Learn Hardcore Swahili: Rafiki yangu anaandika blogu kuhusu kujifunza lugha, na mimi ni msomaji wake wa kwanza. - My friend writes a blog about learning languages, and I am her/his first reader.

rafiki belongs to noun class 9.
Class 9 uses y- in the possessive:
- rafiki yangu – my friend
- rafiki yako – your friend
- rafiki yake – his/her friend

By contrast, class 1 nouns use w-:

mtoto wangu – my child
msomaji wangu – my reader

So we say rafiki yangu, not rafiki wangu, because rafiki is not class 1 in this sentence; it follows class 9 agreement here.

Does rafiki mean a special kind of friend, like a close friend, or just any friend?

rafiki on its own just means friend in a general sense. Context decides whether it sounds close or not, just like friend in English.

If you want to be explicit, you add extra words:

rafiki wa karibu – a close friend
rafiki wa karibu sana – a very close friend / best friend
rafiki wa kazi – a work friend / colleague

In this sentence, rafiki yangu is simply my friend; nothing in the grammar forces “close friend”, though it could be understood that way from context.

How is anaandika built, and does it mean writes or is writing in English?

anaandika is made of three parts:

a- – subject prefix for he / she
-na- – present tense marker (present/habitual)
-andika – verb root andika (to write)

So:

anaandika = he/she + present + write
→ he/she writes / he/she is writing

Swahili -na- present covers both:

Rafiki yangu anaandika blogu
– My friend writes a blog (habitually)
– My friend is writing a blog (right now)

English must choose between writes and is writing, but Swahili uses the same form and context decides.

Why is there no word for he or she before anaandika?

Swahili usually does not use separate subject pronouns (I, you, he, she) before the verb the way English does.

The subject information is built into the subject prefix on the verb:
- ni-na-andika – I write / I am writing
- u-na-andika – you write
- a-na-andika – he/she writes

In anaandika, the a- already means he/she, and rafiki yangu is the noun subject that explains who that he/she is.

You could say Yeye anaandika blogu, but:

yeye is only used for emphasis or contrast (like “HE writes the blog”).
Normally it’s just Rafiki yangu anaandika…, without a separate “he/she”.

Why is there no word for a or the before blogu in anaandika blogu?

Swahili has no articles like a, an, the.

blogu can mean a blog or the blog, depending on context.
You don’t add a separate word for “a” or “the”.

If you really need to emphasize definiteness or specificity, you use other means (context, demonstratives, etc.):

blogu hii – this blog
blogu yake – his/her blog

But there is no exact equivalent of English a/the as standalone words.

What exactly does kuhusu mean, and can it go anywhere else in the sentence?

kuhusu means about / regarding / concerning.

In this sentence:

blogu kuhusu kujifunza lugha
= a blog about learning languages

Typical pattern:

[noun] + kuhusu + [thing it is about]
- kitabu kuhusu historia – a book about history
- maongezi kuhusu siasa – conversations about politics

You normally keep kuhusu right before the thing it refers to.
You would not usually move it to the end, so forms like anaandika blogu kujifunza lugha kuhusu are not natural.

In kujifunza, what do ku- and -ji- mean?

kujifunza is made from the verb -jifunza.

Breakdown:

ku- – infinitive marker (like “to” in to learn)
-ji- – reflexive marker (oneself)
-funza – verb root related to teaching/causing to learn

So kujifunza literally means to cause oneself to learn → simply to learn.

Compare:

kufunza – to teach (less common than kufundisha)
kufundisha – to teach (standard word)
kujifunza – to learn (to teach oneself)

In practice, kujifunza lugha = to learn a language / to learn languages.

Does kujifunza lugha mean learning a language or learning languages? Why is lugha not plural?

lugha is one of those nouns where:

The same form can be used for singular or plural, and
Often it is used in a kind of general / mass sense.

So kujifunza lugha can be understood as:

learning a language
learning languages
language learning (in general)

Context decides:

Here, since it’s a blog “about learning language(s)”, the idea is language learning in general, not one specific language.

If you wanted to stress “different languages”, you could add:

kujifunza lugha mbalimbali – learning various languages
kujifunza lugha nyingi – learning many languages

Why do we say na mimi ni... instead of just na ni msomaji wake wa kwanza?

mimi is the pronoun I / me, and here it is used for emphasis and clarity.

na mimi ni msomaji wake wa kwanza
– and I am his/her first reader (emphasizing I as opposed to other people)

Grammatically:

You could say na ni msomaji wake wa kwanza.
The subject I is understood from context, especially right after talking about your friend.
But adding mimi makes it explicitly clear and adds a slight contrast:
- My friend writes a blog…, and *I, for my part, am his/her first reader.*

Swahili often uses mimi, wewe, yeye etc. when you want to highlight who is doing or being something.

What is the function of ni in mimi ni msomaji wake wa kwanza?

ni is the copula in Swahili – it works like the verb to be (am / is / are) between a subject and a noun.

mimi ni msomaji
literally: I be reader → I am a reader
yeye ni mwalimu – he/she is a teacher
sisi ni marafiki – we are friends

When the complement is a noun (like msomaji, mwalimu), you use ni.

With locations or states, you often use forms like niko, yupo, wako instead:

mimi niko nyumbani – I am at home
rafiki yangu yuko kazini – my friend is at work

How is the noun msomaji formed from the verb kusoma, and can I use this pattern with other verbs?

msomaji comes from:

ku-soma – to read
m- + soma + -aji → msomaji – reader

Pattern: > m-/mw- + verb root + -aji → “person who does X”

Examples:

kuimba – to sing → mwimbaji – singer
kucheza – to play → mchezaji – player
kuandika – to write → mwandishi (slightly irregular: -andik- → -andishi) – writer / journalist
kupika – to cook → mpishi (here the suffix is -i, another common pattern)

So yes, this is a productive pattern: many profession and agent nouns are formed this way.

Why is it wake for his/her in msomaji wake, and not yake or another form?

Again, this is about noun class agreement.

msomaji is a person and behaves like a class 1 noun (same class as mtu, mtoto).
Class 1 uses w- for the possessive:
- mtoto wake – his/her child
- mwalimu wake – his/her teacher
- msomaji wake – his/her reader

Class 9 uses y-, which is why we had rafiki yangu (my friend):

rafiki yangu – my friend (class 9)
rafiki yake – his/her friend

So:

rafiki yangu (class 9 → yangu)
msomaji wake (class 1 → wake)

In msomaji wake wa kwanza, what does wa kwanza literally mean, and why do we need wa before kwanza?

kwanza by itself means first / firstly / to begin with.
When it is used as an ordinal adjective (first, second, third, …) describing a noun, you add an agreement prefix that matches the noun class.

Here:

msomaji is class 1 → uses wa for adjectives.
So: msomaji wa kwanza – first reader

Literal breakdown:

msomaji – reader
wake – his/her
wa kwanza – (of) first
→ his/her reader of first → his/her first reader

For other noun classes, kwanza uses different agreements:

kitabu cha kwanza – the first book (class 7 → cha)
majibu ya kwanza – the first answers (class 6 → ya)
siku ya kwanza – the first day (class 9 → ya)

Could I say msomaji wa kwanza wake instead of msomaji wake wa kwanza, and would it change the meaning?

Both msomaji wake wa kwanza and msomaji wa kwanza wake are grammatically possible and mean his/her first reader.

msomaji wake wa kwanza is the more neutral and common order.
msomaji wa kwanza wake can sound a bit more focused on first (as in “the first reader of his/hers”), but the difference is subtle and often just stylistic.

In everyday usage, msomaji wake wa kwanza is the safer, more natural choice.