Learn Hardcore Swahili: Ninyi wenyewe mlichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha. - You yourselves chose to sit there near the window.

m- in mlichagua is a subject prefix on the verb. It is required in normal Swahili verb conjugation.
ninyi is an independent pronoun. It is optional and is mainly used for emphasis or contrast.

So:

Mlichagua kukaa… = You (plural) chose to sit… (neutral)
Ninyi mlichagua kukaa… = YOU (plural) are the ones who chose to sit… (emphatic, maybe contrasting with someone else)

In this sentence, ninyi wenyewe strongly emphasizes that you yourselves (and not someone else) made the choice.

What exactly does wenyewe mean, and why is it used here?

Wenyewe (from the root -enye) means roughly “yourselves”, “on your own”, or “by yourselves”. It adds the idea of:

self-responsibility: you did it by your own choice
no outside influence: nobody forced you

So:

Ninyi mlichagua kukaa hapo…
You (pl.) chose to sit there… (plain statement)
Ninyi wenyewe mlichagua kukaa hapo…
You yourselves chose to sit there… (you have only yourselves to blame / you can’t blame others)

It’s an emphatic/reflexive form that highlights that you are personally responsible for the action.

Could we leave out ninyi and just say Wenyewe mlichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha?

Yes, that’s possible and still natural:

Wenyewe mlichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha.

Here:

m- in mlichagua still tells us the subject is “you (plural)”.
wenyewe then means “yourselves”.

This version is a little more compact but still carries the emphasis: You yourselves chose…
Using ninyi wenyewe just makes the emphasis even clearer and more forceful.

How would the sentence change if I were talking to one person instead of several people?

For one person, you would use wewe and the singular verb prefix u-:

Wewe mwenyewe ulichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha.
= You yourself chose to sit there near the window.

Changes:

ninyi wenyewe → wewe mwenyewe
mlichagua → ulichagua (2nd person singular past: u- + -li- + chagua)

What is the structure inside the verb mlichagua?

Mlichagua can be broken down like this:

m- = 2nd person plural subject prefix (you plural)
-li- = past tense marker
-chagua = verb stem “choose”

So literally: m- (you plural) + -li- (past) + chagua (choose) → mlichagua = “you (pl.) chose”.

Why is it mlichagua kukaa and not something like mlichagua mnakaa?

In Swahili, after a verb like kuchagua (to choose), you usually put the infinitive form (ku- + verb) of the next verb:

kuchagua kwenda – to choose to go
kuchagua kufanya – to choose to do
mlichagua kukaa – you chose to sit / to stay

Using mnakaa (you are sitting / staying) would change the meaning and grammar.
Kuchagua + infinitive is the normal pattern for “choose to do X” in Swahili.

What does kukaa mean here? Does it just mean “to sit”?

Kukaa is quite flexible. It can mean:

to sit (take a seat)
to stay / remain (not leave)
to live / reside (in a place)

In mlichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha, the context suggests:

“to sit (or to stay seated) there near the window.”

If you wanted to focus more strictly on the physical act of sitting down, you could also see kukaa as “to sit”. In many everyday contexts, kukaa covers both sit and stay.

What is the difference between kukaa and kuketi?

Both can translate as “to sit”, but their usage differs:

kukaa
- very common, broad meaning
- to sit, to stay, to live / reside
- everyday, informal and formal speech
kuketi
- more specifically “to sit (down)”
- often felt a bit more formal or bookish, depending on context
- less commonly used in casual conversation

In this sentence, kukaa is perfectly natural.
You could say mlichagua kuketi hapo…, but kukaa sounds more typical in daily speech.

What exactly does hapo mean, and how is it different from hapa and pale?

These are location words:

hapa = here, close to the speaker
hapo = there, often:
- close to the listener, or
- a place just mentioned / obvious in context, or
- medium distance
pale = over there, usually farther away, or clearly separated from both speaker and listener

In mlichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha:

hapo points to a specific spot that is already known in the situation (that place near the window that we’re talking about), not right where the speaker is standing.

Why do we have both hapo and karibu na dirisha? Don’t they both talk about location?

They do, but they give different kinds of information:

hapo = that spot / that place (deictic: pointing to a particular place in the situation)
karibu na dirisha = near the window (describes how that spot relates to the window)

Together:

hapo karibu na dirisha ≈ “there, in that spot that is near the window.”

You could shorten it to just hapo or just karibu na dirisha, but then you’d lose some of the specificity or the “pointing” feeling.

What does karibu na dirisha literally mean, and why is na used?

Breakdown:

karibu = near, close
na = usually “with / and”, but also used after karibu to form “near X / close to X”
dirisha = window

So:

karibu na dirisha = near (with respect to) the window → near the window

In usage, karibu na + noun is the standard way to say “near [noun]”:

karibu na mti – near the tree
karibu na barabara – near the road

Is the word order Ninyi wenyewe mlichagua kukaa… fixed, or can I move wenyewe?

You can move wenyewe a bit, and the meaning stays essentially the same, though emphasis shifts slightly. For example:

Ninyi wenyewe mlichagua kukaa hapo…
Ninyi mlichagua wenyewe kukaa hapo… (less common, can sound a bit odd)
Mlichagua wenyewe kukaa hapo…
Wenyewe mlichagua kukaa hapo…

The most natural and clear emphatic version is usually:

Ninyi wenyewe mlichagua…

This puts ninyi wenyewe as a strong, focused subject phrase: “You yourselves…”

Could I say the same thing without wenyewe? How would the meaning change?

Yes, you can say:

Ninyi mlichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha.

or even just:

Mlichagua kukaa hapo karibu na dirisha.

Meaning change:

Without wenyewe, it’s more neutral: just stating that you chose to sit there.
With wenyewe, it’s strongly emphatic: suggesting you are personally responsible for that choice, maybe in a context of blame, reminder, or explanation.

So wenyewe adds a layer of emotional / rhetorical emphasis, not new factual information.