Dada yangu anapenda kusoma peke yake bustanini wakati wa machweo.

In Swahili, possessive pronouns normally come after the noun they describe.

• dada yangu = sister my → “my sister”
• kitabu changu = book my → “my book”

So the natural order is:
[noun] + [possessive], not the other way around.

Because dada belongs to the N-class (9/10) of nouns, and that class uses -yangu for “my”.

Compare:

• mtoto wangu – my child (mtoto = class 1, uses -wangu)
• dada yangu – my sister (dada = class 9, uses -yangu)
• rafiki yangu – my friend (rafiki = class 9, uses -yangu)

So it’s not about “person” vs “thing”; it’s about the noun class the word belongs to.

Anapenda comes from the verb penda (“to like / to love”) and has:

• a- = subject marker for “he/she”
• -na- = present tense marker (often “habitual” or “general” present)
• penda = verb root

So anapenda = “she likes / she loves” or “she is fond of”.

In many contexts, anapenda means a general habit:

• Anapenda kusoma – She likes reading / She likes to read (generally).

The -na- is the present tense marker. It can cover both:

• ongoing present (is doing)
• habitual/general present (does/likes)

Which one it means depends on context.

• Anaimba sasa. – She is singing now.
• Anapenda kusoma. – She likes/ enjoys reading (as a habit).

In your sentence, it describes a habitual preference: my sister likes to read…

Kusoma is the infinitive form: “to read” / “reading”.

Swahili forms infinitives with ku- + verb root:

• kulala – to sleep
• kucheza – to play
• kusoma – to read

After verbs of liking/wanting/starting, you typically use the infinitive:

• Anapenda kusoma. – She likes to read.
• Nataka kulala. – I want to sleep.

Just soma would be a finite verb (“read!” or part of a conjugated form), not an infinitive.

Yes, but the meaning changes:

• Anapenda kusoma peke yake… – She likes to read by herself… (her preference, habit)
• Anasoma peke yake… – She is reading by herself… (what she is doing right now)

Your sentence is about what she likes to do, so anapenda kusoma is correct.

Peke yake literally means “on its/her/his own” and is used as “by herself / alone”.

You can change the possessive part to match the person:

• peke yangu – by myself / alone
• peke yako – by yourself
• peke yake – by himself / herself
• peke yetu – by ourselves
• peke yenu – by you (pl.) alone
• peke yao – by themselves

So:

• Ninapenda kusoma peke yangu. – I like to read by myself.
• Wanacheza peke yao. – They are playing by themselves.

Often, yes, but there is a nuance:

• peke yake – emphasizes being alone, without others.
• mwenyewe – emphasizes “himself/herself personally”, sometimes “without help” or “in person”.

In many casual contexts, they overlap:

• Anapenda kusoma peke yake. – She likes to read alone.
• Anapenda kusoma mwenyewe. – She likes to read by herself (without help, by her own effort).

When you specifically mean “alone, with no one else around”, peke yake is the clearest.

The -ni suffix marks a location, similar to “in/at/on” in English.

• bustani – garden
• bustanini – in the garden / at the garden

Other examples:

• nyumba – house → nyumbani – (at) home
• shule – school → shuleni – at school
• mezani – at the table (from meza, table)

So bustanini itself already includes the idea of “in/at the garden”; you don’t need an extra word like “in”.

Yes, you can:

• katika bustani – in the garden
• bustanini – in/at the garden

Both are correct. -ni is shorter and very common in speech.
Katika bustani is slightly more explicit and is common in writing or when you want to emphasize “inside” a place.

Your sentence would still be natural as:

• Dada yangu anapenda kusoma peke yake katika bustani wakati wa machweo.

Literally it is:

• wakati – time / period
• wa – “of” (genitive linking word)
• machweo – sunsets / sunset time (from the verb kuchwa, “to set” used of the sun)

So wakati wa machweo = “the time of sunsets / the time of sunset”, i.e. at (around) sunset.

You could think of it as “during sunset” in natural English.

The linking word (“of”) agrees with the first noun, not the second.

• wakati belongs to the U-class (class 11/14-like), whose genitive is wa.
• So we get wakati wa… no matter what comes after:

Examples:

• wakati wa mchana – time of daytime / during the day
• wakati wa mvua – time of rain / during the rainy season
• wakati wa machweo – time of sunset / during sunset

That’s why it must be wakati wa, not wakati ya.

Yes, time expressions are fairly flexible. All of these are possible and natural:

• Dada yangu anapenda kusoma peke yake bustanini wakati wa machweo.
• Wakati wa machweo, dada yangu anapenda kusoma peke yake bustanini.
• Dada yangu, wakati wa machweo, anapenda kusoma peke yake bustanini.

The default, most neutral position is often at the end, as in your original sentence.