Tulipokuwa tukipanga safari, tulitazama tarehe zote kwenye kalenda ya ukutani.

When we were planning the trip, we looked at all the dates on the wall calendar.

Breakdown of Tulipokuwa tukipanga safari, tulitazama tarehe zote kwenye kalenda ya ukutani.

• safari: the trip
• kwenye: on
• zote: all
• kutazama: to look at
• kupanga: to plan
• tarehe: the date
• kalenda ya ukutani: the wall calendar
• tulipokuwa: when we were

Questions & Answers about Tulipokuwa tukipanga safari, tulitazama tarehe zote kwenye kalenda ya ukutani.

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

Tulipokuwa comes from:

• tu- = we (subject marker)
• -li- = past tense
• -po- = when / where (relative marker for a specific place or time)
• -kuwa = to be

So tulipokuwa literally means “when we were” (or “at the time when we were”).

You use this tu-…-po-… pattern to say “when we …”:

• tulipofika = when we arrived
• tulipoanza = when we started

Why are there two verbs in tulipokuwa tukipanga safari? Isn’t one enough?

The structure is:

• tulipokuwa = when we were
• tukipanga safari = (while) we were planning the trip

Swahili often uses kuwa + another verb to show something that was ongoing in the background.

Here, tulipokuwa tukipanga safari emphasizes a continuous activity:

• tulipokuwa tukipanga safari ≈ “when we were in the middle of planning the trip”, not just “when we planned it once”.

It sounds natural and helps paint the scene as ongoing when the second action (tulitazama tarehe zote…) happened.

What does the -ki- in tukipanga do?

In tukipanga, the structure is:

• tu- = we
• -ki- = “while / as / when” (simultaneous or ongoing action)
• panga = plan

So tukipanga means “while we were planning” or “as we were planning”.

Common pattern:

• Nikila = while I am eating
• Wakicheza = while they are playing

In this sentence, tulipokuwa tukipanga safari has two markers of “ongoing time” (-po- in tulipokuwa and -ki- in tukipanga), which together strongly emphasize a background, ongoing action.

Could I just say Tulipanga safari, tulitazama tarehe zote… instead? What would change?

You can say:

• Tulipanga safari, tulitazama tarehe zote kwenye kalenda ya ukutani.

This would be more like:

• “We planned the trip; we looked at all the dates on the wall calendar.”

The actions sound more sequential and completed.

The original:

• Tulipokuwa tukipanga safari, tulitazama…

makes planning feel like a background process during which you looked at the dates. It’s more like scene-setting rather than listing events.

What is the difference between tulitazama and a verb like tuliangalia?

Both tazama and angalia can mean “to look at / watch”.

• tazama often feels slightly more formal or neutral:

  • Tazama televisheni = Watch TV.
  • Tulitazama tarehe zote = We looked at all the dates.

• angalia is very common in everyday speech, and also often means “check / pay attention to / be careful about”:

  • Angalia tarehe = Check the date.
  • Angalia barabara! = Watch the road!

In this sentence, tulitazama is perfectly natural, but tuliangalia tarehe zote would also be understood as “we checked/looked at all the dates.”

How does tarehe zote work grammatically? Why zote?

• tarehe = date / dates (it belongs to noun class 9/10)
• zote = all (agreeing with noun class 9/10 in the plural)

Agreement:

• Class 9/10 uses yote (singular) and zote (plural):
  • siku yote = the whole day
  • siku zote = all the days
  • tarehe yote = the whole date (rare usage)
  • tarehe zote = all the dates

So tarehe zote literally means “all the dates”, with zote matching the noun class of tarehe.

What does safari mean here? Is it the same as English safari?

In Swahili, safari simply means trip / journey / travel, not specifically an animal-viewing safari.

So:

• Napanga safari ya kwenda Arusha. = I’m planning a trip to Arusha.
• Safari ilichukua saa nne. = The journey took four hours.

English borrowed safari from Swahili, but narrowed the meaning. In Swahili, it is any kind of trip, including ordinary travel.

What does kalenda ya ukutani literally mean?

Breakdown:

• kalenda = calendar
• ya = of (agreement marker for noun class 9/10, matching kalenda)
• ukutani = on the wall (from ukuta = wall + locative -ni)

So kalenda ya ukutani literally means:

• “calendar of/on-the-wall” → “the wall calendar”

It identifies the type of calendar: the one that is on the wall, not a phone calendar or desk calendar.

Why is it ukutani and not just ukuta?

• ukuta = wall (as a plain noun)
• ukutani = on the wall / at the wall (locative form)

The -ni ending is a locative suffix meaning in / at / on.

Examples:

• mezani (from meza = table) → on/at the table
• nyumbani (from nyumba = house) → at home / in the house

So ukutani means “on the wall”, which fits a wall calendar that is physically hanging on the wall.

Is it redundant to say kwenye kalenda ya ukutani when -ni already indicates place?

It’s not wrong or unusual; Swahili often combines:

• a preposition like kwenye / katika
• with a locative -ni on the noun

Here:

• kwenye = in / on / at
• kalenda ya ukutani = the calendar on the wall

So kwenye kalenda ya ukutani = “on the calendar that is on the wall.”

You might also hear:

• katika kalenda ya ukutani
• or simply kwenye kalenda ya ukuta (without -ni)

Native speakers frequently use both kwenye and -ni together for clarity or emphasis.

How is tulitazama built, and what tense is it?

tulitazama breaks down as:

• tu- = we (subject marker)
• -li- = past tense marker
• tazam- = verb root (tazama = look at / watch)
• -a = final vowel

So tulitazama means “we looked (at) / we watched”, and it is in the simple past.

Can the word order of the sentence be changed, for example putting the time clause later?

Swahili word order is fairly flexible, but the original order is very natural:

• Tulipokuwa tukipanga safari, tulitazama tarehe zote kwenye kalenda ya ukutani.

You can also put the “when” clause later:

• Tulitazama tarehe zote kwenye kalenda ya ukutani tulipokuwa tukipanga safari.
  = We looked at all the dates on the wall calendar when we were planning the trip.

Both are grammatical. Starting with Tulipokuwa tukipanga safari… simply sets the scene first, which is common when you are narrating or explaining background actions.