Learn Hardcore Swahili: Sisi tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni. - We will finish this song at home in the evening.

Tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni. – We will finish this song at home in the evening.
Sisi tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni. – We (as opposed to someone else) will finish this song at home in the evening.

In everyday speech, you’ll often hear people drop sisi and just say Tutamalizia... unless they’re emphasizing we.

What are the parts of the verb tutamalizia? How is it built up?

Tutamalizia breaks down like this:

tu- – subject prefix for “we”
-ta- – future tense marker
-malizia – verb stem meaning “to finish off / to complete (at/for)”

So literally: tu + ta + malizia → tutamalizia = “we will finish off / we will complete”.

The base verb is -maliza (to finish). The extra -i- before -a (→ -ia) is an applicative suffix, which often means “do X for someone / at a place / with something.” That’s why -malizia often appears with a location or beneficiary, like nyumbani (“at home”).

What is the difference between tutamaliza and tutamalizia in this sentence?

Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:

Tutamaliza wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.
→ We will finish this song at home in the evening.
Neutral “finish”.
Tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.
→ We will finish off / complete (the rest of) this song at home in the evening.
Suggests finishing something that is already started, or finishing it in/at a particular place.

In many contexts, people use -malizia to sound more natural when talking about finishing something somewhere or later, especially something already begun. For a learner, you can safely think:

-maliza = to finish
-malizia = to finish off / finish the remainder, often linked to a place or time

What exactly does wimbo huu mean, and why is the demonstrative after the noun?

Wimbo huu means “this song”:

wimbo – song
huu – “this” (for the noun class that wimbo belongs to)

In standard Swahili, the usual pattern is:

noun + demonstrative
wimbo huu – this song
mtoto huyu – this child
kitabu hiki – this book
nyumba hii – this house

So wimbo huu is the normal order.
You might hear huu wimbo in some speech for emphasis, but as a learner you should stick with wimbo huu as the standard, neutral form.

Why is it nyumbani and not just nyumba?

Nyumbani comes from:

nyumba – house
-ni – locative ending (“in / at / on”)

So:

nyumba = a/the house (as a plain noun)
nyumbani = in the house / at home

In this sentence, we want “at home”, i.e., a location, not just the word “house.”
Swahili often uses -ni to express “in/at/on” instead of a separate preposition.

Other examples:

shule → shuleni – at school
kanisa → kanisani – at church
ofisi → ofisini – at the office

Do we need a word for “at” before nyumbani jioni, like “katika nyumbani jioni”?

No. The idea of “at” is already contained in nyumbani:

nyumba (house) + -ni (locative) → nyumbani = at home / in the house

So nyumbani jioni already means “at home in the evening”. Adding katika here would sound odd:

❌ katika nyumbani jioni – unnatural
✅ nyumbani jioni – natural

If you wanted to, you could say katika nyumba for “in a/the house” in some contexts, but nyumbani is by far the more natural way to say “at home”.

Why is the order wimbo huu nyumbani jioni? Can I move nyumbani or jioni to a different position?

The usual neutral order in Swahili is:

Subject – Verb – Object – Place – Time

So:

Sisi (subject)
tutamalizia (verb)
wimbo huu (object)
nyumbani (place)
jioni (time)

→ Sisi tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.

You can move the place and time phrases for emphasis, for example:

Tutamalizia wimbo huu jioni nyumbani. – sounds a bit marked, emphasizing “in the evening at home”.
Jioni tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani. – emphasizes “in the evening” first.

However, for a learner the safest, most natural pattern is:

... wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.

Is jioni just “evening,” or do I need another word like “in the evening”?

Jioni itself carries the meaning “in the evening / evening time.”

You don’t add a preposition like “in.” In Swahili, time-of-day words like:

asubuhi – in the morning / morning
mchana – in the afternoon / daytime
jioni – in the evening
usiku – at night

can stand alone at the end of the sentence:

Tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.
→ We will finish this song at home in the evening.

So jioni already expresses “in the evening”; no extra word is needed.

Could I drop sisi and just say Tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni?

Yes, and that is actually the more typical version.

Tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni. – Completely correct and natural.

Because tu- already means “we,” most sentences in Swahili do not use the separate pronoun unless there is emphasis or contrast.

Use Sisi if you want to stress:

Sisi tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni. – We (not someone else) will finish this song at home in the evening.

How would I say “We will not finish this song at home in the evening”?

To make the future negative with “we,” you use hatuta- instead of tuta-:

hatuta- = ha- (negative) + tu- (we) + ta- (future)

So:

Sisi hatutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.
= We will not finish this song at home in the evening.

You can also drop sisi if it’s not needed for emphasis:

Hatutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.

Can I say huu wimbo instead of wimbo huu in this sentence?

For standard, neutral Swahili, you should say:

✅ wimbo huu

The pattern noun + demonstrative is the normal one:

wimbo huu – this song
mtoto huyu – this child
chakula hiki – this food

You may hear huu wimbo in some speech to put special emphasis on “this”, but it can sound marked or dialectal. As a learner, stick with wimbo huu in ordinary sentences like:

Tutamalizia wimbo huu nyumbani jioni.