Mvua itaanza kunyesha jioni.

The rain will start falling in the evening.

Breakdown of Mvua itaanza kunyesha jioni.

• katika: in
• jioni: the evening
• mvua: the rain
• kuanza: to start

Questions & Answers about Mvua itaanza kunyesha jioni.

Why does the sentence use itaanza instead of inaanza?

In Swahili, -ta- is the marker for the future tense. The verb itaanza comes from kuanza (to begin) and literally means it will begin. Therefore, itaanza tells us that this action (the rain beginning) will happen sometime later, not right now.

What does kunyesha mean here?

Kunyesha is the verb for to rain or to pour rain. When combined with mvua, it emphasizes the action of rain falling. So itaanza kunyesha translates to it will begin to rain.

Is jioni specifically evening, or can it mean night as well?

Jioni generally refers to the early part of the evening, roughly from late afternoon to just after sunset. For nighttime (later hours), Swahili speakers often use usiku.

Could we say Mvua itaanza jioni without kunyesha?

You could say Mvua itaanza jioni, and it would still be understood as The rain will start in the evening, though it’s more common and clear to specify kunyesha to indicate rainfall explicitly.

How do you form other future-tense sentences in Swahili?

To form the future tense, you typically take the subject prefix (like i- for an N-class noun like mvua) + -ta- + the verb’s basic form. For example, Nitakula means I will eat, and Tutakutana means We will meet.