Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kadiri familia inavyokula pamoja kila jioni, ndivyo uhusiano wao unavyokuwa imara zaidi. - The more the family eats together every evening, the stronger their relationship becomes.

Kadiri familia inavyokula pamoja kila jioni
= As / the more / to the extent that the family eats together every evening,
ndivyo uhusiano wao unavyokuwa imara zaidi
= so/in that same degree their relationship becomes stronger.

So the pattern is:

Kadiri + [clause A] , ndivyo + [clause B].

Clause A describes something changing in degree (here: how regularly they eat together), and clause B describes something else that changes in parallel (here: the strength of their relationship).

What exactly does kadiri mean here, and can it stand alone without ndivyo?

In this kind of sentence, kadiri means roughly “to the extent that / as / the more that”.

On its own in ordinary use, kadiri often means “extent, measure, amount”.
Example: kadiri ya watu mia = about/approximately one hundred people.
In the pattern Kadiri … ndivyo …, kadiri introduces a clause that describes the changing degree/extent of something.

You can use kadiri in less tightly linked ways, but for the specific “the more X, the more Y” meaning, you normally pair it with ndivyo (or sometimes just hivyo in less formal speech). Dropping ndivyo here would sound incomplete or at least much less clear.

What does ndivyo mean, literally, and why not just use hivyo?

Ndivyo is made up of:

ndi-: a focus particle that adds emphasis (similar to “it is … that/which …”), and
-ivyo: from hivyo = “that way / like that / in that manner”.

So ndivyo is basically “(it is) in that way / thus / so”, with emphasis.

In Kadiri … ndivyo …, ndivyo points back to the degree or manner expressed in the kadiri-clause and says “it is in that same way/degree that the second thing happens.”

You can find kadiri … hivyo … in casual speech, but kadiri … ndivyo … is the standard, more correct correlative form and sounds more natural in careful Swahili.

How is inavyokula formed, and what does the -vyo- part do?

Inavyokula breaks down as:

i- = subject prefix for a class 9 noun (here familia)
-na- = present tense marker (“is/does” – often habitual)
-vyo- = relative marker meaning roughly “in the way/degree that / as”
kula = to eat

So: i-na-vyo-kula → inavyokula.

Function:

ina kula = it is eating.
inavyokula = as it eats / the way it eats / to the extent that it eats (a relative form).

The -vyo- is essential in this kadiri … ndivyo … structure because we want a “the way/as/to the extent that” sense, not just a plain “is eating” statement.

Why is it familia inavyokula and not familia wanavyokula? In English we’d say “the family they eat”.

In Swahili, agreement follows the noun class, not the semantic idea of plurality.

familia is a class 9 noun.
Class 9 subject prefix in the present tense is i-, not wa-.

So:

familia inakula = the family is eating.
familia inavyokula = as the family eats / the way the family eats.

If the sentence were about watu (people), then you’d use wa-:

watu wanavyokula = as the people eat.

But with familia, the grammatically correct agreement is i-.

What’s the difference between inavyokula and inapokula? Could we say Kadiri familia inapokula pamoja…?

Both forms are relative:

inavyokula = i-na-vyo-kula
→ “as it eats / in the way/degree that it eats”
inapokula = i-na-po-kula
→ “when(ever) it eats / at the time when it eats”

Difference in nuance:

-vyo- focuses on manner/degree (“how, the way, to the extent that”).
-po- focuses on time or place (“when, where”).

In a kadiri … ndivyo … construction, -vyo- is more natural because we are talking about degree/frequency or extent (how much/how consistently they eat together), not just about a time point.

You could hear Kadiri familia inapokula…, but it loses some of the precise “to the extent that / the more that” feel and sounds less idiomatic in this pattern.

What tense/aspect is being expressed by inavyokula and unavyokuwa here?

Both verbs use the -na- marker, which is generally:

present (is doing), and very often
habitual (does regularly, tends to do).

Breakdowns:

inavyokula = i-na-vyo-kula
unavyokuwa = u-na-vyo-kuwa

In context:

familia inavyokula pamoja kila jioni
→ describes a regular, repeated action (eating together every evening).
uhusiano wao unavyokuwa imara zaidi
→ describes how their relationship keeps becoming / tends to become stronger alongside that habit.

So the -na- here signals a current, ongoing, and essentially habitual situation, not a single event.

What is pamoja doing here, and can its position change?

Pamoja means “together”.

In familia inavyokula pamoja, it’s an adverb modifying kula:

kula pamoja = to eat together.

You can sometimes see variants like:

kula kwa pamoja = eat together (more literally “eat in togetherness”), a bit more formal/emphatic.

Position:

kula pamoja is the default word order.
You could place pamoja a little earlier in some sentences for emphasis, but here kula pamoja is by far the most natural and common.

How does kila jioni work grammatically? Why no agreement on kila?

Kila means “every/each” and is invariable: it does not change form for noun class or number.

kila jioni = every evening
kila siku = every day
kila mtu = every person

There is no agreement marker on kila itself; it just directly precedes the noun.

In this sentence:

pamoja kila jioni = together every evening
→ tells you how often the family eats together (a habitual schedule).

You don’t need prepositions like kwa or katika here; kila jioni on its own is the normal way to say “every evening”.

What does uhusiano wao unavyokuwa imara zaidi mean structurally? How do these pieces fit together?

Breakdown:

uhusiano = relationship (class 11 noun)
wao = their
u- = subject prefix for uhusiano (class 11)
-na- = present/habitual tense
-vyo- = relative marker (“as, in the way/degree that”)
kuwa = to be / become
imara = firm, stable, strong
zaidi = more

So:

uhusiano wao unavyokuwa
→ as their relationship becomes / in the way that their relationship becomes
imara zaidi
→ stronger / more stable (literally: firm + more)

Together:

uhusiano wao unavyokuwa imara zaidi
→ how their relationship keeps becoming stronger / the fact that their relationship becomes increasingly strong.

In the Kadiri … ndivyo … pattern, this whole phrase is the “result” side that grows in parallel with the first clause.

How does zaidi work here? How do you say “stronger” or “strongest” in Swahili?

Swahili usually uses zaidi (“more”) and kuliko (“than”) to express comparatives and superlatives.

Here:

imara = strong / firm / stable
imara zaidi = stronger / more strong (depending on context, also “very strong”)

To compare explicitly:

uhusiano wao ni imara zaidi kuliko zamani
→ their relationship is stronger than before.

For a superlative:

uhusiano wao ni imara zaidi kuliko yote
→ their relationship is the strongest of all.

In the sentence you gave, imara zaidi is understood as “stronger and stronger / increasingly strong” in parallel with how often they eat together. The comparison (“than before / than it would otherwise be”) is implied by context and the kadiri … ndivyo … structure.