Learn Hardcore Swahili: Tulikuwa tukitembea kwenye korido ndefu tulipomsikia kocha akipiga filimbi uwanjani. - We were walking along the long corridor when we heard the coach blowing a whistle on the field.

tulikuwa = tu- (we) + -li- (past) + -kuwa (to be) → we were
tukitembea = tu- (we) + -ki- (incomplete/ongoing) + -tembea (walk) → (we) walking / (we) used to walk

So tulikuwa tukitembea literally is like “we were (we-ongoing-walk)”, which corresponds to English “we were walking” (or sometimes “we used to walk”, depending on context).

Swahili often uses kuwa + another verb with -ki- to express actions that were in progress or habitual in the past.

What is the difference between tulitembea and tulikuwa tukitembea? Could I just say Tulitembea kwenye korido ndefu?

You can say Tulitembea kwenye korido ndefu, but the meaning is different:

Tulitembea kwenye korido ndefu
= we walked along the long corridor (a simple completed event; no focus on it being “in progress”).
Tulikuwa tukitembea kwenye korido ndefu
= we were walking along the long corridor (or “we used to walk…”).
This paints the walking as a background, ongoing action, which fits well with the next event: tulipomsikia kocha… (“when we heard the coach…”).

So the longer form with tulikuwa tukitembea more clearly gives the English-like past progressive feeling.

How is tulipomsikia built, and what does each part mean?

tulipomsikia can be broken down like this:

tu- = we (subject prefix)
-li- = past tense
-po- = “when / where” marker (here: when)
-m- = him/her (object marker for a person, class 1)
-sikia = hear

Together: tu-li-po-m-sikia → tulipomsikia
Roughly: “when we him-heard” → “when we heard him”.

The -po- element is important: it turns tulisikia (“we heard”) into tuliposikia (“when we heard”), and with -m- you get tulipomsikia (“when we heard him”).

What exactly does -po- do in tulipomsikia? Is it always about time?

-po- is a “relative/locative” marker that often means “when” (time) or “where” (place), depending on context.

With time, it is understood as “when”:
- tuliposikia = when we heard
- alipokuja = when he came
With place, it is understood as “where / at the place where”:
- alipokaa = where he sat / where he stayed

In tulipomsikia, the context is clearly about time, so we read it as “when we heard him”.

You don’t always need -po-; you could have a different structure with wakati (when) or a simple past, but here -po- neatly builds the “when”-clause into the verb itself.

Why is there an object marker -m- in tulipomsikia when kocha is also mentioned afterward? Could we leave -m- out?

The -m- marks “him/her” and agrees with kocha (a person, noun class 1).

tulipomsikia kocha
literally: “when we him-heard the coach”
→ “when we heard the coach” / “when we heard him, the coach”.

In Swahili, it is very common (and often more natural) to have:

an object marker on the verb (-m-),
and still mention the noun (kocha) after the verb.

If you remove -m-, you get tuliposikia kocha (“when we heard the coach”), which is still understandable, but you lose that pronominal “him” slot in the verb. The version with -m- feels smoother and more idiomatic here.

What does akipiga filimbi literally mean, and what role does aki- play?

Breakdown:

a- = he/she (subject prefix)
-ki- = ongoing / incomplete action marker (often used in subordinate or background actions: “while doing / as he was doing”)
-piga = hit, beat, strike, blow (a whistle, etc.)
filimbi = whistle (instrument or whistle sound)

So akipiga filimbi literally: “he (while)-hitting whistle”, i.e.
“while he was blowing the whistle” / “as he was blowing the whistle”.

The aki- form often indicates an action that is in progress at the same time as another action, especially in a subordinate clause.

Why do we say kocha akipiga filimbi and not something like kocha alipiga filimbi here?

Both are grammatical, but the aspect is different:

kocha akipiga filimbi
→ “the coach (while) blowing the whistle”,
shows an action in progress at that moment. It fits well with an English idea like:
“when we heard the coach blowing the whistle” (ongoing background action).
kocha alipiga filimbi
→ “the coach blew the whistle”,
describes a single, completed event. Used here, it would feel more like “when we heard that the coach blew the whistle (once)”.

In the given sentence, akipiga nicely matches the past continuous feeling of tulikuwa tukitembea: we were walking … while the coach was blowing the whistle.

What exactly does kwenye mean in kwenye korido ndefu? Could we also use katika?

kwenye is a general locative preposition, often translating as “in / on / at”, depending on context.

kwenye korido ndefu
→ “in the long corridor / along the long corridor” (here, physically inside/along the corridor).

You can also say:

katika korido ndefu

In many cases, kwenye and katika overlap in meaning. katika can sound slightly more formal or neutral, and kwenye is extremely common in everyday speech. In this sentence, kwenye is perfectly natural.

Why is it korido ndefu and not ndefu korido? How do adjectives work here?

In Swahili, adjectives normally follow the noun they describe:

korido ndefu
- korido = corridor
- ndefu = long (for class 9/10 nouns)

So the order is: noun + adjective, unlike English, which puts the adjective first (“long corridor”).

Also, adjectives must agree in class with the noun:

korido is a class 9 noun → its adjectives take the 9/10 prefix n- (from the root -refu, “long”):
- refu → nrefu/ndefu (with sound changes)
- hence: korido ndefu.

The adjective does not change for singular/plural here; class 9/10 uses ndefu for both.

What does uwanjani mean exactly, and what does the -ni at the end do?

uwanjani is:

uwanja = field, pitch, ground, (sports) ground
-ni = locative ending (“in/at/on [that place]”).

So:

uwanja = the field
uwanjani = “on the field / at the field / in the field”.

The -ni often attaches directly to a noun to express location, similar to adding “at / in / on” in English. So uwanjani already includes the idea of “at the field”; you usually don’t need kwenye uwanja if you use uwanjani (though people sometimes still say it).

Is filimbi singular or plural? It ends in -i; how do I know if it’s “a whistle” or “whistles”?

filimbi is a class 9/10 noun, and in that class the singular and plural often look the same. Context tells you whether it’s singular or plural.

filimbi can mean:
- a whistle (instrument)
- the whistle
- whistles (plural)
- (the) whistling sound

In the sentence with akipiga filimbi, it is usually understood as “blowing a/the whistle” (the instrument), but Swahili doesn’t mark this difference the way English does with articles (“a/the”) and plural -s.

How does the overall clause tulipomsikia kocha akipiga filimbi uwanjani hang together grammatically?

Piece by piece:

tulipomsikia = when we heard him
kocha = the coach (in apposition to him)
akipiga filimbi = (while) he was blowing the whistle
uwanjani = on the field / at the pitch

So structurally, it is something like:

“when we heard him, the coach, (as he was) blowing the whistle on the field”

Swahili often strings these elements together in this order:

Verb with subject/tense and object marker (here: the “when we heard him” part),
The noun that object marker refers to (kocha),
Another verb phrase that further describes what that noun is/was doing (akipiga filimbi),
A locative expression (uwanjani).

In English we usually rearrange it to:
“when we heard the coach blowing the whistle on the field”, but in Swahili the stacking of verb–noun–verb phrase is very natural.