Learn Hardcore Swahili: Ukisoma udaku mwingi kwenye mtandao wa kijamii, utapoteza muda wako bure. - If you read a lot of gossip on social media, you will waste your time for nothing.

Context usually makes it clear whether the speaker means a more hypothetical if or a habitual whenever/when. Swahili doesn’t always separate these as clearly as English does.

Why is the second verb utapoteza in the future tense?

Utapoteza is:

u- = you (singular)
-ta- = future tense marker
poteza = waste / lose

So utapoteza = “you will waste / you will lose”.

In Swahili, a common pattern is:

Conditional clause with -ki-: Ukisoma... (If/when you read...)
Main clause with future: ...utapoteza... (you will waste...)

This is very natural and matches English: “If you read..., you will waste...”. You could sometimes see a present tense in similar structures, but here the future makes the consequence clear.

Why is it udaku mwingi and not udaku nyingi?

Because of noun class agreement.

udaku (gossip) belongs to a class that takes mwingi for “a lot of / much”.
Nouns like chai (tea), pesa (money) often use nyingi for “a lot of / many”.
But many u- nouns (like uzuri, umeme, udaku) use mwingi:
- uzuri mwingi – a lot of beauty
- umeme mwingi – a lot of electricity
- udaku mwingi – a lot of gossip

So it’s not arbitrary; mwingi agrees with the noun class of udaku.

Is udaku singular or plural? Can you make it plural?

Udaku is treated as a mass/uncountable noun (like “gossip” in English).

It doesn’t normally have a regular plural (*madaku is not standard).
To talk about quantity, you usually keep it singular and add words like:
- udaku mwingi – a lot of gossip
- udaku kidogo – a little gossip

If you really need a countable expression, speakers might say things like habari za udaku (“gossip stories”), but udaku itself stays in that mass form.

What does kwenye mean here, and how is it different from katika or kwa?

In this sentence, kwenye means roughly “on / in / on the” – “on social media”.

kwenye is a very common, flexible preposition meaning in, on, at, to depending on context.
katika is a bit more formal/literary and often translates as “in / within”.
kwa has many uses, including by/at/with/because of, and often relates to people or means (e.g. kwa rafiki yangu – at my friend’s place).

Here, kwenye mtandao wa kijamii = “on social media / on the social network”, and kwenye sounds very natural and everyday.

How is mtandao wa kijamii built, and why is it singular instead of plural like “social media”?

Breakdown:

mtandao = network, web, (online) platform
wa = “of” (agreeing with mtandao)
kijamii = social (related to society/community)

So mtandao wa kijamii literally means “social network”.

Why singular?

Swahili can use a singular to talk about something in general.
mtandao wa kijamii can refer to the whole concept of social media.
You can also say mitandao ya kijamii (plural “social networks/media”), and that is very common too.

Using the singular here is stylistic and still understood as the general idea of social media.

In mtandao wa kijamii, why is the connector wa used and not ya or cha?

The connector -a (“of”) changes shape to agree with the noun class of the first noun.

mtandao is in the m-/mi- class (class 3/4).
For this class, the “of” form is wa.
- mtandao wa kijamii – social network
- mti wa matunda – fruit tree

If the head noun were in a different class, the connector would change:

mitandao ya kijamii – social networks (mitandao is class 4, which uses ya)
kitabu cha Kiswahili – Swahili book (kitabu is ki-/vi- class, which uses cha)

So wa is required by the noun class of mtandao.

What is kijamii grammatically, and how is it related to jamii?

Jamii means “society / community”.

Kijamii is an adjective-like form meaning “social / societal”, built using the ki- prefix often used to form adjectives or adverbial forms from nouns.

So:

jamii – society
kijamii – social, relating to society

In mtandao wa kijamii, it functions as an adjective: “social network”.

What does bure mean here? Is it “for free” or “for nothing”?

Bure has both meanings, depending on context:

For free (no payment) – e.g. Chakula ni bure – The food is free.
For nothing / uselessly / to no purpose – e.g. Alijaribu bure – He tried in vain.

In this sentence, utapoteza muda wako bure means:

“you will waste your time for nothing / pointlessly”, not “you will waste your time for free” in a positive sense.

Can the order of the clauses be reversed, like “Utapoteza muda wako bure ukisoma udaku mwingi...”?

Yes.

You can say:

Ukisoma udaku mwingi..., utapoteza muda wako bure.
Utapoteza muda wako bure ukisoma udaku mwingi...

Both are grammatically correct and natural. Swahili, like English, allows the if/when clause to come either before or after the main clause. The meaning is essentially the same; putting ukisoma... first just emphasizes the condition a bit more.

Is the phrase muda wako bure fixed, or could you say utapoteza bure muda wako?

The most natural order is:

utapoteza muda wako bure

Placing bure at the end is standard, because it functions like an adverb or comment on the whole action: you will waste your time (and it will be for nothing).

Sentences like utapoteza bure muda wako can be understood, but they sound unusual or awkward. Native speakers strongly prefer [verb] + [object] + bure in this kind of expression.