Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kila asubuhi, jogoo wetu anawika karibu na nyumba. - Every morning, our rooster crows near the house.

Kila means every/each, and asubuhi means morning, so kila asubuhi = every morning / each morning.
In this sentence it’s a time expression, placed at the beginning: Kila asubuhi, ...

You normally keep kila directly before the noun it quantifies:

kila asubuhi – every morning
kila siku – every day
kila mtu – every person

You wouldn’t move kila away from asubuhi (e.g. you don’t say asubuhi kila jogoo wetu anawika to mean “every morning”). But you can move the whole phrase kila asubuhi:

Jogoo wetu anawika karibu na nyumba kila asubuhi.

Why is there a comma after kila asubuhi? Is it required?

The comma is stylistic, not grammatically required. Time expressions placed at the start of a sentence are often followed by a comma in written Swahili, but you will also see:

Kila asubuhi jogoo wetu anawika karibu na nyumba.

Both are fine. The comma just helps readability, especially for learners.

How is jogoo wetu built, and why does wetu come after the noun instead of before like English “our rooster”?

In Swahili, possessives follow the noun:

jogoo – rooster
wetu – our

So jogoo wetu literally is rooster our.

Wetu is a possessive form meaning our, used with certain noun classes (including the one jogoo belongs to). Other forms you might see:

mtoto wetu – our child
rafiki wetu – our friend

So the pattern is: [noun] + [possessive], not the English order.

What is the difference between jogoo and kuku?

jogoo = rooster, an adult male chicken.
kuku = chicken in general; it can be male or female, and is also the common word for chicken as food.

So:

jogoo wetu – our rooster
kuku wetu – our chicken / our chickens (context decides number)

What does anawika mean exactly, and how is it formed?

Anawika means he/she/it crows or is crowing (the sound a rooster makes).

It breaks down like this:

a- – subject prefix for he/she/it (3rd person singular, for a person/animal like jogoo)
-na- – present tense marker (often present or present-habitual)
wika – verb root meaning to crow

So: a-na-wika → anawika = “he/she/it crows / is crowing.”
Because of -na-, in context with kila asubuhi, it is naturally understood as a habitual action: “crows every morning.”

Is anawika more like English “crows” or “is crowing”?

It can correspond to both, depending on context:

With kila asubuhi (“every morning”), it sounds like a regular habit, so English usually uses simple present:
- anawika → “crows.”
In a here-and-now context (e.g. Sikiliza! Jogoo wetu anawika.), you would probably translate it as “is crowing”.

Swahili -na- covers both English simple present and present continuous; context decides the best translation.

How would I say the same sentence using the strictly habitual prefix hu- instead of -na-?

You can use hu- to show a typical, habitual action very clearly:

Kila asubuhi, jogoo wetu huwika karibu na nyumba.

Here:

hu- replaces a-…-na- as the verb prefix for general habit: huwika = “(usually) crows.”
You don’t combine hu- with -na-; you use one or the other:
anawika – present / present-habitual
huwika – characteristically, typically crows

Why is there no separate word for “he” or “it” before anawika?

Swahili normally builds the subject into the verb as a prefix. Here:

a- in anawika is the subject marker meaning he/she/it, agreeing with jogoo.

So you don’t need a separate pronoun like yeye (“he/she”) or yalo/ilo etc. The full idea “our rooster, he crows” is expressed by:

Jogoo wetu anawika ...

Only in special cases (emphasis, contrast, etc.) would you add an explicit pronoun, e.g. Yeye anawika, si jogoo mwingine – “He is the one crowing, not another rooster.”

What does karibu na mean here, and how is it different from just karibu?

In this sentence:

karibu na nyumba = near the house / close to the house.

Here:

karibu = near/close
na = with / to, functioning like a preposition “to/at” in this fixed pattern

Karibu on its own has a few uses:

As an adverb: kaa karibu – “sit near/close.”
As the common word “welcome!” when greeting someone.

With na, karibu na X is best understood as “near X / close to X.”

Could I say karibu na nyumbani instead of karibu na nyumba? What’s the difference between nyumba and nyumbani?

Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:

nyumba – house (the building); also often “home,” depending on context
nyumbani – “at home / in the house” (locative form with -ni)

So:

karibu na nyumba – near the house (more neutral about the physical building)
karibu na nyumbani – near (our) home / near the place we live; a bit more “homey.”

In many everyday contexts, both will be understood similarly, but nyumbani emphasizes “home as a place where someone lives.”

Does nyumba mean “a house” or “the house”? Why is there no article?

Swahili has no articles like a/an/the. The bare noun nyumba can mean:

a house
the house
just house in general

Context determines whether English should use a or the.
In this sentence, because we’re talking about our rooster and an ongoing, familiar situation, “near the house” is usually the most natural translation in English.

Can the time and place expressions move, or is Kila asubuhi, jogoo wetu anawika karibu na nyumba the only correct word order?

You can move them; Swahili word order is fairly flexible for adverbs of time and place. All of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Kila asubuhi, jogoo wetu anawika karibu na nyumba.
Jogoo wetu anawika karibu na nyumba kila asubuhi.
Jogoo wetu kila asubuhi anawika karibu na nyumba. (more contrastive/emphatic on kila asubuhi)

What you don’t change is the internal order of key phrases:

kila asubuhi (not asubuhi kila)
jogoo wetu (not wetu jogoo)
karibu na nyumba (not nyumba karibu na in this pattern)

How would the sentence change if I wanted to say “Every morning, our roosters crow near the house” (plural “roosters”)?

You need to make both the noun and the verb agree in plural:

Kila asubuhi, majogoo wetu wanawika karibu na nyumba.

Changes:

jogoo → majogoo (plural “roosters”)
a- in anawika (he/she/it) → wa- in wanawika (they), for plural humans/animals

So:

jogoo wetu anawika – our rooster crows
majogoo wetu wanawika – our roosters crow