Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kila jioni tunakula chakula cha familia katika chumba cha kulia chakula. - Every evening we eat a family meal in the dining room.

The time phrase kila jioni (“every evening”) makes it clear that this is a habitual action, so tunakula naturally means “we eat (every evening)” here.

Swahili also has a special habitual marker hu-, so you might also see:

Kila jioni hukula chakula cha familia…
= Every evening (one/people) eat / (we) usually eat family food…

But hu- is a bit more “generic” or proverb-like, and you cannot attach a subject prefix in front of it (*tuhukula is wrong). Tunakula with kila jioni is perfectly normal for everyday speech.

What exactly does kila in kila jioni mean, and why is jioni singular?

kila means every / each.

A key point: kila is always followed by a singular noun, even though its meaning is plural in English.

So you say:

kila jioni – every evening (literally “each evening”)
kila siku – every day
kila mwanafunzi – every student

You do not say:

*kila majioni
*kila siku nyingi

So kila jioni is grammatically “each evening”, but it translates naturally as “every evening” in English.

Why isn’t there a word for “the” or “a” in this sentence (before “family meal” or “dining room”)?

Swahili does not have separate words for “the” or “a/an”. There are no articles like in English.

Definiteness is understood from:

context
things like possessives (chakula cha familia – the family’s food)
or demonstratives (kile chumba – that room)

So chakula cha familia can mean:

the family meal
a family meal

depending on the context. Swahili leaves that to interpretation; English forces you to choose a or the.

What does cha mean in chakula cha familia and chumba cha kulia chakula?

cha is a possessive/associative marker that usually translates as “of” or “for”. It has to agree with the noun class of the head noun (the first noun in the phrase).

In this sentence, the head nouns are:

chakula (food, meal) – class 7
chumba (room) – class 7

For class 7 nouns, the possessive/associative form of -a is cha.

So:

chakula cha familia
= food of the family / family food / family meal
chumba cha kulia chakula
= room for eating food / dining room

Basic pattern (for reference):

class 7 (ki-/chi-/ch-): cha (sg.), class 8 (vi-/vy-): vya (pl.)
- kitabu cha mwanafunzi – the student’s book
- vitabu vya mwanafunzi – the student’s books

Why is it chakula cha familia and not chakula ya familia?

The possessive word (cha / ya / wa / la / za / etc.) agrees with the head noun, not with the “owner”.

Head noun here: chakula (class 7)
Possessor: familia (class 9)

For class 7, the correct possessive form is cha, so we must say:

✅ chakula cha familia – the family’s food

If we used ya, we would be agreeing with familia (class 9), but that is wrong, because familia is not the head noun; it is the possessor.

Compare:

familia ya mwalimu – the family of the teacher
Here, the head noun is familia (class 9), so ya is correct.

Is familia treated as singular or plural in Swahili?

Grammatically, familia is a singular noun in class 9.

So verbs and adjectives that directly agree with familia are singular, for example:

Familia yangu ina watoto wengi.
= My family has many children.
(ina = it has, singular)

In chakula cha familia, familia is only the possessor (“of the family”), so it doesn’t control any verb; it just stays as a singular noun modifying chakula.

Why is it chumba cha kulia chakula and not just chumba cha kula? Is the last chakula necessary?

Literally, chumba cha kulia chakula is:

chumba – room
cha – of/for (class 7 agreement)
kulia chakula – eating food

So the whole phrase is “room for eating food”, i.e. dining room.

The last chakula is there to make it extra explicit that the activity is eating food (not e.g. “crying” or something else). However:

In everyday speech, many people simply say chumba cha kulia and it is understood as “dining room”.
Some people also say chumba cha kula with kula.

So:

chumba cha kulia chakula – fully explicit, very literal
chumba cha kulia – common and clear in context
chumba cha kula – also heard, but chumba cha kulia is more idiomatic as the set phrase for “dining room”

Isn’t kulia the verb “to cry”? How can it be part of “to eat” here?

Yes, kulia very commonly means “to cry” (verb root -lia = cry).

But in chumba cha kulia chakula, kulia comes from a different verb root related to eating, not crying. It is an applicative form of kula (“to eat”), roughly “to eat at/with/for something”.

Two different roots happen to give the same infinitive form kulia:

lia – to cry → kulia = to cry
la – to eat → applicative lia → kulia (eat at/for/with)

Context tells you which one is meant. Because we have chakula (food) and chumba (room), the meaning “to eat (food)” is clearly intended, not “to cry”.

What is the difference between katika, kwenye, and ndani ya when saying “in the dining room”?

All three can translate as “in”, but they differ slightly in style and nuance:

katika chumba cha kulia chakula
- fairly neutral / slightly formal
- often used in writing and standard speech
- means “in / inside the dining room”
kwenye chumba cha kulia chakula
- very common in everyday speech
- also means “in / at / on”, with broad use
- slightly more colloquial than katika
ndani ya chumba cha kulia chakula
- literally “inside the dining room”
- emphasizes being inside the space, not just “at” it

In your sentence, katika is perfectly natural. You could also say kwenye with almost no change in meaning.

Can kila jioni move to a different place in the sentence?

Yes. Time expressions like kila jioni are quite flexible. You can say, for example:

Kila jioni tunakula chakula cha familia katika chumba cha kulia chakula.
Tunakula chakula cha familia katika chumba cha kulia chakula kila jioni.

Both are correct. Putting kila jioni at the start gives it a bit more emphasis (“As for every evening, what happens is…”), but the basic meaning is the same.

Could I say tunakula chakula cha jioni instead of chakula cha familia?

Yes, but it changes the nuance:

chakula cha familia
- literally “family’s food / family meal”
- emphasizes that it is the family’s shared meal (could be at any time of day, depending on context)
chakula cha jioni
- literally “evening food / evening meal”
- this is the usual way to say “supper / dinner” (the evening meal) in Swahili

So:

Kila jioni tunakula chakula cha familia…
→ Every evening we eat the family meal together.
Kila jioni tunakula chakula cha jioni…
→ Every evening we eat dinner / the evening meal.

In many real-life contexts, these two could describe the same event, but they highlight slightly different aspects (the family vs. the time of day).