Learn Hardcore Swahili: Dada yangu alipika saladi ya kabichi na nyanya kwa chakula cha mchana. - My sister cooked a salad of cabbage and tomatoes for lunch.

Dada yangu alipika saladi ya kabichi na nyanya kwa chakula cha mchana.

My sister cooked a salad of cabbage and tomatoes for lunch.

Breakdown of Dada yangu alipika saladi ya kabichi na nyanya kwa chakula cha mchana.

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Questions & Answers about Dada yangu alipika saladi ya kabichi na nyanya kwa chakula cha mchana.

Why is it dada yangu and not yangu dada? What’s the normal order of noun and possessive in Swahili?

In Swahili, the possessive comes after the noun:

dada yangu = my sister
kitabu changu = my book
rafiki wetu = our friend

You don’t say yangu dada. That would sound wrong to a native speaker.

So the pattern is:
[noun] + [possessive agreeing with that noun]
e.g. dada yangu, chakula chako, nyumba yake.

Does dada mean “older sister” or “younger sister”? How do you make that clear?

Dada on its own just means sister (female sibling), without specifying age.

To be more precise, Swahili normally adds an adjective:

dada yangu mdogo = my younger sister
dada yangu mkubwa = my older sister

So your sentence could become:

Dada yangu mdogo alipika saladi… – My younger sister cooked…
Dada yangu mkubwa alipika saladi… – My older sister cooked…

Without mdogo/mkubwa, listeners only know it’s your sister, not whether she’s older or younger.

How is the verb alipika built up? What do a-, -li-, and -pika each mean?

Swahili verbs usually have several parts stuck together.

alipika can be broken down as:

a- = subject prefix for “he/she” (3rd person singular, class 1)
-li- = past tense marker (“did, -ed”)
-pika = verb root “cook”

So:

alipika = he/she cooked or he/she did cook.

Because dada yangu is the subject, a- refers back to dada yangu:

Dada yangu alipika… = My sister cooked…

In many contexts, you could drop dada yangu and just say alipika saladi… and context would tell you who “she” is.

Could we use a different past tense, like amepika instead of alipika? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can use amepika, but the nuance changes.

alipika (a- + -li- + -pika) = simple past, a completed action in the past, often linked to a specific time (e.g. yesterday, last week).
amepika (a- + -me- + -pika) = recent or relevant past, often something that has just happened or still feels connected to “now.”

Applied to your sentence:

Dada yangu alipika saladi… – My sister cooked salad… (past event, e.g. earlier today, yesterday, last week).
Dada yangu amepika saladi… – My sister has cooked salad… (sounds more like she has cooked (it already), and it might still be there or just got done).

In many everyday situations people might use either, but the -me- tense tends to feel more “recent” or “present-relevant.”

What does saladi belong to in terms of noun class, and is that why we use ya in saladi ya kabichi?

Saladi is a borrowed word (from salad), and in Swahili it’s normally treated as a Class 9 (N-class) noun.

For Class 9 nouns, the “of”/possessive concord is ya. That’s why we say:

saladi ya kabichi = salad of cabbage / cabbage salad
saladi ya matunda = fruit salad

Other examples of Class 9:

chai ya tangawizi – ginger tea
chai ya maziwa – milk tea

So:
saladi (Class 9) → “of” = ya → saladi ya kabichi.

What does kabichi mean exactly, and how do you make it plural?

Kabichi means cabbage (the vegetable).

It’s usually treated as a Class 9/10 noun:

singular: kabichi
plural: makabichi (Class 6 sometimes used as the plural)

So you might see:

kabichi moja – one cabbage
makabichi mawili – two cabbages

In your sentence, saladi ya kabichi means cabbage salad (salad made from cabbage), not necessarily counting whole cabbages.

Does nyanya in this context mean “tomato” or “grandmother”? How do you know?

Nyanya is a word with two common meanings:

tomato
grandmother (regional/colloquial, especially in Kenya)

In your sentence:

saladi ya kabichi na nyanya = salad of cabbage and tomatoes

We know it’s tomatoes because:

It appears in a food list with saladi and kabichi.
Grammatically, the structure saladi ya X na Y lists ingredients.

Also, nyanya (tomato) is Class 9/10, with the same form for singular and plural:

one tomato: nyanya moja
several tomatoes: nyanya kadhaa / nyanya nyingi

So here nyanya naturally means “tomatoes” in a general, non-counted way.

Why is it saladi ya kabichi na nyanya and not saladi ya kabichi na ya nyanya? Do we need to repeat ya?

