Mama alipika maharagwe na wali kwa chakula cha mchana.

Mother cooked beans and rice for lunch.

Breakdown of Mama alipika maharagwe na wali kwa chakula cha mchana.

• kupika: to cook
• mama: the mother
• na: and
• mchana: the afternoon
• chakula: the food
• kwa: for
• wali: the rice
• cha: of
• haragwe: the bean

Questions & Answers about Mama alipika maharagwe na wali kwa chakula cha mchana.

What does alipika mean, and how is it formed?

Alipika is the past‐tense, third‐person‐singular form of kupika (“to cook”). It breaks down as:

• a- : subject prefix for “he/she”
• -li- : past-tense marker
• pika : verb root “cook”
  So alipika = “she cooked” (here referring to Mama).

Why is maharagwe plural, and what is its singular form?

Swahili nouns in the “harage” class form the plural with the prefix ma-. Thus:

• Singular: haragwe (bean)
• Plural: maharagwe (beans)

You simply add ma- to the root to get the plural.

Is na here meaning “and” or “with”?

In maharagwe na wali, na is a coordinating conjunction meaning “and”, joining two dishes (beans and rice).
Note: na can also mean “with” when indicating accompaniment or instrument (e.g., amecheza na mpira = “he played with a ball”), but context tells you which sense applies.

Why isn’t there a separate word for “she” before alipika (like yeye alipika)?

In Swahili, the verb prefix already encodes the subject.

• a- in alipika means “he/she,” so adding yeye (“she”) would be redundant unless you want extra emphasis:
  
  • Yeye alipika… = “It was she who cooked…”

What role does kwa play in kwa chakula cha mchana?

Here kwa is a preposition meaning “for.”

• kwa chakula cha mchana = “for lunch.”
  It indicates the purpose or occasion for which the cooking was done.

Why is it chakula cha mchana and not chakula ya mchana?

Swahili uses linking particles that agree with the noun class of the head noun.

• chakula is class 7 (prefix cha-), so its link is cha.
  Thus chakula cha mchana = “food of midday.” If it were a class 9/10 noun, you’d use ya instead.

What’s the difference between wali and mchele?

• mchele = “raw/uncooked rice” (class 3)
• wali = “cooked rice” (class 15)
  Use mchele when talking about buying or storing rice, but wali when you mean the dish you eat.