Mimi ninapika chakula kwa mkaa.

I

Breakdown of Mimi ninapika chakula kwa mkaa.

• kupika: to cook
• chakula: the food
• kwa: with

Questions & Answers about Mimi ninapika chakula kwa mkaa.

What is the role of Mimi in this sentence? Is it necessary?

Mimi is the explicit subject pronoun meaning “I.” In Swahili, the subject is already marked on the verb by the prefix ni-, so you don’t need Mimi for the sentence to be grammatical. You include it only for emphasis or clarity.
Example without Mimi:
Ninapika chakula kwa mkaa.

Why is ninapika written as one word, and what are its parts?

Swahili verbs are agglutinative: you glue subject, tense/aspect, and the verb root together. In ninapika:

• ni- = subject marker “I”
• -na- = present-tense (or progressive/habitual) marker
• pika = verb root “cook”
  Together ninapika literally means “I (am) cooking” or “I cook.”

What is the infinitive form of pika, and when would I use it?

The infinitive (dictionary) form is kupika, meaning “to cook.” You use kupika when you need a non-conjugated verb, for example after another verb or a modal construction:
Nataka kupika chakula. = “I want to cook food.”

Why is chakula singular here? Can it be plural?