda ziya nekurwara. (He was sweating from illness.)
Meaning 2: "Very hungry"
- Ndiri kuziya nenzara. (I am very hungry.)
- Ndakanga ndaziya zvikuru ndisati ndadya. (I was very hungry before I ate.)
Meaning 3: To know something or someone
- Unoziya kuti ndiani akatora bhuku rangu here? (Do you know who took my book?)
- Ndinomuziya murume uyu. (I know this man.)
- Havaziye nzira yekuenda kumusha. (They don't know the way to go home.)
- Anoziya mutauro wePatwah. (He knows the Jamaican Creole.)
- Ndinoziya kuti uchabudirira. (I know that you will succeed.)
