Learn Hardcore Swahili: Wewe mwenyewe utaamua kama utaenda sherehe au utakaa nyumbani. - You yourself will decide whether you will go to the party or stay at home.

Utaamua kama utaenda sherehe...
= You will decide whether you’ll go to the party… (neutral)
Wewe mwenyewe utaamua kama utaenda sherehe...
= You yourself will decide whether you’ll go to the party… (emphasizing that it’s your decision)

Grammatically, wewe mwenyewe is not required; it is there for emphasis and style, not basic correctness.

What exactly does mwenyewe mean, and how is it used in other sentences?

Mwenyewe is an intensifier meaning -self in the sense of oneself, in person, personally, alone. It usually comes after a pronoun or a noun:

mimi mwenyewe – myself (me personally)
wewe mwenyewe – yourself
yeye mwenyewe – himself / herself
sisi wenyewe – ourselves
nyinyi wenyewe – you yourselves
wao wenyewe – themselves

With nouns:

mtoto mwenyewe – the child himself / herself
mwalimu mwenyewe – the teacher personally

Example sentences:

Nitafanya mimi mwenyewe. – I’ll do it myself.
Walikuja wenyewe. – They came themselves / in person.

Important: mwenyewe is not the reflexive marker like “myself” in I hurt myself. For that, Swahili usually uses kuji- or the reflexive prefixes (e.g. najiumiza – I hurt myself). Mwenyewe is for emphasis, not grammatical reflexive.

Since the verb already has u- for “you”, is wewe really necessary in Wewe mwenyewe utaamua?

No, wewe is not grammatically necessary here. The u- in utaamua already shows that the subject is you (singular):

utaamua = u- (you) + -ta- (future) + -amua (decide)

So, all of these are grammatically correct, just with different emphasis:

Utaamua kama utaenda sherehe...
– Neutral: You will decide…
Wewe utaamua kama utaenda sherehe...
– Mild emphasis on you.
Wewe mwenyewe utaamua kama utaenda sherehe...
– Strong emphasis: You yourself will decide… (nobody else decides for you)

In everyday speech, pronouns like wewe are added primarily for emphasis, contrast, or clarity, not because the verb needs them.

What is the role of kama in utaamua kama utaenda sherehe au utakaa nyumbani? Does it mean “if” or “whether” here?

In this sentence, kama introduces an indirect choice and works like whether (or if) in English:

utaamua kama utaenda sherehe au utakaa nyumbani
= you will decide whether you will go to the party or stay at home

Kama is very flexible and can mean:

if (conditional)
- Kama utanipigia simu, nitakuja. – If you call me, I’ll come.
whether / if (in indirect questions / choices, like here)
- Sijui kama atakuja. – I don’t know whether/if he will come.
like / as (comparison)
- Anaimba kama ndege. – She sings like a bird.

Here it’s clearly the whether / if sense, not comparison.

Why are all the verbs in the future tense: utaamua, utaenda, utakaa? Could I use present tense instead?

All three verbs use -ta-, the future tense marker:

utaamua – you will decide
utaenda – you will go
utakaa – you will stay

So the whole sentence is talking about a future decision and future actions.

You can use the present tense -na- to talk about the (near) future in Swahili, and it will still be understood as future from context. For example:

Utaamua kama unaenda sherehe au unakaa nyumbani.

This can be understood as:

You will decide whether you’re going (are going) to the party or staying at home.

Difference in feeling:

-ta- (future): a bit more clearly “future plan / later”.
-na- (present): can be “right now”, “usually”, or near future, depending on context.

The version with -ta- is slightly more neutral and clear for future in a textbook-style sentence.

What does utaamua break down into morphologically, and is amua a common verb?

Yes, amua is a very common verb meaning to decide.

Utaamua breaks down like this:

u- = subject prefix for you (singular)
-ta- = future tense marker
-amua = verb root amua (decide)

So:

utaamua – you will decide
nitaamua – I will decide
ataamua – he / she will decide
tutaamua – we will decide
mtaamua – you (plural) will decide
wataamua – they will decide

Other common forms:

nimeamua – I have decided
anaamua – he / she is deciding
waliamua – they decided

Why is there no preposition like “to” before sherehe? We say “go to the party”, but here it’s utaenda sherehe.

In Swahili, verbs of motion like enda (go), rudi (return), fika (arrive) often go directly with a noun of place without a preposition:

ninaenda shule – I’m going (to) school
walienda sokoni – they went (to) the market
utaenda sherehe – you will go (to) the party

English requires “to”, but Swahili generally does not.

You also can add a preposition or a locative ending for slightly different nuance:

utaenda shereheni – you will go to/at the party (with -ni locative)
utaenda kwenye sherehe – you will go to the party (using kwenye)

All of these are acceptable; utaenda sherehe is just the simplest form.

What is the difference between sherehe and shereheni? Which is better here?

Both are correct and commonly used; the difference is the -ni locative ending.

sherehe – party, celebration (basic noun)
shereheni – at/to the party (with -ni giving a place meaning)

In practice:

Ninaenda sherehe.
Ninaenda shereheni.

Both are normally understood as I’m going to the party. The -ni just makes the “place” sense more explicit. In many everyday contexts, speakers don’t feel a big difference.

In your sentence, utaenda sherehe is perfectly natural. utaenda shereheni is equally good and maybe a bit more explicitly “to the party (as a location)”.

What does utakaa mean exactly? Is it specifically “sit”, or does it also mean “stay/live”?

The verb kaa is very broad; it can mean:

sit
stay
remain
live / reside
stay (temporarily) with someone

So:

kaa chini – sit down
anakaa nyumbani – he/she lives at home
utakaa hapa – you will stay here
nakaa Dar es Salaam – I live in Dar es Salaam

In the sentence:

utakaa nyumbani = you will stay at home

Here the natural interpretation is “stay (at home)”, not literally “sit.”

What does nyumbani literally mean, and why does it end with -ni?

Nyumbani comes from nyumba (house) + -ni (locative suffix).

nyumba – house
nyumbani – at home / in the house

So -ni here marks a location (place where something happens). Many place-like nouns can take -ni:

shule → shuleni – at school
kanisa → kanisani – at church
soko → sokoni – at the market

In this sentence, nyumbani is best understood as “at home”, not just “in the house” — the usual, idiomatic meaning of home.

Could the word order be changed, for example: Utaamua wewe mwenyewe kama utaenda sherehe au utakaa nyumbani?

Yes, Utaamua wewe mwenyewe kama... is also acceptable. The emphasis shifts slightly:

Wewe mwenyewe utaamua kama...
– Emphasizes you yourself at the very beginning.
Utaamua wewe mwenyewe kama...
– Emphasizes the verb decide, then clarifies you yourself (and no one else).

Both sound natural in conversation. The original order (Wewe mwenyewe utaamua...) gives a strong focus on the person (you), right from the start.

Could I use au and ama interchangeably for “or” here, as in …kama utaenda sherehe ama utakaa nyumbani?

In many everyday contexts, au and ama are used almost interchangeably:

au – the most neutral, standard or
ama – also “or”, sometimes with a slight nuance of “or rather / or else”, and heard a lot in speech

In your sentence:

…kama utaenda sherehe au utakaa nyumbani – very standard
…kama utaenda sherehe ama utakaa nyumbani – also natural, especially in informal speech

For learners and in formal writing, au is the safest default.