Watoto wanakunywa maziwa shuleni.

The children drink milk at school.

Breakdown of Watoto wanakunywa maziwa shuleni.

• kunywa: to drink
• maziwa: the milk
• mtoto: the child
• shuleni: at the school

Questions & Answers about Watoto wanakunywa maziwa shuleni.

What does each word in Watoto wanakunywa maziwa shuleni correspond to in English?

It lines up roughly like this:

• Watoto – children
• wana- (inside wanakunywa) – subject + present marker: they are …
• -kunywa (in wanakunywa) – drink (verb “to drink”)
• wanakunywa – are drinking / drink (for they)
• maziwa – milk
• shuleni – at school / in school (literally “at school”)

So a fairly literal breakdown is:

Watoto wana-kunywa maziwa shule-ni
children they-are-drink milk school-at

Why isn’t there a word for “the” or “some” before watoto and maziwa?

Swahili doesn’t have separate words for “a/an” or “the” like English does. There is no article system.

Whether watoto means “children”, “the children”, or “some children” depends on context, not on an extra word. The same goes for maziwa:

• watoto → children / the children
• maziwa → milk / the milk / some milk

If you really need to specify, you usually add more information:

• watoto wale – those children
• maziwa haya – this milk
• baadhi ya watoto – some of the children

How do I know watoto means “children” and not “child”?

Swahili shows singular vs plural mostly with noun prefixes:

• mtoto – child (singular)
• watoto – children (plural)

They belong to noun class 1/2 (people):

• Class 1 (singular, people): prefix m- → mtoto
• Class 2 (plural, people): prefix wa- → watoto

So m- → singular person, wa- → plural people.
In your sentence, watoto clearly indicates more than one child.

What does the wana- at the start of wanakunywa mean? Where are “they” and “are”?

In Swahili, person and tense are baked into the verb.

wanakunywa can be broken down as:

• wa- – subject marker: they (for class 1/2 plurals like watoto)
• -na- – present tense marker: roughly am/is/are (doing)
• -kunywa – verb stem “drink” (irregular verb kunywa, “to drink”)

So:

wa- + -na- + kunywa → wana-kunywa

This single word covers “they are drinking”. That’s why you don’t see separate words for “they” or “are”.

How is the verb wanakunywa formed from the dictionary form kunywa (“to drink”)?

The infinitive “to drink” is kunywa.

For many verbs the pattern is:

• infinitive: kusoma – to read
• “they are reading”: wana-soma (wa- + -na- + soma)

But kunywa is a bit irregular. Common modern forms are:

• ninakunywa – I am drinking
• unakunywa – you (sg.) are drinking
• anakunywa – he/she is drinking
• tunakunywa – we are drinking
• mnakunywa – you (pl.) are drinking
• wanakunywa – they are drinking

So you can think of it like:

subject marker + -na- + kunywa → wanakunywa, etc.

The exact historical stem is -nyw-, but for everyday use it’s safest just to memorise the common forms like wanakunywa rather than trying to derive them from a rule.

How do you pronounce wanakunywa? That nyw part looks hard.

Pronunciation (IPA): [wa.na.ku.ɲwa]

• wa – like “wa” in “wander” (but shorter)
• na – like “na” in “nacho”
• ku – like “koo” in “cool” (but short)
• nywa – the tricky bit:
  • ny is a single sound [ɲ], like the “ny” in “canyon” or the Spanish ñ in “niño”
  • wa again as above

Say it smoothly: wa-na-ku-nywa. Don’t try to pronounce n and y separately; think of ny as one consonant, like “nyah” in English baby-talk.

Why is maziwa used for “milk”, and why does it look like a plural word?

Maziwa belongs to noun class 6, which often uses the prefix ma- and frequently has mass nouns (things like liquids, piles, etc.).

Key points:

• maziwa – usually means milk as a mass noun
• It looks plural because of ma-, but in practice you just say:
  • Ninakunywa maziwa – I am drinking milk
  • Anapenda maziwa – He/she likes milk

There isn’t a normal everyday singular form meaning “a milk”. If you want to count it, you count containers:

• glasi ya maziwa – a glass of milk
• pakiti ya maziwa – a packet/carton of milk

Note: ziwa on its own usually means “lake” or “breast”, and maziwa can also mean “lakes” or “breasts” depending on context. In your sentence, because it’s about drinking, maziwa clearly means milk.

