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Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku, usingizi hautakuja.

Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku, usingizi hautakuja.
If you continue drinking coffee at night, you won’t get any sleep.
FromLesson 38inHardcore Swahili
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Breakdown of Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku, usingizi hautakuja.

kunywa
to drink
kuja
to come
kahawa
the coffee
usingizi
the sleep
usiku
at night
ukiendelea
if you continue
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Questions & Answers about Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku, usingizi hautakuja.

What is the structure of Ukiendelea in this sentence?

Ukiendelea is a conditional‐verb form made up of:

  • U- (2nd person singular subject prefix “you”)
  • -ki- (conditional/when marker)
  • endelea (verb root “continue”)
  • -a (final vowel)
    Together it means “if/when you continue.”
Why does the sentence use kunywa (to drink) instead of a simple present or habitual form?

kunywa is the infinitive “to drink.” In this conditional‐result structure, Swahili often uses the infinitive after the conditional clause:
Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa…
Literally: “If you keep on drinking coffee…”

Why is usiku placed after kunywa kahawa and not at the beginning?

usiku (“at night”) is an adverb of time. Swahili is flexible with adverb placement, but putting it after the main verb phrase emphasizes the action first, then the time:
“… drinking coffee at night.”
You could also say Usiku ukiendelea kunywa kahawa… without changing the core meaning.

What does usingizi mean, and why is it a noun here?
usingizi is a noun meaning “sleep” or “the act/state of sleeping.” It comes from the verb -lala (“to sleep”) but is a nominalization, so it refers to the concept of sleep (“sleepiness”) rather than the action.
How is the negative future tense expressed in hautakuja?

hautakuja breaks down into:

  • ha- (negative prefix for class 3 noun usingizi)
  • -ta- (future tense marker)
  • -kuja (verb root “come”)
    Thus usingizi hautakuja = “sleep will not come.”
Why does the negative prefix ha- attach to usingizi rather than the verb?

In Swahili, negation of a noun clause (here “sleep will not come”) uses the negative subject prefix on the noun class:
usingizi is class 3; its negative subject prefix is ha-.
So you get usingizi hautakuja rather than si-usingizi uta-kuja.

Can you invert the clause order? For example, start with “Usingizi hautakuja” first?

Yes. You can say:
Usingizi hautakuja ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku.
It still means “Sleep will not come if you continue drinking coffee at night,” though native speakers often put the conditional clause first.

What is the function of the comma in the Swahili sentence?
Swahili uses commas much like English to separate clauses. Here it marks the boundary between the conditional clause (Ukiendelea kunywa kahawa usiku) and its result (usingizi hautakuja).