Log inSign up

Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.

Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.
The guests like the food that we cooked at home.

Breakdown of Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.

kupenda
to like
chakula
the food
mgeni
the guest
nyumbani
at home
tulichopika
that we cooked
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Swahili grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Swahili now

Questions & Answers about Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.

In the sentence Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani, how does each word map onto English, and what is the basic structure?

The sentence is roughly “The guests like the food that we cooked at home.”

Word by word:

  • Wageni

    • wa- = plural noun prefix (class 2)
    • -geni = root “guest/visitor”
      → “guests / visitors”

  • wanapenda

    • wa- = subject prefix “they” (class 2)
    • -na- = present tense marker (present/habitual)
    • -penda = verb root “like / love”
      → “they like / they love”

  • chakula

    • cha- = noun class 7 prefix
    • -kula (historically related to “eat”) = “food”
      → “food”

  • tulichopika (a relative verb form)

    • tu- = subject prefix “we”
    • -li- = past tense marker
    • -cho- = object relative marker for class 7 (agreeing with chakula)
    • -pika = “cook”
      → “which we cooked”

  • nyumbani

    • nyumba = “house / home”
    • -ni = locative suffix “in/at”
      → “at home” / “in the house”

Structure:

  • Wageni (subject)
  • wanapenda (verb)
  • chakula (object noun)
  • tulichopika (relative clause: “that we cooked”) modifying chakula
  • nyumbani (location: “at home”)

So: Subject – Verb – Object [relative clause] – Place.

Why is it Wageni and not mgeni here? How does the plural work?

Swahili uses noun classes with singular/plural pairs.

  • mgeni = “guest / visitor” (singular, class 1)

    • m- (or m-/mu-) is the singular class 1 prefix for humans
    • Example: Mgeni anapenda chakula… = “The guest likes the food…”

  • wageni = “guests / visitors” (plural, class 2)

    • wa- is the plural counterpart of m- in the human class
    • Example: Wageni wanapenda chakula… = “The guests like the food…”

So:

  • mgeni → singular → verb uses a- as subject prefix: anapenda
  • wageni → plural → verb uses wa- as subject prefix: wanapenda

That’s why the sentence has Wageni wanapenda: both noun and verb are plural and agree with each other.

Why is it wanapenda and not wapenda or wana penda?

A few points about wanapenda:

  1. Tense marking with -na-

    • -na- is the present tense/habitual marker.
    • wanapenda = wa- (they) + -na- (present) + -penda (like)
    • It means “they like / they love” or “they are liking” in a general, habitual sense.

  2. Why not wapenda?

    • wapenda would be wa-
      • -penda, missing the tense marker.
    • Without -na-, it’s either archaic/literary or used only in specific patterns (e.g. relative forms, imperatives, some poetry).
    • In normal modern speech, you use -na- for present: wanapenda.

  3. Why not wana penda (with a space)?

    • In Swahili, the subject prefix, tense marker, and verb root form a single word.
    • So: wana penda is incorrect spelling; it must be wanapenda.

So the correct, normal present form is wanapenda: “they like / they love.”

How does subject–verb agreement work between Wageni and wanapenda?

Swahili marks subject agreement on the verb using a prefix that matches the noun class (and number).

  • Wageni is in noun class 2 (plural humans).
  • The class 2 subject prefix is wa-.

So:

  • Subject: Wageni (class 2 plural)
  • Verb: wanapenda
    • wa- (subject “they” / class 2)
    • -na- (present)
    • -penda (like)

If the subject were singular mgeni (class 1):

  • Mgeni anapenda chakula…
    • class 1 subject prefix is a-.

This matching of noun class and subject prefix is how Swahili shows who is doing the action.

Why is chakula singular when in English “food” is usually uncountable?

Swahili treats chakula as a regular countable noun in class 7:

  • chakula = “food” (literally “a food / a meal / a dish”)
  • vyakula = “foods / dishes” (plural, class 8)

In use:

  • Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika…
    → “The guests like the food that we cooked…”

Native speakers can use chakula for “the food (in general)” or “the meal” without worrying about the countable/uncountable distinction that English has.

If you wanted to stress variety or different kinds of food:

  • Wageni wanapenda vyakula tulivyopika nyumbani.
    → “The guests like the foods / the (different) dishes we cooked at home.”
What exactly is going on inside tulichopika? Why does it mean “that we cooked”?

tulichopika is a single verb form that includes:

  • tu- = subject “we”
  • -li- = past tense marker (“did, -ed”)
  • -cho- = object relative marker for noun class 7
  • -pika = root “cook”

So:

  • tu-li-pika = “we cooked”
  • tu-li-cho-pika = “which we cooked” (relative form, referring back to chakula)

Why “object relative”?

  • The thing being referred to (chakula) is the object of the cooking, not the subject.
  • The relative marker -cho- agrees with the noun class of chakula (class 7).

Hence:

  • chakula tulichopika
    = “the food which we cooked”
    (literally: “food we-PAST-[class7-relative]-cook”)
Why is the relative marker -cho- used in tulichopika? How does it relate to chakula?

