Learn Hardcore Swahili: Wazazi wanatumia kalenda hiyo kupanga likizo na siku za ziara za familia. - The parents use that calendar to plan holidays and days for family visits.

wa- = subject prefix for they (3rd person plural, noun class 2 like wazazi)
-na- = present tense marker (often “present continuous / present habitual”)
-tumia = verb stem “use”

So wanatumia literally means “they are using / they use”.

In context, Wazazi wanatumia kalenda hiyo… can be understood as:

“The parents use that calendar…” (habit these days), or
“The parents are using that calendar…” (ongoing practice now).

Swahili’s -na- covers both “are doing” and a current or regular habit, depending on context.

Why is the dictionary form kutumia but in the sentence it becomes wanatumia without ku-?

Kutumia is the infinitive form, “to use”. The ku- at the front marks the infinitive, not the subject.

When you conjugate the verb with a subject and tense, that ku- is replaced by the subject prefix and tense marker:

ku + tumia → dictionary “to use”
wa + na + tumia → wanatumia (“they use / are using”)

The ku- only appears:

In infinitives (kutumia, kupanga)
After some prepositions (kwa kutumia = “by using”)
In a few special constructions (e.g. after na, kuja, etc.)

So you never say wanakutumia to mean “they use”; that would mean something else (“they send to [someone]”) because -tumia also appears inside other verb patterns.

Could we say Wazazi hutumia kalenda hiyo… instead of wanatumia? What is the difference?

Yes, Wazazi hutumia kalenda hiyo… is grammatically correct, but the nuance changes.

wanatumia = wa- + -na- + tumia
- Present, often “these days / now / at this time”, also used for current habits.
hutumia = hu- + tumia
- Habitual/generic tense: “(they) generally/usually use”.

Comparing:

Wazazi wanatumia kalenda hiyo…
→ The parents use / are using that calendar (now / these days, maybe part of their current routine).
Wazazi hutumia kalenda hiyo…
→ The parents (as a rule, generally) use that calendar. More like a timeless habit or rule.

So hu- sounds more like “whenever this is relevant, this is what they do”, whereas -na- feels more anchored in the present period.

Why do we say kalenda hiyo and not hiyo kalenda? Is there a difference?

Both kalenda hiyo and hiyo kalenda are possible, but there is a difference in usual word order and emphasis:

The most common neutral order is:
[noun] + [demonstrative]
→ kalenda hiyo = “that calendar”
When you put the demonstrative before the noun (hiyo kalenda), it often adds extra emphasis to “that”, something like “that particular calendar”.

So:

kalenda hiyo – normal, “that calendar (we’re referring to)”
hiyo kalenda – can sound more contrastive: “that calendar (as opposed to some other one)”.

In your sentence, kalenda hiyo is the natural, neutral way to say “that calendar”.

What exactly does the demonstrative hiyo mean here, and why not hii or ile?

Swahili has three basic distances for demonstratives, and they must also agree with the noun class.

For class 9/10 nouns like kalenda:

hii – “this” (near the speaker)
hiyo – “that” (near the listener / just mentioned / contextually given)
ile – “that (over there)” (far from both, more distant or separate)

In the sentence:

kalenda hiyo suggests “that calendar (we’ve been talking about / that you know about)”.
kalenda hii would be more like “this calendar right here (near me)”.
kalenda ile would highlight a distant or more removed calendar: “that calendar over there / that other calendar”.

So hiyo fits well if the calendar is already known from the context or is conceptually “given” information.

What is the function of kupanga here, and why doesn’t it have a subject prefix like wanapanga?

Kupanga is an infinitive (“to plan”) and functions here as a purpose/complement verb after wanatumia:

wanatumia kalenda hiyo kupanga…
→ “they use that calendar to plan…”

Because kupanga shares the same subject as wanatumia (“the parents”), Swahili simply uses the infinitive with ku-:

No subject prefix (wa-)
No tense marker (-na-, -li-, etc.)

So:

Wazazi wanatumia kalenda hiyo kupanga…
≈ “The parents use that calendar in order to plan holidays and the days of family visits.”

If you said …wanapanga…, that would start a new finite clause:
Wazazi wanatumia kalenda hiyo, na wanapanga likizo… = “The parents use that calendar, and they plan vacations…”, which is a bit different structurally.

Could we say …wanatumia kalenda hiyo ili kupanga… or kwa kupanga…? Would that change the meaning?

