Learn Hardcore Swahili: Jana nilisahau pochi yangu nyumbani, kwa hiyo sikununua chochote sokoni. - Yesterday I forgot my purse at home, so I didn’t buy anything at the market.

Jana means yesterday. In Swahili, time expressions (like yesterday, tomorrow, today, in the morning) very often come at the beginning of the sentence to set the time frame:

Jana nilisahau… – Yesterday I forgot…
Kesho nitaenda… – Tomorrow I will go…

However, it is also grammatically possible to move jana:

Nilisahau pochi yangu jana nyumbani. – I forgot my wallet yesterday at home.

The meaning is still understandable, but Jana nilisahau… sounds more natural and typical for Swahili style, with time first and then what happened.

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

Nilisahau means “I forgot”.

It breaks down as:

ni- = I (subject prefix for “I”)
-li- = past tense marker (simple past)
-sahau = verb root “forget”

So:

ni + li + sahau → nilisahau = I + past + forget → I forgot.

This is the standard structure for many Swahili verbs:
subject prefix + tense marker + verb root.

Why is it pochi yangu and not yangu pochi?

In Swahili, possessive adjectives like yangu (my), yako (your), yake (his/her), etc., usually come after the noun:

pochi yangu – my wallet
rafiki yangu – my friend
kitabu changu – my book

So the normal order is:

noun + possessive

Putting yangu before the noun (yangu pochi) is ungrammatical in standard Swahili.

Why is it pochi yangu, not pochi langu? How does yangu agree?

Swahili possessives must agree with the noun class of the noun they describe.

pochi (wallet/purse) is treated like a N-class noun (often used for many loanwords).
In many dialects/standard usage, N-class singular nouns take yangu for “my”.

Compare:

safari yangu – my trip
simu yangu – my phone
pochi yangu – my wallet

So yangu is the correct agreement form here. langu is used with class 5/6 nouns like tunda langu (my fruit), jicho langu (my eye), not with pochi.

What exactly does nyumbani mean, and how is it different from nyumba?

nyumba = house (the noun itself)
nyumbani = at home / to home / home (a locative form)

Adding -ni to many nouns makes a locative meaning:

soko (market) → sokoni (at the market)
shule (school) → shuleni (at school)
nyumba (house) → nyumbani (at home)

So nyumbani is best understood as “at home” or “home” rather than just “house”.

Why is it kwa hiyo, and how is it different from kwa sababu or hivyo?

kwa hiyo here means “so / therefore”.

kwa hiyo – so, therefore, for that reason
- Used to introduce a result:
  - Nilisahau pochi yangu, kwa hiyo sikununua chochote.
    I forgot my wallet, so I didn’t buy anything.

Compare with:

kwa sababu – because (introduces a reason clause)
- SikununuA chochote kwa sababu nilisahau pochi yangu.
  I didn’t buy anything because I forgot my wallet.
hivyo – like that / in that way / so
- Sometimes used similarly to kwa hiyo, but kwa hiyo is the more common clear “therefore/so” connector in this kind of sentence.

So in this sentence, kwa hiyo neatly links cause → result: > Cause: I forgot my wallet at home
> Result: I didn’t buy anything at the market

How is sikununua formed, and why is there a k in there?

Sikununua means “I did not buy” (past).

It breaks down as:

si- = negative for “I” in the past
-ku- = past marker in negative past
-nunua = buy

So underlying structure is:
si + ku + nunua → sikununua.

The k you see is part of the -ku- past marker in the negative. In speech, it all flows together as one word:

sikununua = I didn’t buy.

Contrast that with the positive past:

nili-nunua – I bought (ni- + li- + nunua)

How does chochote work? Why not just chote?

chochote here means “anything”.

It is built from:

cho- – a form of the relative/indefinite prefix for noun class 7 (things)
-chote – from -ote meaning “all / whole / any”, with agreement for class 7 (chote)

So:

chochote ≈ whatever thing / anything (at all)

Some examples:

Sijala chochote. – I haven’t eaten anything.
Hana chochote cha kusema. – He/she has nothing (anything) to say.

Using just chote would be incomplete; chochote is the set expression meaning “anything” with an indefinite sense.

Why is it sokoni and not just soko?

soko = market (the noun)
sokoni = at the market / to the market (locative form)

As with nyumbani, adding -ni gives a location meaning:

sokoni – at the market
nyumbani – at home
shuleni – at school

In English you must add a preposition (“at the market”), but in Swahili the -ni suffix often replaces that preposition. So:

sikununua chochote sokoni
literally: I didn’t-buy anything at-the-market.

Could the word order be changed, for example: Jana nilisahau nyumbani pochi yangu? Would that still be correct?

Word order in Swahili is generally more flexible than in English, but not everything is equally natural.

Jana nilisahau pochi yangu nyumbani – sounds natural:
- Yesterday I forgot my wallet at home.
Jana nilisahau nyumbani pochi yangu – understandable but less natural; pochi yangu (what you forgot) usually comes right after the verb or very close to it.

Preferred patterns keep:

[Time] + [Subject/verb] + [direct object] + [place]

So the original:

Jana nilisahau pochi yangu nyumbani

or:

Jana nilisahau pochi yangu nyumbani, kwa hiyo sikununua chochote sokoni.

is very natural. Moving nyumbani in between verb and object isn’t wrong, but it’s not the smoothest style.

Is there a reason the conjunction is kwa hiyo and not hivyo or na kwa hiyo?

The basic, clear, and common choice to mean “so/therefore” between two full sentences is simply kwa hiyo.

Jana nilisahau pochi yangu nyumbani, kwa hiyo sikununua chochote sokoni.

You could also hear:

… hivyo sikununua chochote sokoni. – more like “thus/so”
… na kwa hiyo sikununua… – “and so therefore I didn’t…”

These variants are not wrong, but:

kwa hiyo is the most straightforward and neutral connector for cause → result in everyday speech.
Adding na (na kwa hiyo) is acceptable, but stylistically redundant in most casual sentences.

So the chosen form is the simplest and most typical.