The relative marker in tulichopika must agree with the noun it’s describing:

  • Noun: chakula
    • Class: 7
  • Object relative marker for class 7: -cho-

So:

  • chakula tulichopika
    • tulichopika = tu- (we) + -li- (past) + -cho- (rel. for class 7) + -pika (cook)
    • literally “food we-past-that(7)-cooked”

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

  • kitabu tulichosoma – “the book that we read” (class 7, still -cho-)
  • mgeni tuliyemualika – “the guest that we invited” (class 1, -ye-)
  • vyakula tulivyopika – “the foods that we cooked” (class 8, -vyo-)

In our sentence, chakula is class 7, so the correct object relative marker is -cho-.

Could I say chakula tulipika nyumbani instead of chakula tulichopika nyumbani? What’s the difference?

  • chakula tulichopika nyumbani is the normal, grammatically complete way to say “the food that we cooked at home.”

    • It uses the proper relative marker -cho- to link chakula and pika.

  • chakula tulipika nyumbani (without -cho-) would be interpreted as something like:

    • “the food we cooked at home” but missing the “that/which” link;
    • to many speakers it sounds incomplete or ungrammatical in careful Swahili.

In standard Swahili, when a verb phrase modifies a noun as a relative clause (“food that we cooked”), you:

  1. Either use a bound relative marker (as in the original):

    • chakula tulichopika nyumbani

  2. Or use amba- with agreement:

    • chakula ambacho tulipika nyumbani

So the natural alternatives are:

  • chakula tulichopika nyumbani
  • chakula ambacho tulipika nyumbani

but not chakula tulipika nyumbani on its own.

What’s the difference between tulichopika and ambacho tulipika? Can I use ambacho instead?

Yes, you can use ambacho, and the meaning is essentially the same.

Two main relative strategies:

  1. Bound relative marker (as in the original)

    • chakula tulichopika nyumbani
    • Combines tense + subject + relative marker in one verb: tulichopika.
    • Very natural and common in spoken and written Swahili.

  2. amba- construction

    • chakula ambacho tulipika nyumbani
    • amba- = general relative marker (“that/which/who”)
    • -cho on ambacho agrees with the noun class of chakula (class 7).
    • Here the main verb is just tulipika = “we cooked.”

Subtle differences:

  • The bound relative form (tulichopika) is often seen as slightly more compact and idiomatic.
  • The amba- form (ambacho tulipika) can feel slightly more explicit or careful, and is especially common in writing or when you want to be very clear.

Both:

  • Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.
  • Wageni wanapenda chakula ambacho tulipika nyumbani.

mean “The guests like the food that we cooked at home.”

Why is it just nyumbani for “at home”? Why don’t we need a preposition like “at” or “in”?

Swahili often uses a locative suffix -ni instead of a separate preposition:

  • nyumba = “house / home”
  • nyumbani = “in the house / at home”

So -ni plays the role of English “in/at”:

  • shule (school) → shuleni (at school)
  • kanisa (church) → kanisani (in/at church)
  • nyumba (house) → nyumbani (at home)

Therefore:

  • tulichopika nyumbani
    = “which we cooked at home”

You can add prepositions in other ways (e.g. katika nyumba, kwenye nyumba), but nyumbani alone is completely normal and usually preferred for “at home.”

Can the order of chakula tulichopika nyumbani be changed, for example: chakula nyumbani tulichopika?

Normally, the order in Swahili is:

  • [head noun] + [relative clause] + [other details like place/time]

So:

  • chakula tulichopika nyumbani
    = noun (chakula) + relative clause (tulichopika) + place (nyumbani)

If you say chakula nyumbani tulichopika, it sounds awkward or confusing to most speakers, because it breaks the tight link between chakula and its relative verb tulichopika.

More natural variations (small changes) might be:

  • Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani sana.
    (adding emphasis “very much” at the end)

But the core order chakula tulichopika nyumbani is the standard, well-formed structure. The relative verb phrase usually sits right after the noun it modifies.

Could I say Wageni wanakipenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani with -ki- as an object marker? What would that change?

You could say:

  • Wageni wanakipenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.

Here’s what changes:

  • wanapenda chakula…

    • Plain “they like the food…”

  • wanakipenda chakula…

    • wa- (they)
    • -na- (present)
    • -ki- (object marker for class 7: referring back to chakula)
    • -penda (like)
      → literally “they like it, the food that we cooked at home.”

Effect:

  • The sentence becomes a bit more emphatic or pronoun-like:
    • “The guests like it, the food that we cooked at home.”
  • However, in a simple sentence like this, many speakers would prefer the cleaner:
    • Wageni wanapenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.

Using both the full noun chakula and the object marker -ki- is grammatically possible but can feel heavier; it’s more common when the noun has been mentioned before and you’re re‑referring to it with emphasis.

Why is the main verb present (wanapenda) while the relative verb is past (tulichopika)? Is that normal?

Yes, this is completely normal and often necessary.

You have two time frames:

  1. Main action (present):

    • wanapenda = “they like / they love” (now, generally)

  2. Relative action (past):

    • tulichopika = “that we cooked” (in the past)

The idea is:

  • Right now, the guests like (present)
  • The food that we cooked earlier (past).

If you changed the tense, you’d change the meaning:

  • Wageni walipenda chakula tulichopika nyumbani.
    → “The guests liked the food that we cooked at home.” (both past)

  • Wageni wanapenda chakula tunachopika nyumbani.

    • tunachopika = “that we are cooking / that we cook (now/regularly)”
      → “The guests like the food that we (are) cook(ing) at home.”

So mixing present in the main clause with past in the relative clause is a natural way to say that the liking is current, but the cooking happened before.