Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku, tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema. - If we travelled by train at night, we would arrive in town early in the morning.

This is an unreal / hypothetical conditional, the kind of thing you’d say when the condition is not actually happening (or did not happen), but you are imagining it.

Kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku
If we traveled by train at night / If we were to travel by train at night
tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
we would arrive in town early in the morning.

The nge marker inside tungesafiri and tungewasili signals this hypothetical “would …” idea.

Contrast with a more real/predictable condition:

Tukisafiri kwa treni usiku, tutawasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
If we travel by train at night, we will arrive in town early in the morning.

Here -ki- (in tukisafiri) and ta- (in tutawasili) give a more real, likely, or general condition, not a counterfactual one.

How is tungesafiri formed, and what exactly does it mean?

Tungesafiri breaks down like this:

tu- = subject prefix for “we”
-nge- = conditional / hypothetical marker (“would …”)
-safiri = verb root “travel”

So tungesafiri literally means “we would travel” (or “if we traveled / if we were to travel”), depending on context and the presence of kama.

The same pattern appears in tungewasili:

tu- = we
-nge- = would (conditional)
-wasili = arrive

→ tungewasili = “we would arrive.”

In tungewasili, is wa an object marker meaning “them”? Are we saying “we would arrive them”?

No. In tungewasili, wa is part of the verb root, not an object marker.

Full verb root: wasili = “arrive”
Structure: tu- (we) + -nge- (would) + wasili (arrive)
→ tungewasili = we would arrive.

Swahili object markers go between the tense/mood marker and the root, for example:

tungewafikia
- tu- = we
- -nge- = would
- -wa- = them (object marker)
- -fikia = reach
  → tungewafikia = we would reach them.

With tungewasili, there is no object; arrive here is intransitive and takes a locative phrase (mjini) instead of a direct object.

What exactly does kama do here? Could we leave it out, or use something else like ikiwa?

Kama is the basic conjunction meaning “if” in this kind of sentence:

Kama tungesafiri …, tungewasili …
→ If we traveled …, we would arrive …

You have some options:

Use kama (most common in speech):
- Kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku, tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
Use ikiwa instead of kama:
- Ikiwa tungesafiri kwa treni usiku, tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
  Ikiwa is a bit more formal or written, but the meaning is basically the same.
Omit “if” and just start with the verb (more colloquial):
- Tungesafiri kwa treni usiku, tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
  In many contexts, the -nge- marker alone clearly signals a conditional, so kama is optional in everyday conversation.

However, for learners, keeping kama is often clearer, and it’s always grammatically fine.

Why do both verbs use -nge-? Could I mix forms, like kama tukisafiri … tungewasili?

For a fully hypothetical / unreal conditional in Swahili, it’s normal and very common to use -nge- in both clauses:

Kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku, tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
If we traveled by train at night, we would arrive in town early in the morning.

Mixing -ki- and -nge- changes the meaning:

Tukisafiri kwa treni usiku, tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
If we happen to travel by train at night, we would arrive in town early in the morning.

This kind of mixing (real condition -ki- + hypothetical result -nge-) is possible but can sound slightly less straightforward in meaning; it can imply some uncertainty about the result but more reality about the condition. In practice, the clean patterns to remember are:

Real / likely condition:
Tukisafiri …, tutawasili … (If we travel, we will arrive.)
Hypothetical / unreal condition:
Kama tungesafiri …, tungewasili … (If we traveled, we would arrive.)

How is tungesafiri different from tungalisafiri? Which one fits here?

Both use tu- (we) and express hypothetical ideas, but they differ in time and nuance:

tungesafiri = tu- + -nge- + -safiri
- Roughly “we would travel” / “if we traveled”.
- Often used for present or future hypotheticals, or even generic imagination.
tungalisafiri = tu- + -ngali- + -safiri
- -ngali- often suggests something like “would have …”, with a stronger sense of unreal past or an action that didn’t happen but could already be over.
- So tungalisafiri ≈ “we would have traveled.”

In your sentence, we are imagining a trip and its resulting arrival; tungesafiri … tungewasili is the normal, natural choice.

