Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule. - Every Thursday afternoon, we usually play basketball on the school sports field.

Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule.

Every Thursday afternoon, we usually play basketball on the school sports field.

Breakdown of Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule.

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Questions & Answers about Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule.

In English we say on Thursday, but in Swahili the sentence just has Kila Alhamisi with no word for on. Is that normal?

Yes. In Swahili, days of the week normally appear by themselves without a preposition.

Alhamisi = Thursday
Kila Alhamisi = every Thursday (literally each Thursday)

You generally do not say kwenye Alhamisi, katika Alhamisi, or anything similar when you just mean on Thursday. The bare day name already carries that meaning.

Why is it kila Alhamisi and not something like kila siku ya Alhamisi or a plural form?

Kila means each / every and it always goes directly before a singular noun, even though the meaning is plural in English.

kila mtoto – every child
kila mwaka – every year
kila Alhamisi – every Thursday

You can say kila siku ya Alhamisi (every Thursday day), but it sounds heavier and is only used if you specifically want to mention siku (day). In most everyday speech, kila Alhamisi is the natural form.

What is the function of hu- in hucheza? How is it different from tunacheza?

The prefix hu- on the verb marks a habitual action: something that happens regularly, as a routine or general truth.

sisi hucheza – we (usually / habitually) play
tunacheza – we are playing / we play (more neutral present, often about what is happening now or in a specific time frame)

In a sentence with kila (every), the habitual hu- is very natural:

Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu...
→ Every Thursday at noon, we (normally) play basketball...

You can say tunacheza here, and it will still be understood as a repeated activity, but hucheza makes the routine nature of the action clearer.

Why is it sisi hucheza and not sisi tunacheza or tuhu-... or something like that?

Two things are going on:

The subject pronoun “sisi”
- sisi = we.
- In Swahili, the subject is usually shown by a prefix on the verb (e.g. tu- for we in tunacheza).
- A separate pronoun like sisi is added mainly for emphasis or contrast:
  - Sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu – We play basketball (as opposed to other people).
The habitual marker “hu-”
- With the habitual hu-, the normal subject prefix (like tu-) is not used.
- So instead of tuhucheza, you say just hucheza.
- If you want to make the subject explicit, you add a separate pronoun: sisi hucheza.

So:

sisi hucheza – we (habitually) play
tunacheza – we are playing / we play (present)
tuhucheza – not correct

Could I also say Kila Alhamisi mchana tunacheza mpira wa kikapu...? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say that, and it will be perfectly understandable. The difference is subtle:

Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza...
- Highlights a habit / routine more strongly.
- Feels a bit like “We usually play...” or “We always play...”.
Kila Alhamisi mchana tunacheza...
- Still normally interpreted as a repeated activity (because of kila),
- But it sounds a bit more neutral, less focused on the habitual aspect.

In real-life speech, both are widely used; the version with hu- is just more explicitly “habitual”.

What exactly does mchana add here? Is it “noon”, “afternoon” or just “daytime”?

mchana has a few related meanings, depending on context:

Daytime (as opposed to night)
- Nitalala usiku na nitafanya kazi mchana. – I’ll sleep at night and work during the day.
Midday / around noon / early afternoon
- When used after a day, like Alhamisi mchana, it often means around noon or early afternoon, a bit like “Thursday lunchtime / Thursday midday”.

In this sentence, Kila Alhamisi mchana is most naturally translated as “Every Thursday at noon” or “Every Thursday in the early afternoon”, depending on context.

If you wanted to be more precise, you could also say, for example:

Kila Alhamisi saa sita mchana – Every Thursday at exactly 12:00 noon.

Why is the time expression Kila Alhamisi mchana at the beginning of the sentence? Can it go elsewhere?

Swahili is fairly flexible with adverbials of time. All of these are possible:

Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu...
Sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu kila Alhamisi mchana...
Sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule kila Alhamisi mchana.

Putting Kila Alhamisi mchana at the start:

Sets the time frame first, as a topic: “As for every Thursday at noon...”
Sounds very natural and slightly more narrative.

Moving it to the end is also grammatically fine; it just changes the focus slightly.

How is mpira wa kikapu built, and why is it wa and not something like cha or ya?

mpira wa kikapu literally means “ball (or game) of basket”, which is the standard way to say basketball.

Breakdown:

mpira – ball; also used for a kind of ball game/sport
wa – “of” (genitive marker) agreeing with mpira
kikapu – basket

The choice of wa / ya / cha / la / etc. depends on the noun class of the first noun:

mpira is in noun class 3/4 (m-/mi-), whose genitive is wa.
So we get mpira wa kikapu.

If the head noun were in a different class, the linker would change, for example:

kitabu cha mwalimu – teacher’s book (class 7: cha)
siku ya Alhamisi – the day Thursday (class 9: ya)

So wa here is controlled by mpira, not by kikapu.

In uwanja wa michezo wa shule, why is wa repeated and how does this structure work?

uwanja wa michezo wa shule is a noun phrase with a chain of “of” relationships.

Breakdown:

uwanja – field, ground, court
uwanja wa michezo – sports field / playing field (literally field of games/sports)
uwanja wa michezo wa shule – the school’s sports field (literally sports field of the school)

Two points:

Why “wa” both times?
- The genitive marker must agree with the head noun, which is uwanja (class 11).
- Class 11 uses wa for the genitive, so each time you attach a new qualifier, you use wa again:
  - uwanja wa michezo
  - (uwanja wa michezo) wa shule
Could I say “uwanja wa michezo ya shule”?
- Yes, but that shifts the structure slightly to field of the school’s games, focusing more on the games as belonging to the school:
  - michezo ya shule – the school’s games
  - uwanja wa michezo ya shule – the field for the school’s games
- The original uwanja wa michezo wa shule is the more usual way to say the school sports field.

What does kwenye mean in kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule, and how is it different from katika or -ni?

kwenye is a general preposition meaning roughly in / at / on. Here:

kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule – on / at the school sports field

Comparisons:

kwenye – very common in everyday speech, quite neutral and flexible.
katika – also in / within, often felt as a bit more formal / written.
-ni locative suffix:
- uwanja → uwanjani – on the field / at the ground.
- You could say ...tunacheza mpira uwanjani.

All of these are possible in many contexts:

kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule
katika uwanja wa michezo wa shule
uwanjani (wa michezo wa shule)

The original sentence uses kwenye because it is very common in conversational Swahili.

Could I leave out kwenye and just say ...mpira wa kikapu uwanjani? Would that still be correct?

Yes, that is also correct and natural. For example:

Kila Alhamisi mchana, sisi hucheza mpira wa kikapu uwanjani.

Here uwanjani is the locative form of uwanja (with -ni), meaning on the field / at the ground. You don’t need kwenye because the -ni ending already shows location.

So, you have a few equally good options, depending on style:

kwenye uwanja wa michezo wa shule
katika uwanja wa michezo wa shule
uwanjani (wa michezo wa shule)

All convey the idea of being at the school sports field.