In Swahili, when two nouns share the same “of” relationship, you usually don’t need to repeat the concord:

saladi ya kabichi na nyanya
= salad of cabbage and tomatoes
(one ya covers both kabichi and nyanya)

Repeating it:

saladi ya kabichi na ya nyanya

is grammatically possible, but it sounds heavier and is usually unnecessary unless you want to emphasize each ingredient separately.

So the natural, everyday version is the one in your sentence: saladi ya kabichi na nyanya.

What does kwa mean in kwa chakula cha mchana? Is it like “for”, “as”, or something else?

In this phrase, kwa functions roughly as “for / as”:

kwa chakula cha mchana = for lunch / as lunch

This kwa often introduces purpose or use:

ninatengeneza chai kwa kifungua kinywa – I’m making tea for breakfast.
alivaa suti kwa harusi – He/she wore a suit for the wedding.

Here, Dada yangu alipika saladi … kwa chakula cha mchana means she cooked the salad to be eaten as lunch.

Other, longer options:

kwa ajili ya chakula cha mchana – for the sake of / for the purpose of lunch (a bit more formal).
kama chakula cha mchana – as lunch.

But kwa chakula cha mchana is short and natural.

Why do we say chakula cha mchana for “lunch”? What do cha and mchana do here?

Chakula cha mchana is a set phrase meaning lunch, literally:

chakula = food, meal (Class 7)
cha = “of” for Class 7 nouns
mchana = afternoon / daytime

So chakula cha mchana = food of the afternoon → lunch.

The pattern is:

chakula cha asubuhi – morning food → (can mean breakfast, though more common is kifungua kinywa)
chakula cha jioni – evening food → supper/dinner

You wouldn’t normally say chakula mchana; you need cha to show the “of” relationship.

Why is the word order Dada yangu alipika saladi…? Can the subject come after the verb in Swahili?

The normal word order in Swahili is Subject–Verb–Object (SVO), like English:

Dada yangu (Subject)
alipika (Verb)
saladi ya kabichi na nyanya (Object)

So your sentence follows the standard pattern.

Because Swahili marks the subject on the verb (with a- in alipika), the subject noun can sometimes move around for emphasis, but the most neutral and common is what you have:

Dada yangu alipika saladi…

Putting the subject after the verb:

Alipika saladi dada yangu…

is technically possible but sounds marked or stylistic; in everyday speech it’s much less common and might sound like you’re adding dada yangu as an afterthought or extra clarification.

Can we drop dada yangu and just say Alipika saladi ya kabichi na nyanya kwa chakula cha mchana?

Yes, grammatically you can omit the explicit subject noun because the verb already has the subject marker a- (he/she):

Alipika saladi ya kabichi na nyanya kwa chakula cha mchana.
= He/She cooked cabbage and tomato salad for lunch.

However:

Without dada yangu, listeners don’t know who “he/she” is unless the context has already made it clear.
In writing or in a first mention, it’s more natural to include dada yangu.

So your original sentence is clearer, especially in isolation.

How do I pronounce nyanya, kabichi, and mchana?

Some pronunciation tips:

nyanya
- ny is like the ny in “canyon” or the Spanish ñ in “niño”.
- syllables: nya-nya (two identical syllables).
- stress usually on the first syllable: NYA-nya (but Swahili stress is fairly even).
kabichi
- ka-bi-chi (three syllables).
- ch is like ch in “chair”, never like “sh”.
- approximate stress: ka-BI-chi or fairly even across all syllables.
mchana
- mcha-na (two beats: mcha
  - na; the initial mch is a cluster).
- ch again as in “chair”.
- stress often: mCHA-na or fairly even.

Swahili vowels are pure (like in Spanish):

a as in father,
i as in machine,
u as in food, etc.

Is saladi countable in Swahili? How would I say “two salads”?

Saladi behaves like a Class 9/10 noun, and many Class 9 nouns keep the same form in singular and plural:

one salad: saladi moja
two salads: saladi mbili
many salads: saladi nyingi

So saladi is countable, but the word does not change form between singular and plural; the number word (moja, mbili, tatu, nyingi, etc.) shows how many there are.

Is there another common way to say “for lunch” instead of kwa chakula cha mchana?

Yes, several alternatives are natural, with slightly different flavors:

kwa chakula cha mchana – for/as lunch (your sentence; short and common).
kama chakula cha mchana – as lunch (emphasizes the role of the dish).
kwa ajili ya chakula cha mchana – for the purpose/sake of lunch (a bit more formal or explicit).
In context, sometimes just:
- … alipika saladi ya kabichi na nyanya mchana.
  = she cooked it in the afternoon (time), and it may be understood as the lunch meal from context.

Your version kwa chakula cha mchana is a very natural, straightforward way to say “for lunch.”