Learn Hardcore Swahili: Tunapenda kusikiliza hadithi za bandari alizotembelea babu. - We like to listen to stories about the ports grandfather visited.

So tunapenda literally means “we like / we love” in a general, habitual sense (“we like (in general) to …”), not “we are liking” at this exact moment.

Compare:

napenda = I like / I love
ulipenda = you (sg.) liked (u-li-penda)
tutapenda = we will like (tu-ta-penda)

Why do we use kusikiliza (the infinitive) after tunapenda instead of a finite verb like tunasikiliza?

In Swahili, after verbs of liking/wanting/starting, you normally use the infinitive ku- + verb to express “to do X”:

tunapenda kusikiliza = we like to listen
nataka kula = I want to eat

If you said:

tunasikiliza hadithi = we are listening to stories (now / at this moment)

that would describe an action in progress, not a preference.
So:

tunapenda kusikiliza hadithi… = we like listening to stories… (general habit or preference)

What is the difference between kusikiliza and kusikia?

Both relate to hearing, but they’re used differently:

kusikia = to hear (sound reaches your ears, more passive)
- Nimesikia kelele. = I have heard a noise.
kusikiliza = to listen (to) (active, paying attention)
- Ninamsikiliza mwalimu. = I am listening to the teacher.

In your sentence:

tunapenda kusikiliza hadithi = we like to *listen to stories
The focus is on actively paying attention to the stories, so *kusikiliza is the natural choice.

Why is it hadithi za bandari and not hadithi ya bandari?

The possessive/genitive marker (-a forms: ya, za, cha, vya, etc.) agrees with the first noun – the thing “possessed”, not the second noun.

Here, that first noun is hadithi “story/stories”.

hadithi belongs to noun classes 9/10, and its singular and plural form look the same.
The agreement tells us the number:
- hadithi ya … → singular (class 9)
- hadithi za … → plural (class 10)

So:

hadithi za bandari = stories about ports / harbours (plural “stories”)
hadithi ya bandari = a story about a port/harbour (singular “story”)

In your sentence, za shows that hadithi is plural: stories.

Is bandari singular or plural here? How can I tell?

bandari belongs to class 9/10, where singular and plural have the same form.

You tell the number from agreement and context:

For a singular “harbour/port”, the relative and adjectives would use class 9 forms.
For plural “harbours/ports”, they use class 10 forms.

In the sentence:

alizotembelea contains the relative marker -zo-, which is class 10 (plural) agreement.
So bandari here is plural: ports / harbours.

Thus: hadithi za bandari alizotembelea babu = stories about the ports that grandfather visited.

How is alizotembelea built up morphologically, and what does each part do?

alizotembelea breaks down like this:

a- = subject prefix “he/she” (here: babu, “grandfather”)
-li- = past tense marker (did / -ed)
-zo- = relative marker for class 10 (agreeing with bandari, “ports”)
-tembele- = verb stem “visit”
-a = final vowel

So alizotembelea literally encodes:

a-li-zo-tembele-a
he–PAST–(which, class 10)–visit–FV

In context:
bandari alizotembelea babu = the ports *that grandfather visited.*

The -zo- is what makes this a relative clause, linking back to bandari.

Why is there no word like ambazo (“which”) in bandari alizotembelea babu?

Swahili has two main ways to make relative clauses:

Using a separate word like ambayo / ambao / ambazo / ambacho, etc.:
- bandari ambazo babu alitembelea = the ports *which grandfather visited*
Using a relative marker inside the verb (the form used in your sentence):
- bandari a-li-zo-tembelea babu = the ports that grandfather visited

In alizotembelea, the -zo- is already doing the job of “which/that” for a plural class-10 noun.
Because that relative function is built into the verb, you don’t need “ambazo” as a separate word in this structure.

Why does babu come at the end instead of right before the verb, like in English?

In the relative clause alizotembelea babu:

babu is the subject (“grandfather”).
bandari is the object and the head noun of the relative clause.
The relative marker -zo- stands in for the object (“ports”), so the object has been “pulled out” and placed before the clause: bandari …

Swahili word order inside the relative clause is still basically Subject–Verb–(Object):

babu alitembelea bandari = grandfather visited ports.

When you relativize the object (bandari):

You move bandari to be the head noun outside the clause.
Inside the clause, it’s replaced by the relative marker -zo-:
- bandari alizotembelea babu = the ports (that) grandfather visited.

So babu naturally stays at the end of that chunk because it is the subject of the embedded clause, not the head noun being described.

What is the function of -zo- specifically, and how is it different from the object marker -zi-?

They look similar but are different:

-zo- (in alizotembelea) is a relative marker:
- It agrees with the head noun of the relative clause (bandari, class 10).
- It means roughly “which / that (class 10)”.
-zi- is an object marker for class 10:
- e.g. babu alizitembelea bandari = grandfather visited them (the ports).

In alizotembelea:

-zo- is not saying “them”; it is forming a relative clause:
bandari alizotembelea babu → “the ports which grandfather visited”.

You would not add -zi- here; that would double-mark and sound wrong:

✗ alizizotembelea – incorrect in this structure.

Could we rewrite this sentence using ambazo? How would it look, and is there any difference in meaning?

Yes, you can use the “ambazo” type relative:

Tunapenda kusikiliza hadithi za bandari ambazo babu alizitembelea.

Breakdown:

ambazo = “which” (agreeing with plural bandari, class 10)
babu alizitembelea = “grandfather visited them”
(ali-zi-tembelea: he–them (class 10)–visited)

Meaning-wise, it is essentially the same as:

hadithi za bandari alizotembelea babu

Stylistically:

The ambazo form is often a bit more explicit and sometimes more formal.
The -zo- inside the verb form is very common and natural in everyday speech.

Why is alizotembelea in the past tense while tunapenda is in the present? Is that normal?

Yes, it’s normal because the two verbs refer to different time frames:

tunapenda (present) = our current, habitual preference: we like…
alizotembelea (past) = an action completed earlier: that grandfather visited (in the past).

The overall meaning is:

Now / generally: we like listening to stories
The stories are about events that happened in the past: the ports that grandfather visited earlier.

Mixing tenses like this inside a relative clause is perfectly normal in both Swahili and English.

Could I say “Tunapenda kusikiliza hadithi kuhusu bandari alizotembelea babu” instead of “hadithi za bandari …”? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Tunapenda kusikiliza hadithi kuhusu bandari alizotembelea babu.

Comparison:

hadithi za bandari…
- uses za (of/about), more like “stories of/about the ports…”
- very idiomatic and compact.
hadithi kuhusu bandari…
- uses kuhusu = “about / concerning”
- more explicitly “stories about the ports…”

Both are correct; za is more purely grammatical (genitive), kuhusu is a full preposition. In everyday speech they often feel very similar in meaning here.

If I want to be explicit and say “our grandfather”, how do I change babu in this sentence?

You add a possessive pronoun that agrees with babu’s class (class 1 for people):

yetu = “our” for class 1 nouns

So the last part of the sentence becomes:

… bandari alizotembelea babu yetu.
= … the ports that *our grandfather visited.*

Full sentence:

Tunapenda kusikiliza hadithi za bandari alizotembelea babu yetu.

You could similarly use:

babu wangu = my grandfather
babu wake = his/her grandfather, etc.