Jumatatu asubuhi nitakwenda sokoni.

On Monday morning I will go to the market.

Breakdown of Jumatatu asubuhi nitakwenda sokoni.

• kwenye: at
• soko: the market
• asubuhi: in the morning
• kwenda: to go
• Jumatatu: Monday

Questions & Answers about Jumatatu asubuhi nitakwenda sokoni.

How do you express Monday morning in Swahili? Why isn’t there a preposition like on?

In Swahili you simply string together the day and the time of day without a preposition.

• Jumatatu = Monday
• asubuhi = morning
  So Jumatatu asubuhi literally means Monday morning. You don’t need on because Swahili treats days and times as adverbial phrases, not requiring a separate word for “on.”

Why is nitakwenda written as one word? How do you break it down?

Swahili verbs include subject and tense markers as part of the verb complex. nitakwenda breaks down into three parts:

1. ni- (subject prefix for “I”)
2. -ta- (future tense marker)
3. -kwenda (the infinitive stem -enda with its infinitive prefix ku-, which fuses here to -kwenda)
   All together ni-ta-kwenda = “I will go.”

What exactly does the -ta- in nitakwenda do? How do other tenses look?

The -ta- is the future tense marker. It sits between the subject prefix and the verb stem.

• Past: ni-li-enda = I went
• Present/continuous: ni-na-enda = I am going (or I go)
• Future: ni-ta-enda (written as nitakwenda) = I will go

Why is it sokoni instead of just soko? What does the suffix -ni mean?

soko means “market.” Adding the locative suffix -ni turns it into “at/to the market.” The suffix -ni marks place—either location (“in/at”) or direction (“to”).

• nyumba (house) → nyumbani (at/in the house)
• msitu (forest) → msituni (in the forest)

Could you say nitakwenda kwenye soko instead of nitakwenda sokoni? What’s the difference?

Yes, nitakwenda kwenye soko is also correct. Here’s how they compare:

• sokoni uses the locative suffix -ni directly on the noun.
• kwenye soko uses the preposition kwenye
  • noun (literally “into/onto the market”).
    Both mean “to the market,” but sokoni is more compact and very common in everyday speech.

Is nitakwenda sokoni transitive or intransitive? Why isn’t there an object-marker?

nitakwenda (“I will go”) is intransitive because go in Swahili doesn’t take a direct object; it describes movement. The place you’re moving toward is shown by a locative (here sokoni), not a direct object. Hence there’s no object-marker in the verb.

Why does the time phrase Jumatatu asubuhi come before the verb? Can word order change?

Swahili generally follows a Time–Subject–Tense–Verb–Object/Place order for clarity:
[Time] [Subject-Tense-Verb] [Object/Place]
Putting Jumatatu asubuhi at the front highlights when the action happens. You could say Nitakwenda sokoni Jumatatu asubuhi, but the most natural, emphatic way is to start with the time phrase.