If you wanted to emphasize that this was a missed opportunity in the past, you could say something like:

Kama tungalisafiri kwa treni usiku, tungaliwasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
If we had traveled by train at night, we would have arrived in town early in the morning.

Why do we say kwa treni? Does kwa mean “by” here, like “by train”?

Yes. In this context kwa expresses means / instrument / mode of transport:

kusafiri kwa treni = to travel by train
kusafiri kwa basi = to travel by bus
kusafiri kwa gari = to travel by car
kusafiri kwa ndege = to travel by plane

You can often think of kwa here as “by means of …”.

You would not usually say *tungesafiri treni usiku; that would sound incomplete or wrong. The kwa is the natural way to mark the means of travel.

What does mjini literally mean, and how is it different from mji?

mji = town / city (a noun)
-ni is a common locative suffix, roughly “in / at / on.”

So:

mjini = “in town / in the town”

In practice:

mji
- Mji huu ni mkubwa.
  This town is big.
mjini
- Ninaishi mjini.
  I live in town.

You can also combine mjini with specific names:

mjini Arusha = in Arusha town / in the city of Arusha
mjini Nairobi = in Nairobi (city center / urban area)

In your sentence, mjini functions as a locative phrase:

tungewasili mjini = we would arrive in town.

Why do we say mjini asubuhi mapema in that order? Could it be asubuhi mapema mjini?

Swahili word order for place and time expressions is quite flexible, but there are some common preferences.

In your sentence:

mjini = in town (place)
asubuhi mapema = early in the morning (time; asubuhi = morning, mapema = early)

So mjini asubuhi mapema = in town, early in the morning.

You could reorder the adverbials and still be understood:

Tungewasili asubuhi mapema mjini.
Tungewasili mapema asubuhi mjini.
Tungewasili mjini mapema asubuhi.

However:

The fixed expression asubuhi mapema (morning early) is very natural and common, similar to English “early in the morning”.
Often, place (mjini) comes before time, but this is not a strict rule.

Your original mjini asubuhi mapema is perfectly natural and probably the most idiomatic of the possible orders you’d choose as a learner.

What is the exact nuance of asubuhi mapema? Why both words?

asubuhi = morning
mapema = early

Together, asubuhi mapema is an idiomatic way to say:

“early in the morning” (emphasizing the early part of the morning)

You could say just:

asubuhi = in the morning
mapema = early (but unspecified time of day)

But asubuhi mapema makes it clear that you mean specifically the early morning, not just any time in the morning or just “early” at some other time of day.

Could we place usiku in a different position, like kama usiku tungesafiri kwa treni? Would that still be correct?

You can move usiku (night / at night), but some positions sound more natural than others.

Very natural:

Kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku, …
Kama tungesafiri usiku kwa treni, … (less common, but still OK)

Less natural / marked:

Kama usiku tungesafiri kwa treni, …

That last version is understandable, but putting usiku before the verb tends to sound a bit more poetic, emphatic, or unusual. In ordinary speech, time expressions usually follow the verb, so your original … kusafiri kwa treni usiku is the best default pattern to learn:

Verb + kwa + means of transport + time
tungesafiri kwa treni usiku

How would I say the negative version: “If we did not travel by train at night, we would not arrive in town early in the morning”?

You still use -nge-, but you add the negative subject prefix and get -singe-:

Positive: tungesafiri = tu- + -nge- + -safiri
Negative: tusingesafiri = tu- + si- + -nge- + -safiri
(si + nge merges to singe in pronunciation and spelling)

Same for tungewasili → tusingewasili.

So the full negative sentence:

Kama tusingesafiri kwa treni usiku, tusingewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
If we did not travel by train at night, we would not arrive in town early in the morning.

Is the comma and clause order fixed? Can we say Tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku?

The order is flexible, as in English:

Kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku, tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema.
Tungewasili mjini asubuhi mapema kama tungesafiri kwa treni usiku.

Both are grammatically correct. The differences:

Starting with kama (if) is very common and slightly emphasizes the condition.
Starting with tungewasili … emphasizes the result, then mentions the condition.

The comma is mainly a writing convention to show the break between the if-clause and the result-clause. In speech, the pause and intonation do the same job.