Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kabla hujanunua chakula sokoni, uliza kama una mzio wa kitu chochote. - Before you buy food at the market, ask if you have an allergy to anything.

kabla hujanunua chakula sokoni
Literally: before you have bought food at the market (you have not yet bought it at that time).
Here hujanunua is the negative perfect (you haven’t bought). With kabla, this structure is very common and effectively means before you buy.
kabla ya kununua chakula sokoni
Literally: before buying food at the market.
This uses kabla ya + infinitive (ku-verb), which is also very common and is a bit closer to English before doing X.

In everyday Swahili, kabla huja- + perfect and kabla ya ku- + verb both work to mean before doing. The sentence you have is a perfectly natural version using the negative perfect.

What exactly does hujanunua mean here?

Hujanunua breaks down as:

hu- = subject prefix for you (singular) in the negative perfect
-ja- = perfect marker (in the negative, it often means not yet)
-nunua = buy

So hujanunua = you have not bought (yet).

With kabla, it becomes a natural way in Swahili to say before you buy (literally before you have bought).

Could I say kabla ya hujanunua?

No. That would be ungrammatical.

You have two main patterns:

kabla
- negative perfect clause
- kabla hujanunua chakula…
kabla ya
- infinitive (ku-verb)
- kabla ya kununua chakula…

You don’t mix ya with the huja- form. So use either kabla hujanunua or kabla ya kununua, not kabla ya hujanunua.

What does the -ni in sokoni do?

Sokoni comes from soko (market) + -ni (locative suffix).

soko = market
sokoni = at the market / in the market / to the market

Swahili often uses -ni to express place:

nyumba → nyumbani (home → at home)
kanisa → kanisani (church → at church)

So chakula sokoni means food at the market or food in the market.

Could I say chakula katika soko or chakula kwenye soko instead of chakula sokoni?

Yes, but the feel is different:

chakula sokoni – very natural and common; compact and idiomatic.
chakula katika soko – correct, a bit more formal or bookish.
chakula kwenye soko – also fine; kwenye is a general preposition for at/on/in.

In conversation, sokoni is the most typical choice.

Why is uliza in that form? Is it an imperative?

Yes. Uliza is used here as a second person singular imperative:

uliza = ask! (you, one person)
ulizeni = ask! (you, more than one person)

For most regular verbs, the imperative is just the verb stem:

soma! (read!)
nunua! (buy!)
andika! (write!)

So uliza kama una mzio… = ask if you have an allergy…

What does kama mean in uliza kama una mzio wa kitu chochote?

Here kama means if or whether:

uliza kama una mzio… = ask if you have an allergy…

Kama can also mean like/as in other contexts:

anatembea kama mfalme = he walks like a king

In this sentence, the meaning is clearly if/whether.

How does una mzio express “you have an allergy”?

It uses the verb kuwa na (to have, literally to be with), conjugated in the present:

mimi nina mzio – I have an allergy
wewe una mzio – you (sing.) have an allergy
yeye ana mzio – he/she has an allergy

So in the sentence, una mzio = you have an allergy.

The subject (you) is inside the verb prefix u-, so you don’t need to say wewe unless you want to emphasize.

What does wa do in mzio wa kitu chochote?

Wa is a possessive/associative linker meaning of.

mzio wa kitu chochote = an allergy of/to any thing (anything)
mzio wa karanga = an allergy to peanuts
mzio wa maziwa = an allergy to milk

So the pattern is:

mzio wa + [thing] = allergy to [thing]

Why do we say kitu chochote and not just kitu?

kitu = a thing
chochote (from chote, all/any, with cho- agreement) = any (for ki-/vi- nouns)

So kitu chochote = any thing / anything.

Without chochote, kitu would just mean a thing in a more neutral sense, not anything in the open, indefinite sense.

Chochote agrees with kitu (ki-/vi- class):

kitu chochote – any thing
vitu vyovyote – any things

Where does chochote come from, grammatically?

Chochote is built from:

base -ote = all/entire
with ki-/vi- class agreement for kitu:
- chote (for ki-/vi- nouns)
- plus a reduplication pattern giving chochote, which is used for “any (one)” of that class rather than “the whole”.

So:

kitu chote – the whole thing
kitu chochote – any (one) thing / anything

You also see similar patterns in other noun classes:

mtu yeyote – any person
siku yoyote – any day

Can I change the word order, or must kabla hujanunua… come first?

You can change the order. Both are acceptable:

Kabla hujanunua chakula sokoni, uliza kama una mzio wa kitu chochote.
Uliza kama una mzio wa kitu chochote kabla hujanunua chakula sokoni.

Putting the kabla-clause first often gives it a bit more emphasis (just as in English: Before you buy food at the market, ask…).

Is this sentence talking to one person or several people? How would it change for plural “you”?

As written, it addresses one person:

hujanunua – you (sing.) haven’t bought
uliza – ask! (you, singular)
una mzio – you (sing.) have an allergy

For plural you, you would change the verb prefixes and the imperative:

kabla hamjanunua chakula sokoni, ulizeni kama mna mzio wa kitu chochote.

Breakdown:

hamjanunua – you (pl.) have not bought
ulizeni – ask! (you, plural imperative)
mna mzio – you (pl.) have an allergy