Learn Hardcore Swahili: Baba alisema ataninunulia mkoba wa mgongoni mpya nikifaulu mtihani wa mwisho wa mwaka. - Father said he will buy me a new backpack if I pass the end-of-year exam.

a- = subject prefix for he/she (3rd person singular)
-ta- = future tense marker
-ni- = object prefix for “me”
-nunuli- = verb stem from nunua (to buy) + -li- (applied/benefactive extension “for someone”)
-a = final vowel (marks the normal/indicative verb form)

So ataninunulia literally means “he/she will buy (something) for me”.
The -li- part adds the idea of doing the action for someone’s benefit, here for me (ni-).

What is the difference between ataninunulia and atanunua?

Atanunua = he/she will buy (neutral; no explicit beneficiary)
Ataninunulia = he/she will buy (it) for me

The differences:

Object prefix
- atanunua → no object prefix
- ataninunulia → -ni- shows “me” as the beneficiary
Verb stem
- -nunua = to buy
- -nunulia = to buy for someone (buy on someone’s behalf)

So in the sentence, ataninunulia clearly encodes “for me” inside the verb itself, even without a separate word like “for” or “to”.

Why is it Baba alisema ataninunulia… and not Baba alisema ataninunua…?

Because we want to say “…he would buy me a backpack”, not just “…he would buy a backpack.”

ataninunua would be ungrammatical: you can’t insert -ni- (me) into the simple verb -nunua like that.
To express “buy for someone”, Swahili usually uses the applied/benefactive extension -li-:
- -nunua → -nunulia = buy for (someone)

So:

atanunua mkoba = he will buy a bag
ataninunulia mkoba = he will buy a bag for me

Why is there a future tense (ataninunulia) after a past tense verb (alisema) in reported speech? In English we say “would buy,” not “will buy.”

Swahili does not “backshift” tenses in reported speech the way English often does.

English:
- Direct: “I will buy you a backpack.”
- Reported: He said he would buy me a backpack.
Swahili:
- Direct: Nitanunulia / Nitanunulia wewe mkoba…
- Reported: Baba alisema ataninunulia mkoba…

The future marker -ta- stays future, even when the reporting verb (alisema) is in the past.
So alisema ataninunulia is literally “he said he will buy (for me),” but contextually it matches English “he said he would buy (for me).”

How is nikifaulu formed, and what does the -ki- here mean?

Nikifaulu is:

ni- = subject prefix I
-ki- = “if / when (and the action is not yet completed)” – a conditional/temporal marker
-faulu = pass (an exam, test, etc.)
-e / -a final vowel: in practice, nikifaulu ends with -u from the root, but the structure is as above.

So nikifaulu means “if I pass” or “when I pass”, depending on context.

In conditionals, -ki- often corresponds to “if/when (and then)”:

Nikifaulu, ataninunulia mkoba.
= If/When I pass, he will buy me a bag.

You could also use other forms like:

Ikiwa nitafaulu… or Kama nitafaulu…
but nikifaulu is very natural and compact here.

Is nikifaulu a full clause on its own, or is something omitted?

It is a full subordinate clause on its own:

Ni- (I) + -ki- (if/when) + -faulu (pass)

You do not need to add another subject or “if” word inside it.
In English we need a separate word “if”; in Swahili, the -ki- marker inside the verb already does this job.

What does mkoba wa mgongoni literally mean, and how is mgongoni formed?

Literally:

mkoba = a bag
wa mgongoni = “of/on the back”

Mgongoni comes from:

mgongo = back (body part)
-ni = locative suffix (at/on/in)

So mgongoni = “on the back / at the back”.
Mkoba wa mgongoni is therefore “a bag (for) on the back”, i.e. a backpack.

Why is the word order mkoba wa mgongoni mpya instead of putting mpya earlier?

In Swahili, the typical order is:

[NOUN] + [“of” phrase] + [adjectives]

Here:

mkoba = bag (main noun)
wa mgongoni = of/on the back (associative phrase, explaining what kind of bag)
mpya = new (adjective)

So mkoba wa mgongoni mpya = “new backpack” (literally: “bag of-the-back new”).

Putting mpya at the very end is normal. It comes after the noun and its wa-phrase.
You would not normally say mkoba mpya wa mgongoni unless you were trying to emphasize “new” in a particular contrastive way.

What is the function of wa in mkoba wa mgongoni, mtihani wa mwisho, and mwisho wa mwaka?

Wa here is the associative or “of” marker. It links two nouns (or noun + noun-like word):

mkoba wa mgongoni
- mkoba (bag) + wa (of) + mgongoni (back)
  → bag of/from/on the back = backpack
mtihani wa mwisho
- mtihani (exam) + wa (of) + mwisho (end/final)
  → exam of the end / final exam
mwisho wa mwaka
- mwisho (end) + wa (of) + mwaka (year)
  → end of the year

The form wa is chosen because mtihani, mkoba, mwaka, etc. belong to noun classes that take wa- as their associative marker.
In English, we usually express this with “of” or by stacking nouns (“end-of-year exam”).

How should I understand the phrase mtihani wa mwisho wa mwaka as a whole?

Break it down step by step:

mwaka = year
mwisho wa mwaka = end of the year
mtihani wa mwisho wa mwaka = exam of the end of the year

Natural English equivalents:

the final exam of the year
the end‑of‑year exam

It does not mean “the exam of last year”; it is specifically “the exam that comes at the end of this year (school year/academic year, depending on context).”

Why do we have both Baba and the subject prefix a- in alisema and ataninunulia? Isn’t that redundant?

In Swahili, the subject prefix on the verb is obligatory in normal sentences, even if the subject noun is also present.

Baba alisema…
- Baba = “Father” (or “my father” in many contexts)
- a- in alisema = subject prefix for “he/she”

The subject prefix:

carries the grammatical subject information (person, number, noun class)
ensures the verb form is complete and grammatical

The noun Baba provides a full noun phrase for clarity, emphasis, or introduction:

You can often drop Baba if it’s already clear from context:
- Alisema ataninunulia… = He/She said he/she will buy me…

But you cannot drop the a- prefix in standard Swahili:

✗ ∅lisema or ∅taninunulia (without subject prefix) is ungrammatical.

Can the conditional clause nikifaulu mtihani wa mwisho wa mwaka come at the beginning of the sentence instead of the end?

Yes. Both orders are acceptable:

Baba alisema ataninunulia mkoba wa mgongoni mpya nikifaulu mtihani wa mwisho wa mwaka.
Nikifaulu mtihani wa mwisho wa mwaka, baba alisema ataninunulia mkoba wa mgongoni mpya.

The meaning is the same: the buying of the backpack depends on your passing the exam.
Putting nikifaulu… first can slightly emphasize the condition, just as in English with “If I pass…”.