Kila Jumapili, familia yetu hukutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana.

Every Sunday, our family meets at our place for lunch.

Breakdown of Kila Jumapili, familia yetu hukutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana.

• kila: every
• kwa: for
• yetu: our
• familia: the family
• chakula cha mchana: the lunch
• kutana: to meet
• Jumapili: Sunday
• kwetu: at our place

Questions & Answers about Kila Jumapili, familia yetu hukutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana.

What does kila in Kila Jumapili do, and does it always go with a singular noun?

Kila means every / each.
It always takes a singular noun:

• kila Jumapili – every Sunday
• kila siku – every day
• kila mtoto – every child

You don’t make the noun plural after kila in Swahili. So you would not say something like kila *siku*z; it stays singular.

Can I move kila Jumapili to another place in the sentence?

Yes. Time expressions are quite flexible in Swahili. All of these are natural:

• Kila Jumapili, familia yetu hukutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana.
• Familia yetu hukutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana kila Jumapili.
• Familia yetu, kila Jumapili, hukutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana.

Putting kila Jumapili at the beginning slightly emphasizes the time (the routine), but the meaning is the same.

What does the prefix hu- in hukutana mean?

The prefix hu- marks a habitual or regular action, like “usually / generally / always” in English.

So familia yetu hukutana means roughly “our family (usually) meets / meets as a routine”.

Key points about hu-:

• It shows a habit, not a one‑time or currently ongoing action.
• It does not take a subject prefix: you say familia yetu hukutana, not familia yetu inahukutana.
• It is often used with expressions like kila… (every…), but it can also stand alone to show general truth or custom.

Could I say Familia yetu inakutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana kila Jumapili instead of using hukutana? How does it change the meaning?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct:

• Familia yetu hukutana kwetu... – our family (normally / as a rule) meets at our place…
• Familia yetu inakutana kwetu... – our family is meeting / meets at our place…

With kila Jumapili present, both are understood as habitual, but:

• hu- puts a bit more focus on “this is the usual routine.”
• ina- (the -na- tense) is the general present/“present progressive” and is slightly more neutral.

In everyday speech, many people say inakutana here; hukutana just sounds a bit more “bookish” or explicitly habitual.

Where is the subject agreement in familia yetu hukutana? Why don’t we see something like inakutana or wanakutana?

In familia yetu hukutana, the subject is familia yetu, and the tense/aspect marker is hu-.
With hu-, you normally don’t add a subject prefix (like i-, wa-, etc.) to the verb. The noun phrase familia yetu in front of the verb is enough to show who is doing the action.

If you wanted the ordinary present instead of the hu- habitual, it would be:

• Familia yetu inakutana kwetu… (because familia is in noun class 9, which uses i- for the subject in the present).

What does kwetu mean exactly? Is it “with us”, “to us”, or “at our place”?

Kwetu literally comes from kwa + sisi and means “at our place / at our home / where we live.”

So in this sentence:

• hukutana kwetu = meet at our place / meet at our house.

It is not “with us” (that would be more like pamoja nasi).
Other similar forms:

• kwangu – at my place
• kwako – at your place
• kwake – at his/her place
• kwenu – at your (pl.) place
• kwao – at their place

Can I say nyumbani kwetu instead of just kwetu? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Familia yetu hukutana nyumbani kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana.

Both kwetu and nyumbani kwetu are natural:

• kwetu – at our place (often understood as “our home” by default)
• nyumbani kwetu – more explicitly “at our home/house”

The difference is only a nuance of explicitness; the basic meaning is the same.

In kwa chakula cha mchana, what does kwa mean, and why is it used here?

Here kwa introduces the purpose or reason: “for lunch”.

• hukutana kwetu kwa chakula cha mchana ≈ meet at our place for lunch.

Kwa is a very flexible preposition; in this usage it can be understood as “for / for the purpose of.”
You could also say:

• ... kwa ajili ya chakula cha mchana – for the sake of / for the purpose of lunch

but the shorter kwa chakula cha mchana is very common and natural.

What does chakula cha mchana literally mean, and why is it cha and not ya?

Literally:

• chakula – food
• mchana – daytime / afternoon
• chakula cha mchana – food of the day/afternoon → lunch

Cha is the possessive/“of” form that agrees with noun class 7 (ki-/vi-), which includes chakula (class 7):

• chakula cha mchana – lunch
• kitabu cha Kiswahili – Swahili book

Ya is used for other noun classes (e.g. 9/10: safari ya jana – yesterday’s trip), so chakula ya mchana would be incorrect.

Why is “our family” translated as familia yetu and not familia wetu?

Possessive pronouns in Swahili must agree with the noun class of the noun they modify.

Familia is a class 9 noun, and for class 9, the “our” form is yetu:

• familia yetu – our family
• nyumba yetu – our house (nyumba is also class 9)

Wetu is the “our” form for class 2 (people plural), e.g.:

• walimu wetu – our teachers
• rafiki wetu – our friend (if treated as class 2)

So familia wetu is ungrammatical; it must be familia yetu.

Is the comma after Kila Jumapili necessary in Swahili?

The comma is optional, but common and natural.

Writers often put a comma after a fronted time expression to show a small pause:

• Kila Jumapili, familia yetu hukutana…

You can also write it without a comma:

• Kila Jumapili familia yetu hukutana…

Both are acceptable; pronunciation and meaning are the same.