Breakdown of Tulipokuwa tukicheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani.
Questions & Answers about Tulipokuwa tukicheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani.
Tulipokuwa tukicheza literally breaks down as:
- tu- = we (subject marker)
- -li- = past tense
- -po- = when / at the time that
- kuwa = to be
→ tulipokuwa = when we were
Then:
- tu- = we
- -ki- = while / as / in the process of
- cheza = play
→ tukicheza = (while) we were playing / as we played
So Tulipokuwa tukicheza = “When we were (in the middle of) playing …” – clearly ongoing at that moment.
If you said Tulipocheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ilianza…, it is more like:
- tulipocheza = when we played (the whole action, more like a completed event)
That can sound more like “After we had played basketball, it started raining”, or at least not as strongly “right in the middle of playing.”
Tulipokuwa tukicheza emphasizes that the rain began during the ongoing action.
Tulipokuwa is a single verb made of several pieces:
- tu- = we (subject marker for “we”)
- -li- = past tense marker
- -po- = relative/locative marker meaning “when / at the time that / where”
- kuwa = to be
So tuli-po-kuwa → tulipokuwa = “when we were …”
The -po- marker is extremely common. It often corresponds to English “when” or “where” in sentences like:
Tulipofika, mvua ilinyesha.
When we arrived, it rained.Alipokuja, tuliondoka.
When he came, we left.
Here, -po- attaches inside the verb instead of using a separate word like wakati (“time”). It’s a very typical, natural Swahili way to form “when …” clauses.
Yes, you have two verbs with “we”:
- tulipokuwa = when we were
- tukicheza = (while) we were playing
This is a common pattern: one verb sets the time or background (when we were), and the next verb expresses the action that was happening in that time frame (playing).
Grammatically:
- tu- = we
- -ki- = “while/as” or “in the middle of doing”
- cheza = play
→ tukicheza = “while we were playing / as we played”
So:
Tulipokuwa tukicheza …
When we were (there) playing …
The double “we” (tu-… tu-) is normal in Swahili and does not feel repetitive to native speakers. Each verb needs its own subject marker.
Yes, you can.
- Wakati tulikuwa tukicheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani.
means essentially the same thing:
When we were playing basketball, it suddenly started raining on the court.
Differences:
- Tulipokuwa… uses the -po- form inside the verb; this is very natural and compact.
- Wakati tulikuwa… uses the noun wakati = “time” → literally “At the time when we were playing…”
Both are correct and common. The -po- form (Tulipokuwa…) is just more tightly integrated and stylistically very typical in written and spoken Swahili.
Mpira wa kikapu is the usual way to say “basketball” (the sport) in Swahili.
Literally:
- mpira = ball / ball game / match
- wa = “of” (possessive/associative) for class 3 nouns like mpira
- kikapu = basket
So:
mpira wa kikapu = ball (or ball game) of basket → “basketball”
Why wa?
Swahili possessives agree with the noun class of the first noun:
- mpira is in noun class 3.
- The class 3 possessive form for “of” is wa.
Compare:
- mti wa mto – tree of the river
- mlango wa nyumba – door of the house
- mpira wa kikapu – basketball
In mpira wa kikapu, mpira can mean either:
- the physical ball, or
- the game itself (ball game)
Context:
- In this sentence, because it’s about “we were playing basketball,” it is clearly the game/sport.
- If someone said Nimenunua mpira wa kikapu, that could mean “I’ve bought a basketball (ball)”—the physical ball.
Swahili often uses mpira + wa + something for both the ball and the game, and context tells you which is meant.
In Swahili, there is no dummy “it” subject like in English. Instead, the real thing becomes the subject.
- mvua = rain
- ilianza = it (rain) started
- kunyesha = to rain
So mvua ilianza kunyesha literally means:
Rain started to rain.
This sounds redundant in English, but in Swahili it’s natural: mvua is the grammatical subject, and the verb kunyesha is just “to rain.” No separate “it” is needed or used.
Yes:
mvua = rain (noun, class 9)
ilianza = it started
- i- = subject marker for class 9 (agreeing with mvua)
- -li- = past tense marker
- anza = start/begin
kunyesha = to rain
- ku- = infinitive “to”
- nyesha = rain (as a verb)
So:
mvua ilianza kunyesha =
“the rain started to rain” → “it started raining.”
In Swahili, when one verb is followed by another verb as its complement, the second verb is usually in the infinitive form with ku-:
- anza kuimba – start to sing
- anza kukimbia – start to run
- anza kulia – start to cry
- anza kunyesha – start to rain
So mvua ilianza kunyesha is the standard pattern: “the rain started to rain.”
Could you say mvua ilianza by itself?
Yes, people might understand it as “the rain began,” but on its own it can sound incomplete or vague (began what?). Mvua ilianza kunyesha is clearer and more idiomatic for “it started raining.”
Ghafla means “suddenly”.
In the sentence:
- mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani
→ “the rain started to rain suddenly on the court.”
Placement is fairly flexible. You might also hear:
- mvua ghafla ilianza kunyesha uwanjani
- ghafla mvua ilianza kunyesha uwanjani
All mean roughly the same thing. Putting ghafla earlier in the clause (e.g. Ghafla, mvua ilianza…) can emphasize the suddenness more, similar to English “Suddenly, it started raining…”
- uwanja = field, pitch, court, open ground (basic noun)
- uwanjani = on the field / on the court / at the ground
The -ni ending is a locative suffix that adds the idea of “in / at / on”:
- nyumba → nyumbani = at home
- shule → shuleni = at school
- uwanja → uwanjani = on/at the field/court
So ghafla uwanjani literally is “suddenly (there) on the court.”
Yes:
- mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla kwenye uwanja
is also correct and means the same thing: “it suddenly started raining on the court.”
Differences:
- uwanjani uses the older, very idiomatic -ni locative ending.
- kwenye uwanja uses the preposition kwenye (“in/on/at”) plus the plain noun.
Both are widely used. -ni forms like uwanjani tend to be more compact and very common.
Swahili verbs agree with the noun class of the subject.
- mvua is a class 9 noun.
- Class 9 subject marker is i- (both in present and past).
So:
- mvua inanyesha – it is raining
- mvua ilinyesha – it rained
- mvua ilianza kunyesha – it started raining
If the subject were a class 1 (human) noun, then you’d have a-:
- mtu alianza – the person started
- mtoto alianza – the child started
Yes, you can put the “when we were playing…” clause after the main clause:
- Mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani tulipokuwa tukicheza mpira wa kikapu.
It is grammatically possible and understandable:
“It suddenly started raining on the court when we were playing basketball.”
However, it is more natural and very common in Swahili to put the “when …” clause first:
- Tulipokuwa tukicheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani.
Both are correct; the original order sounds smoother and more typical.
Yes, you can simplify in several ways while keeping the same idea. For example:
-
Tulikuwa tukicheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ikaanza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani.
- Drops -po- and just uses tulikuwa = “we were.”
-
Tulipocheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ilianza kunyesha ghafla uwanjani.
- Shorter, but this can sound more like “after we played,” not “while we were playing.”
-
Tukicheza mpira wa kikapu, mvua ghafla ikaanza kunyesha uwanjani.
- Uses just tukicheza to give the idea “while we were playing…”
The original sentence Tulipokuwa tukicheza… is a very clear, standard way to express the “while we were in the middle of playing” idea.