Learn Hardcore Swahili: Mama anafurahia mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani. - Mother is happy when the child visits her at home.

anafurahia (from furahia / furahi)
- Literally: “she is rejoicing in / she is happy about” something.
- Focuses on the emotion of joy or satisfaction in response to an event or situation.
- In the sentence, anafura(h)ia emphasizes the mother’s happiness because of the child’s visit.
anapenda (from penda)
- Means “she likes / she loves”.
- Describes a lasting liking or affection, not just a reaction to one event.

So Mama anafurahia mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani is about the joy she feels when the child visits, not just that she loves the child in general.

What does the part “mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani” do in this sentence?

“mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani” is a subordinate clause explaining when or under what condition the mother is happy.

mtoto – the subject of the visiting action: the child
akimtembelea – when (the child) visits her
nyumbani – at home

Altogether, it works like:
“when the child visits her at home” / “whenever the child visits her at home.”

So the whole sentence means something like:
“The mother is happy when the child visits her at home.”

What does the “aki-” part in akimtembelea mean?

In akimtembelea, the -ki- is a tense/aspect marker that often means:

“when …”
“whenever …”
“if …” (in some contexts)

It connects the action of visiting with another action or state (here, the mother’s happiness). It suggests a repeated or conditional situation rather than a single, completed event.

Very roughly:

aki- ≈ “when/whenever (he/she) …”

So akimtembelea ≈ “when he/she visits him/her.”

How is the verb akimtembelea built up? What are its parts?

akimtembelea can be broken down like this:

a- : subject prefix, “he/she” (for a class 1 noun like mtoto here)
-ki- : “when / whenever / if” marker (conditional/temporal)
-m- : object prefix, “him/her” (referring back to Mama)
tembelea : verb stem, “to visit”

So:

a-ki-m-tembelea
he/she – when – her/him – visits

In context, since the explicit subject just before the verb is mtoto, it means:

“when the child visits her.”

How do we know who is visiting whom in mtoto akimtembelea?

We know this from:

Word order and context
- mtoto comes before the verb, so it is the subject (the doer).
- The main clause is about Mama, so we naturally expect she is the one being visited.
Object prefix -m- in akimtembelea
- -m- refers to “him/her” (class 1).
- The only logical class 1 person to receive the action here is Mama.

So the structure is:

mtoto (subject) a-ki-m-tembelea (verb):
“the child … when he/she visits her (Mama).”

Why is there no separate word for “her” in the Swahili sentence?

Swahili often shows objects as prefixes on the verb, instead of using a separate pronoun like “her” or “him”.

In akimtembelea:

-m- already means “her/him”.
Because of that, you don’t need a separate word like yeye (“she/her”) here.

So English needs “her” in “visits her”, but Swahili hides “her” inside the verb as -m-.

Could we say “mtoto anamtembelea” instead of “mtoto akimtembelea”?

Yes, but it would change the meaning.

mtoto anamtembelea
- a-na-m-tembelea: he/she – present – her/him – visits
- Means “the child is visiting her” (now, or generally does so).
- It is a normal main-clause present tense.
mtoto akimtembelea
- a-ki-m-tembelea: when/if he/she – her/him – visits
- Means “when/whenever the child visits her.”
- It is a temporal/conditional clause that typically depends on another clause (here: Mama anafurahia).

So:

Mama anafurahia mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani.
= The mother is happy when the child visits her at home.

If you changed it to mtoto anamtembelea, you would have something more like:

Mama anafurahia. Mtoto anamtembelea nyumbani.
= The mother is happy. The child is visiting her at home. (two main clauses, not cause–effect “when”.)

What is the difference between akimtembelea and anapomtembelea?

Both can introduce a “when” clause, but there are subtle differences:

akimtembelea
- Uses the -ki- marker.
- Commonly means “when/whenever/if (he/she) visits her.”
- Often feels a bit more conditional or habitual: something that can happen from time to time.
anapomtembelea
- a-na-po-m-tembelea: he/she – present – at-when – her/him – visits.
- Emphasizes a specific time or occasion: “at the time when he/she visits her.”
- Often feels a bit more neutral/explicitly temporal.

In many everyday contexts, akimtembelea and anapomtembelea can both be translated as “when (the child) visits her.” The sentence is perfectly natural with akimtembelea.

What does nyumbani mean exactly, and how is it different from nyumba?

nyumba = “house, home” (the basic noun)
nyumbani = “at home / to home / in the house”

The -ni ending is a locative suffix meaning “in/at/to (that place)”. So:

nyumba – house
nyumbani – at home / in the house / to the house

That’s why you don’t need a separate word for “at” in Swahili:

… nyumbani.
= “… at home.”

Do we need a word like “at” or “in” before nyumbani, like in English “at home”?

No. In Swahili, the -ni ending on a noun often already contains the idea of “in/at/on/to” that place.

So:

nyumbani already means something like “at/in/to home.”
You do not say kwa nyumbani or katika nyumbani in a simple sentence like this.

You just say:

… nyumbani.
= “… at home.”

Is the sentence talking about a single visit or something that happens regularly?

The form akimtembelea with -ki- usually suggests a repeated / habitual or general situation:

“when(ever) the child visits her at home, the mother is happy.”

So it tends to mean this is something that happens from time to time, not a single, one‑off visit. If you wanted to clearly talk about a single event in the past, you would normally change the tense, for example:

Mama alifurahia mtoto alipomtembelea nyumbani.
= The mother was happy when the child visited her at home. (one past event)

Could we say “Mama anafurahi mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani” instead of “anafurahia”? What’s the difference?

Both are possible, but they differ slightly:

anafurahi (from furahi)
- Means “she is happy / she rejoices.”
- Focuses on the feeling itself.
anafurahia (from furahia)
- Means “she is happy about / she enjoys / she is delighted with (something).”
- Often takes an object: what she is happy about.

In this sentence:

Mama anafurahia mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani
= The mother is happy about the fact that the child visits her at home.

If you say:

Mama anafurahi mtoto akimtembelea nyumbani,
it’s still understandable, but anafurahia fits better because it directly links her happiness to that specific situation of the child visiting.