What does shuleni literally mean, and why isn’t there a separate word for “at”?

Base noun:

• shule – school

Locative suffix:

• -ni – a locative ending that roughly means “at / in / on” depending on the noun

So:

shule + -ni → shuleni – at school / in school

That -ni replaces a separate preposition like English “at”, so you don’t say kwa shule or katika shule by default; shuleni already packs the idea of location in one word.

Can I say katika shule or kwenye shule instead of shuleni? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can; they are all grammatical but with slightly different feels:

• shuleni – the most natural, compact way to say “at school / in school”
• kwenye shule – at/inside the school; often a bit more colloquial/emphatic about location
• katika shule – in the school; more formal/literal “in(side)”

In your sentence, Watoto wanakunywa maziwa shuleni is what you’d normally hear.
Watoto wanakunywa maziwa katika shule is understandable but sounds more formal or a bit bookish for everyday speech.

Is Swahili word order here the same as English (Subject–Verb–Object)? Can I move shuleni somewhere else?

Yes, the basic word order is Subject – Verb – Object – (Other information), very similar to English:

• Watoto (Subject)
• wanakunywa (Verb)
• maziwa (Object)
• shuleni (Place)

You can move the place phrase for emphasis, especially to the beginning:

• Shuleni, watoto wanakunywa maziwa. – At school, the children are drinking milk.

That sounds fine and just slightly emphasises “at school”.

Putting shuleni in the middle, like:

• Watoto shuleni wanakunywa maziwa

is possible, but it tends to sound like you are specifically contrasting those children at school with some other children elsewhere. For a neutral sentence, the original order is best.

Why does the verb change from wanakunywa with watoto, and what would the sentence look like with singular mtoto?

The verb has to agree with the subject’s noun class and number.

For people:

• Singular person (class 1): mtoto – child
  
  • verb subject marker: a- (he/she)
• Plural people (class 2): watoto – children
  
  • verb subject marker: wa- (they)

So:

• Mtoto anakunywa maziwa shuleni.
  The child is drinking milk at school.
• Watoto wanakunywa maziwa shuleni.
  The children are drinking milk at school.

Compare:

• a-na-kunywa – he/she is drinking
• wa-na-kunywa – they are drinking

The a- / wa- part changes to match singular vs plural people.

Can I leave out watoto and just say Wanakunywa maziwa shuleni?

Yes, you can.

Because the subject “they” is already built into wa- in wanakunywa, you can drop the noun watoto if it’s clear from context who “they” are:

• Wanakunywa maziwa shuleni. – They are drinking milk at school.

This is very natural in conversation, especially when you’ve already mentioned watoto (or some other group) just before.

If it’s the first time you’re mentioning them, it’s more natural to include Watoto so your listener knows who “they” are.

How would I say the same sentence in the past or future, and how would I say “are not drinking”?

Starting from:

• Watoto wanakunywa maziwa shuleni.
  The children are drinking milk at school.

1. Past: “The children drank milk at school.”

   Use the past tense marker -li-:

   • Watoto walikunywa maziwa shuleni.
     (wa-
     • -li-
       • kunywa)

2. Future: “The children will drink milk at school.”

   Use the future tense marker -ta-:

   • Watoto watakunywa maziwa shuleni.
     (wa-
     • -ta-
       • kunywa)

3. Negative present: “The children are not drinking milk at school.”

   Present negative drops -na-, adds a negative element, and changes the final vowel to -i.
   For kunywa, the negative stem is -nywi:

   • Watoto hawanywi maziwa shuleni.

   Here:

   • hawa- = negative + “they” (ha- + wa-)
   • -nywi = negative present stem of kunywa

So you get:

• wanakunywa – they are drinking
• walikunywa – they drank
• watakunywa – they will drink
• hawanywi – they are not drinking / they do not drink

Why is Watoto capitalized? Is it a special or proper word?

No, watoto is not a proper noun; it’s just the normal word for children.

It’s capitalized in the sentence only because it is the first word of the sentence, following normal writing conventions.
If it appeared in the middle of a sentence, you’d usually write it as watoto (lowercase).