Learn Hardcore Swahili: Binamu yangu atakuja nyumbani kesho mchana. - My cousin will come home tomorrow afternoon.

Binamu means cousin (male or female). By default it refers to the child of your aunt or uncle. In some dialects you may also hear it used for nephew or niece, but that usage is less common in standard Swahili.

Why is it binamu yangu instead of yangu binamu?

In Swahili the possessive pronoun follows the noun as a suffix. Here binamu (cousin) + yangu (my) gives binamu yangu. The ending -angu agrees with the noun class of binamu.

How is atakuja formed, and what does each part mean?

Atakuja = a (3rd-person-singular subject marker “he/she”)
+ ta (future-tense marker “will”)
+ kuja (verb root “to come”)
So atakuja literally means “he/she will come.”

Why does kuja still have ku- after the tense marker instead of just ja?

Most Swahili verbs drop the infinitive prefix ku- when you inflect them (e.g., kula → anala “he/she is eating”). However, kuja (“to come”) and kwenda (“to go”) are irregular: their root includes ku-, so you retain it in tense forms like atakuja and watakwenda.

What does nyumbani mean, and why does it end in -ni?

Nyumba means house, and the suffix -ni is the locative marker meaning “in/at.”
Therefore nyumbani = at/in the house, idiomatically at home (or “to the house,” depending on context).

Can you give other examples of nouns with the locative suffix -ni?

Sure. Some common examples:
• shuleni – at/to school
• sokoni – at/to the market
• msikitini – at/to the mosque
• ofisini – at/to the office

How do kesho and mchana combine to mean “tomorrow afternoon”?

Kesho means tomorrow; mchana means afternoon. In Swahili you simply place time words together without a preposition. So kesho mchana literally “tomorrow afternoon.”

How would you change the sentence if you meant “my cousins” (plural) instead of “my cousin”?

You need the plural possessive zangu and plural subject marker wa. The sentence becomes:
Binamu zangu watakuja nyumbani kesho mchana.
Here binamu zangu = “my cousins” and watakuja = “they will come.”