Learn Hardcore Swahili: Iwapo umeme utakatika usiku, tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani. - If the electricity goes off at night, we will light a candle at home.

Iwapo is more formal, written, or “careful” Swahili. It sounds a bit more serious or official.
Kama is very common in everyday speech and is slightly less formal.

You can absolutely say:

Kama umeme utakatika usiku, tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani.

The meaning is the same. The choice is mostly about style and register, not grammar.

How is the verb utakatika formed, and why does it start with u-?

Utakatika breaks down like this:

u- = subject prefix for umeme (3rd person, noun class that uses u- in singular)
-ta- = future tense marker (will)
-katika = verb root katika (to be cut; to get interrupted / go off)

So umeme utakatika literally = “electricity it-will-be-cut / go off.”

The u- agrees with umeme. Many singular nouns beginning with u- (like umeme, upepo, ugonjwa) take u- as their subject prefix.

Why do we use the future tense (utakatika, tutawasha) in both parts of the sentence after if?

In Swahili, when you talk about a future condition and its future result, it is normal to use the future tense in both clauses:

Iwapo umeme utakatika usiku, tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani.
= If the power goes out tonight, we’ll light a candle at home.

Using future + future after iwapo/kama is perfectly natural and common.
(English often uses present + future: “If it goes out, we’ll light…”, but Swahili doesn’t have to mirror that.)

Could I use the -ki- conditional instead of iwapo here?

Yes. A very natural alternative is:

Umeme ukikatika usiku, tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani.

Here:

u- (subject for umeme)
-ki- (conditional marker)
-katika (verb root)

The meaning is essentially the same: “If/when the power goes out at night, we’ll light a candle at home.”

Iwapo + future and -ki- conditionals are both standard for real, possible future situations; -ki- often feels a bit more colloquial/flowing in speech.

What exactly does katika mean here? Is it literally “to cut”?

The verb katika has the sense of to be cut / to break / to be interrupted.

With umeme, katika is idiomatic and means to go off / to be cut off (power outage). So:

umeme umekatika = the electricity has gone off
umeme utakatika = the electricity will go off / be cut off

So you’re not saying “electricity will cut”; you’re saying “electricity will be cut / be interrupted.”

How is tutawasha formed, and why is there no word for “it” (as in “light it”)?

Tutawasha is:

tu- = we (subject prefix)
-ta- = future tense (will)
-washa = verb root washa (to light / to switch on)

Swahili usually doesn’t need a separate object pronoun like “it” if the object is explicitly mentioned after the verb. Here the object is mshumaa:

tutawasha mshumaa = we will light (a) candle.

If you already mentioned the candle and wanted to use an object marker, you could say tutaiwasha (-i- = object marker for the noun class of mshumaa), but with the full noun mshumaa present, tutawasha mshumaa is normal and clear.

What is the difference between mshumaa and taa?

Both relate to sources of light:

mshumaa = candle (wax with a wick)
taa = lamp / light (could be electric, kerosene, etc.)

So the sentence specifically talks about lighting a candle, not just “turning on the light.”

If the idea were “we’ll switch on the light,” you’d say something like:

tutawasha taa nyumbani = we’ll switch on the light at home.

Why nyumbani and not just nyumba? What nuance does -ni add?

Nyumba = house (the building).
Nyumbani = in the house / at home.

The -ni ending turns the noun into a locative (place) form.

nyumbani often means at home as a general place, not just “inside the physical house.”

So:

tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani
= we’ll light a candle at home (in/at the house).

Could I say katika nyumba instead of nyumbani?

You could say:

…tutawasha mshumaa katika nyumba.

Grammatically it works, but it sounds more descriptive and less idiomatic for everyday speech. Nyumbani is the natural, compact way to say at home / in the house.

Katika nyumba is more like inside a/the house (as a physical location), whereas nyumbani easily carries the sense of at home as where you live.

Is the word order tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani fixed, or can I move things around?

Swahili word order is fairly flexible after the verb. All of these are grammatical:

tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani
tutawasha nyumbani mshumaa

The most neutral and natural is usually [verb] [object] [place]:

tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani
(we’ll light a candle at home)

Moving nyumbani earlier can add a bit of emphasis to the place, but it’s subtle in a short sentence like this.

Does usiku need a preposition like “at” (e.g., “katika usiku”)?

No preposition is needed. Time expressions like usiku (night), asubuhi (morning), jioni (evening), leo (today) can often stand on their own:

usiku = at night
asubuhi = in the morning
kesho = tomorrow

So umeme utakatika usiku naturally means the power will go off at night without adding katika or kwa.

Can I switch the order of the two clauses, like in English “We’ll light a candle at home if the electricity goes out at night”?

Yes. You can say:

Tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani iwapo umeme utakatika usiku.
Tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani kama umeme utakatika usiku.

Just keep the same tense and connectives; only the order of the clauses changes. The meaning remains the same.

Is the comma after usiku required in Swahili?

Swahili punctuation generally follows the same conventions as English.

A comma is optional but natural here, especially when the if-clause comes first:
Iwapo umeme utakatika usiku, tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani.

If you reverse the order, some writers omit the comma:

Tutawasha mshumaa nyumbani iwapo umeme utakatika usiku.

So it’s more about clarity and style than a strict rule.