Learn Hardcore Swahili: Msipige kelele nyingi mnapokuwa sebuleni, kwa sababu baba anafanya kazi katika ofisi ndogo hapo pembeni. - Don’t make a lot of noise when you are in the living room, because father is working in a small office right next to it.

Literally, kupiga kelele could be read as “to hit noise”, but in Swahili it’s a fixed expression meaning “to make noise, to be noisy”.

Swahili uses piga + noun in many idiomatic combinations, for example:

kupiga simu – to make a phone call
kupiga picha – to take a photograph
kupiga makofi – to clap (literally “hit hands”)
kupiga kelele – to make noise

So you should treat kupiga kelele as one unit: “to make noise”, not translate it word‑for‑word.

In kelele nyingi, is kelele singular or plural, and what does nyingi do?

Kelele belongs to noun class 9/10 and can act as “noise” (uncountable) or “noises”. In practice, it often behaves like a plural/collective: “(lots of) noise”.

Nyingi means “many / a lot of” and agrees with class 9/10 nouns:

class 9/10 adjective form: nyingi (same for singular and plural)

So:

kelele nyingi = literally “many noises”, but idiomatically “a lot of noise”.

You could intensify further with sana:

kelele nyingi sana = “a whole lot of noise / very much noise”

What does mnapokuwa mean in this sentence?

Mnapokuwa here means “when you (plural) are” or “whenever you are”.

So:

mnapokuwa sebuleni ≈ “when you are in the living room” / “whenever you’re in the living room”.

It introduces a time clause: it tells us the time/situation in which they shouldn’t make noise.

How is mnapokuwa built grammatically?

You can break mnapokuwa down like this:

m- = subject marker for “you (plural)”
-na- = present tense marker
-po- = “when / where” (a relative/locative marker)
kuwa = “to be”

Combined:

m + na + po + kuwa → mnapokuwa = “when you (pl.) are”

So mnapokuwa sebuleni literally is something like “(in the times) when you are in the living room”.

Could I say mko sebuleni instead of mnapokuwa sebuleni?

They are not the same:

mko sebuleni = “you (all) are in the living room” (a simple statement of where you are right now).
mnapokuwa sebuleni = “when(ever) you are in the living room” (a general situation/time clause).

In this sentence we want a condition/time (“when you’re in the living room, don’t make noise”), so mnapokuwa sebuleni is the natural choice.

Another option with a similar meaning would be:

mkiwa sebuleni = “when(ever) you are in the living room”
(using -ki- instead of -po-; both are common).

What does the -ni at the end of sebuleni do?

The -ni suffix makes a place/locative meaning, roughly “in / at / on” that noun.

sebule = living room
sebuleni = “in the living room / at the living room”

This -ni locative is very common:

nyumba → nyumbani = at home / in the house
shule → shuleni = at school
kanisa → kanisani = at church

So mnapokuwa sebuleni = “when you are in the living room”.

What does kwa sababu mean exactly?

Kwa sababu means “because”.

Literally:

kwa = by/with/for (a general preposition)
sababu = reason/cause

So kwa sababu = “for (this) reason” → idiomatic “because”.

In the sentence:

…msipige kelele nyingi…, kwa sababu baba anafanya kazi…
= “…don’t make a lot of noise, because Dad is working…”

Does baba here mean “my father”, “the father”, or just “a father”?

Swahili often leaves out possessive words (yangu, wako, etc.) when talking about close family members or well‑known people. So:

baba in this context is best understood as “Dad / Father”, usually the father of the speaker and/or listeners.

If you need to be explicit, you can say:

baba yangu – my father
baba yako – your father

But in a family context, just saying baba normally implies “our dad / my dad”, not some random father.

In baba anafanya kazi, why do we say anafanya kazi instead of just anafanya?

The phrase kufanya kazi means “to work” as a single idea:

fanya alone = to do, to make
kufanya kazi = to do work → to work

So:

baba anafanya kazi = “Dad is working” / “Dad works”

Without kazi, anafanya would just mean “he/she is doing (something)”, and you’d need to say what he is doing:

anafanya nini? – What is he doing?
anafanya kazi – He is working.

What does katika add in katika ofisi ndogo? Could we drop it?

Katika is a preposition meaning “in / inside / within”.

katika ofisi ndogo = “in a small office”

You can often drop katika and rely on context or -ni:

ofisini = in the office
katika ofisi ≈ ofisini

In this sentence, you could say:

…anafanya kazi ofisini ndogo hapo pembeni.
or …anafanya kazi katika ofisi ndogo hapo pembeni.

Both are understandable. Using katika slightly emphasizes the inside sense and is stylistically a bit more formal or explicit.

Why is it ofisi ndogo, with the adjective ndogo after the noun?

In Swahili, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe, and they agree with that noun in class.

ofisi is class 9
For class 9/10, the adjective “small” appears as ndogo

So:

ofisi ndogo = “small office”

Other examples with class 9/10:

nyumba ndogo – small house
barua ndefu – long letter
nguo safi – clean clothes

The pattern is: [noun] + [agreeing adjective].

What does hapo pembeni mean, and how is it different from hapa or pale?

Hapo pembeni means something like “right there to the side / next door / just over there”.

Breakdown:

hapo – “there (near you or the place we’re talking about)”
- hapa = here (near me)
- hapo = there (near you / that place we both know)
- pale = over there (farther away)
pembeni – “by the side / beside / off to the side”

Together:

ofisi ndogo hapo pembeni ≈ “the small office (that is) right there to the side / next door”

So the full idea is:

baba anafanya kazi katika ofisi ndogo hapo pembeni
= “Dad is working in the small office right over there next to (this room).”

Here hapo pembeni further locates the office relative to the current place (the living room).