…ili kupanga… – Yes, that is natural.
- ili explicitly marks purpose: “in order to”.
- Wazazi wanatumia kalenda hiyo ili kupanga likizo…
  → “The parents use that calendar in order to plan vacations…”
…kwa kupanga… – This is usually not how you would express this idea.
- kwa + infinitive often means “by doing X / as a means of doing X”.
- wanatumia kalenda hiyo kwa kupanga… sounds like “they use that calendar by planning…”, which is odd.

More natural “for the purpose of” expressions would be:

…kwa ajili ya kupanga likizo… – “for the purpose of planning vacations”
…katika kupanga likizo… – “in (the process of) planning vacations”

Your original sentence, with just kupanga, already carries the idea of purpose, so nothing additional is required.

What does likizo mean in Swahili? Is it like “holiday”, “vacation”, or “time off”?

Likizo covers several related meanings:

time off from work or school
holiday / vacation / leave

Common examples:

likizo ya shule – school holidays
likizo ya kazi – time off from work / leave
niko likizoni – I’m on holiday / I’m on vacation

In your sentence, kupanga likizo most naturally means “to plan vacations / holidays” (for the family).

How is the long phrase siku za ziara za familia built up, literally?

Break it down step by step:

siku – “day / days”
za ziara – “of visits”
- za = “of” (agreeing with siku)
- ziara = “visit(s)”
ziara za familia – “visits of the family” / “family visits”
- za again = “of” (agreeing with ziara)
- familia = “family”

Put together:

siku za ziara za familia
= literally “days of visits of (the) family”
= “days for family visits / the days of family visits”.

So the structure is like stacked “of” phrases, just as English says “the days of the family visits”.

Why do we use za and not ya or wa in siku za ziara za familia?

The small word (ya / za / wa / la / cha…) between nouns is a genitive connector (“of”) and it must agree with the head noun’s class and number.

Relevant classes here:

siku – class 9/10 (same form sing. & pl.)
ziara – class 9/10
familia – class 9/10

For class 9/10:

Singular: ya – e.g. siku ya mvua = “a day of rain”
Plural: za – e.g. siku za mvua = “days of rain”

In your phrase:

siku za ziara
- Head noun = siku (understood as plural “days”) → use za
ziara za familia
- Head noun = ziara (also understood as plural “visits”) → again za

If you said:

siku ya ziara ya familia
That would suggest one day and one visit: “the day of a family visit”.

So za signals that both siku and ziara are being thought of as plural in this sentence.

Why is siku translated as plural “days” here even though the Swahili form doesn’t change?

Nouns in class 9/10, like siku, often have the same form for singular and plural. Context tells you which is meant.

Examples:

siku moja – one day
siku mbili – two days
siku nzuri – a good day / good days (depends on context)

In siku za ziara za familia, several clues push us toward a plural reading:

The connector za is the plural form (“of [plural]”).
The phrase logically refers to multiple planned days: you don’t normally schedule just one day for all family visits.

So we understand siku here as “days”, even though the word itself doesn’t change form.

Can ziara za familia mean both “family visits” and “visits to the family”? How do we know?

Yes, ziara za familia is somewhat flexible and can be interpreted in more than one way:

family visits (visits involving the family in general)
visits by family members
visits to family members

The connector za just says “of / related to”. It doesn’t encode who is visiting whom; that comes from context.

In your full sentence:

likizo na siku za ziara za familia
= vacations and days of family visits.

A natural understanding in everyday speech is simply “family visits” in a broad sense (times when the family visits relatives, or relatives visit the family). If speakers wanted to be more precise (e.g. “visits to grandparents”), they would specify it: ziara za familia kwa babu na bibi, etc.

There’s no word like “the” in the sentence. How is definiteness (“the parents”, “that calendar”) shown in Swahili?

Swahili normally doesn’t use a separate word for “the” or “a”. Instead, definiteness is signaled by:

Context
- wazazi can mean “parents”, “the parents”, or “some parents”, depending on what is already known in the conversation.
Demonstratives and other markers
- kalenda hiyo = “that calendar” → this makes it clearly definite and specific.
- If we said just kalenda, it could mean “a calendar / the calendar” depending on context.

So:

Wazazi wanatumia kalenda hiyo…
is naturally read in English as
“The parents use that calendar…”,
with “the” understood from context and “that” expressed by hiyo.