Learn Hardcore Swahili: Juma anapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani. - Juma likes to play tennis on the field.

In Swahili, a normal verb must always include a subject prefix that agrees with the subject.
For Juma, which is a singular human (3rd person singular), the subject prefix is a-.

So the verb is built like this:

a- = he/she (subject marker)
-na- = present tense marker
pend- = verb root “like/love”
-a = final vowel

→ anapenda

Saying Juma penda … leaves out the subject marker and the tense, so it is ungrammatical in standard Swahili, roughly like saying “Juma like tennis” in English.

Does anapenda mean “he likes” or “he is liking”? What tense/aspect is it?

Anapenda uses the -na- tense marker, which generally covers the present time:

With stative verbs like penda (“like, love, want”), anapenda is usually translated as “he likes / he loves”, not “he is liking”.
With action verbs, -na- can be present progressive (“he is playing”) or simple present (“he plays”), depending on context.

So in this sentence, anapenda naturally means “(Juma) likes” or “(Juma) loves” (playing tennis), not a temporary “is liking”.

What does kucheza mean here, and what is the role of ku-?

The basic verb is cheza = “play”.
When you put ku- in front of a verb, you usually get the infinitive / verbal noun:

kucheza ≈ “to play” / “playing”

In this sentence, kucheza is the thing that Juma likes.
So anapenda kucheza is literally “he likes to play / playing”.

Swahili does not use a separate word like English “to” here. The ku- itself acts like that “to” or “-ing” marker in many contexts.

Is kucheza closer to English “to play” or “playing”?

It can correspond to either in English:

Juma anapenda kucheza tenisi
→ “Juma likes to play tennis”
→ “Juma likes playing tennis”

Swahili does not grammatically distinguish these two ways of expressing the idea. Both English translations are fine; it’s just a matter of which sounds more natural to you in English. The Swahili sentence stays the same.

Could we say anapenda cheza tenisi without ku-?

No. After verbs like penda (to like/love), anza (to start), jaribu (to try), etc., the following verb normally appears in the ku- infinitive form.

So you say:

anapenda kucheza (correct)
anapenda cheza (incorrect in standard Swahili)

Think of it as: “likes to play” → the “to” is built into kucheza, so you must keep ku-.

Why is it kucheza tenisi and not something like kucheza ya tenisi?

Cheza (“play”) takes its object directly, without any linking word:

kucheza mpira = to play ball/football
kucheza muziki = to play music
kucheza tenisi = to play tennis

The word ya means “of” and is used for possessive/genitive phrases, e.g.:

mchezo wa tenisi = “the game of tennis”

So kucheza ya tenisi would sound like “to play of tennis”, which is not correct. The verb cheza just takes tenisi directly as its object.

Why is there no word like “a” or “the” before tenisi or uwanjani?

Swahili does not have articles like English a / an / the.

tenisi can mean “tennis”, “a tennis game”, or “the tennis game”, depending on context.
uwanjani can mean “at a field”, “at the field”, or “at the court”, again depending on context.

If Swahili needs to be more specific, it uses other words (like huu, ule, fulani, etc.), not articles. In this simple sentence, bare nouns are completely normal.

What does the -ni in uwanjani do, and why isn’t there a separate word for “at / in / on”?

The base noun is uwanja = “field / pitch / court / yard”.
Adding -ni makes it a locative form:

uwanja → “field” (just the place as a thing)
uwanjani → “at / in / on the field”

So -ni here is doing the job that English prepositions like “at, in, on” would do.
That’s why you don’t say kwa uwanja, katika uwanjani, or kwenye uwanjani in this simple sentence. Uwanjani by itself already means “at the field / on the court”.

Could we also say katika uwanja or kwenye uwanja instead of uwanjani?

Yes, you can:

… kucheza tenisi uwanjani
… kucheza tenisi katika uwanja
… kucheza tenisi kwenye uwanja

All can mean roughly “play tennis at/in the field/court”.

Nuances:

uwanjani is short and very natural with place nouns, especially in speech.
katika uwanja and kwenye uwanja are also common and can feel a bit more explicit or neutral “in/at the field”.

Avoid combining them redundantly (e.g. katika uwanjani) unless you have a specific stylistic reason; normally you choose either the -ni form or a preposition like katika/kwenye.

Can I change the word order, like Juma anapenda tenisi kucheza uwanjani?

In neutral Swahili word order, you keep:

Subject: Juma
Conjugated verb: anapenda
Infinitive + its object: kucheza tenisi
Place: uwanjani

So:

Juma anapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani. ✅

Putting tenisi before kucheza (e.g. tenisi kucheza) sounds wrong or at best very unnatural in normal speech. The object tenisi belongs after its verb (ku)cheza.

Can we drop Juma and just say Anapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani?

Yes. Swahili is often “subject‑pronoun dropping” because the subject marker on the verb already tells you who the subject is.

Anapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
→ “He/She likes to play tennis at the field.”

This is fine if context already makes clear that you’re talking about Juma (or some other person).
Including Juma just makes it explicit and is common when introducing the information for the first time.

How would the sentence change with different subjects like “I”, “you”, or “they”?

Only the subject marker on -napenda changes. The rest of the sentence stays the same:

Mimi ninapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
= I like to play tennis at the field.
Wewe unapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
= You (sing.) like to play tennis at the field.
Yeye anapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
= He/She likes to play tennis at the field. (same pattern as with Juma)
Sisi tunapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
= We like to play tennis at the field.
Ninyi mnapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
= You (pl.) like to play tennis at the field.
Wao wanapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
= They like to play tennis at the field.

For multiple people by name, you also use the plural marker:

Juma na Asha wanapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
= Juma and Asha like to play tennis at the field.

What’s the difference between anapenda kucheza tenisi and anacheza tenisi?

They express different ideas:

Juma anapenda kucheza tenisi.
= “Juma likes to play tennis.”
Focus: Juma’s preference / enjoyment.
Juma anacheza tenisi.
= “Juma is playing tennis” or “Juma plays tennis.”
Focus: the action of playing, either right now or as a current activity.

So anapenda kucheza is about liking, while anacheza is about actually playing.

Could we say Juma hupenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani instead of anapenda?

Yes, but the meaning is slightly different.

hupenda uses the special marker hu-, which expresses general, habitual behavior or timeless truth.
Juma hupenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani.
Suggests something like: “Juma usually / generally / characteristically likes to play tennis at the field.”

Notes:

With hu-, there is usually no subject marker before it: hupenda, not *ahupenda.
hu- often appears in proverbs and statements of general habit.
In everyday conversation, anapenda is more common unless you specifically want to stress a habitual pattern.

How is Juma anapenda kucheza tenisi uwanjani pronounced, and where is the stress?

Swahili generally stresses the second‑to‑last syllable of a word. Syllable breaks and stress (stressed syllable in CAPS):

Juma → JU‑ma
anapenda → a‑na‑PEN‑da
kucheza → ku‑CHE‑za (the ch is like English “ch” in “chair”)
tenisi → te‑NI‑si
uwanjani → u‑WAN‑ja‑ni (the j is like English “j” in “jam”)

Said smoothly:
JU‑ma a‑na‑PEN‑da ku‑CHE‑za te‑NI‑si u‑WAN‑ja‑ni.