Learn Hardcore Swahili: Sisi tunakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri.

depending on context. In this sentence, combined with a fixed time (saa kumi na moja alfajiri), it’s understood as a habitual action:
We (usually) drink tea at eleven o’clock Swahili time (around 5 a.m.).

Why is it kunywa → tunakunywa, not something like tunanywa?

The verb kunywa has the root -nyw-. In the infinitive, it appears as -nywa:

Infinitive: ku- + nyw + a → kunywa

When you conjugate it, you keep the nyw part and just add prefixes:

ninakunywa – I drink / I’m drinking
unakunywa – you drink / you’re drinking
tunakunywa – we drink / we’re drinking
wanakunywa – they drink / they’re drinking

Forms like tunanywa are incorrect; the y and w stay together as nyw.

Does chai only mean “tea”, or can it also mean “breakfast”?

Chai literally means tea (the drink). But in everyday Swahili, chai is often used more broadly to mean:

“tea” plus light morning food (bread, chapati, mandazi, etc.), or
the tea-time meal, especially in the morning.

So depending on context:

Tunakunywa chai could be understood as “We drink tea,”
or informally as “We’re having breakfast” (if that meal is basically “tea + snack”).

If you want to be very clear you mean breakfast as a meal, you can also say chakula cha asubuhi (literally “morning food”), but in many places chai is enough.

What does saa kumi na moja literally mean, and how is that “eleven o’clock”?

Literally:

saa = hour / o’clock
kumi = ten
na = and
moja = one

So saa kumi na moja = “ten and one o’clock” → eleven o’clock.

For numbers 1–12:

saa moja – 1:00
saa mbili – 2:00
saa tatu – 3:00
…
saa kumi – 10:00
saa kumi na moja – 11:00
saa kumi na mbili – 12:00

However, Swahili traditionally counts hours starting from about sunrise (around 6 a.m.), so saa kumi na moja alfajiri corresponds to about 5 a.m. in “international” clock time.

I thought 11 o’clock is late in the morning, but alfajiri is “dawn”. How does saa kumi na moja alfajiri end up being around 5 a.m.?

This is the Swahili time system vs. the “Western” clock:

In Swahili, saa moja is roughly 7:00 (morning or evening), not 1:00.
To convert, a common rule of thumb is:
Swahili hour = (international hour – 6) (mod 12).

So:

5:00 a.m. (international) → 5 – 6 = -1 → 11 (wrap around 12)
→ saa kumi na moja.

Alfajiri means dawn / very early morning, roughly between 4 and 6 a.m.
So saa kumi na moja alfajiri is understood as about 5 a.m. at dawn, not 11 a.m. in the Western sense.

The number 11 here is in the Swahili system, not in the “midnight = 0:00” system.

What is the difference between alfajiri and asubuhi? They both look like “morning.”

Both refer to morning-ish times, but with different nuance:

alfajiri – dawn, very early morning, roughly 4–6 a.m.; still semi-dark or just getting light.
asubuhi – morning more generally, after sunrise, roughly 6 a.m.–11 a.m.

So:

saa kumi na moja alfajiri – about 5 a.m., very early.
saa tatu asubuhi – about 9 a.m., normal morning.

In your sentence, alfajiri emphasizes that this tea is drunk very early.

Why is there no word for “at” before the time, like “at eleven o’clock”?

Swahili normally doesn’t need a separate preposition like “at” before time expressions.

You just put the time phrase after the verb (or at the beginning of the sentence), and it functions as a time adverbial on its own:

Tunakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri.
= We drink tea at eleven o’clock (Swahili time) at dawn.

If you want to, you can sometimes add kwa or wakati wa, but for clock times, that’s usually unnecessary and sounds wordy. The simple saa kumi na moja alfajiri is standard.

Can I change the word order and say: Saa kumi na moja alfajiri sisi tunakunywa chai?

Yes, that is grammatically correct. Swahili allows some flexibility in placing time expressions:

Sisi tunakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri.
Saa kumi na moja alfajiri tunakunywa chai.
Saa kumi na moja alfajiri sisi tunakunywa chai.

All are possible. The default, most neutral order for learners is:

[Subject] + [Verb] + [Object] + [Time]
→ Sisi tunakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri.

Putting the time at the beginning usually gives it extra emphasis:
“At eleven at dawn, we (in particular) drink tea.”

Why is chai just sitting there without “a” or “the”? Doesn’t Swahili have articles?

Swahili has no articles like English a/an or the. The noun chai by itself can mean:

tea
the tea
some tea

Context tells you which is best in English. In your sentence:

Sisi tunakunywa chai…

could be translated as:

“We drink tea …”
“We drink some tea …”
“We drink our tea …”

All are possible depending on what feels natural in English. Swahili doesn’t mark that distinction in the noun form.

Is saa only “o’clock,” or can it mean other things?

Saa has a few related meanings:

o’clock / hour – saa kumi na moja = eleven o’clock (Swahili count)
time – saa ngapi? = what time?
a watch / clock – saa yangu imeharibika. = my watch is broken.

In your sentence, saa is used in sense (1): as part of the clock time expression.

Could I drop sisi and just say Tunakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri? Would that sound natural?

Yes, that’s actually more typical:

Tunakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri.

Because tu- in tunakunywa already means “we,” the subject is clear. Native speakers often omit sisi unless they:

want to emphasize we (not others), or
are contrasting subjects, or
are starting a new topic and want to be very explicit.

So for everyday neutral speech, dropping sisi is perfectly natural and often preferred.

Can I say tunakunywa chai alfajiri saa kumi na moja, or must saa kumi na moja come before alfajiri?

The standard pattern is:

saa + [number] (+ na [number]) + [time-of-day word]

So you say:

saa kumi na moja alfajiri
saa mbili asubuhi
saa tatu usiku

Putting alfajiri before the number (e.g. alfajiri saa kumi na moja) is not wrong in meaning, but it’s not the usual way to form a clock-time expression. It would sound more like “at dawn, at eleven o’clock,” i.e., two separate time ideas stacked together, and a bit unnatural.

So stick to: saa kumi na moja alfajiri as one unit.

Is tunakunywa always “we drink/are drinking,” or can it mean future too, like “we are drinking (later)”?

-na- in tunakunywa is a present marker. It covers:

present progressive: “we are drinking (right now)”
present habitual: “we drink (regularly)”

It is not the normal future form. For future, you usually use -ta-:

Tutakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri.
= We will drink tea at eleven o’clock Swahili time at dawn.

In your example (with a specific time but no explicit future marker), it’s understood as a habit/routine, not a one‑off planned future event.

Could I say Kila alfajiri saa kumi na moja tunakunywa chai? How does that change the meaning?

Yes, that’s correct and quite natural:

Kila alfajiri saa kumi na moja tunakunywa chai.
= Every dawn at about 5 a.m., we drink tea.

Adding kila (“every”) makes the habitual meaning very explicit:

Sisi tunakunywa chai saa kumi na moja alfajiri.
→ We drink tea at 5 a.m. at dawn. (understood as a routine from context)
Kila alfajiri saa kumi na moja tunakunywa chai.
→ Every dawn at 5 a.m. we drink tea. (strongly habitual, repeated event)

The basic grammar of the verb and the time expression stays the same.