Kesho asubuhi, tutawaaga marafiki zetu kabla ya kuondoka.

Because the two words add different pieces of time information:

• kesho = tomorrow
• asubuhi = morning

So together, kesho asubuhi means tomorrow morning.

Swahili often combines time words this way without needing a word like in.

tutawaaga can be broken down like this:

• tu- = we
• -ta- = future tense marker, will
• -wa- = object marker, them
• -aga = say goodbye to / bid farewell to

So tutawaaga means we will say goodbye to them.

This is very common in Swahili, especially when the object is:

• animate, like people
• definite or specific, like our friends

So tutawaaga marafiki zetu literally looks like we will say-goodbye-to-them our friends. In natural Swahili, that is normal.

The -wa- helps point to the object clearly and often makes the sentence sound more natural.

The dictionary form is kuaga, meaning to say goodbye or to bid farewell.

In the sentence, the verb becomes tutawaaga because Swahili inserts an object marker inside the verb:

• kuaga = to say goodbye
• tutawaaga = we will say goodbye to them

So -wa- is not part of the basic dictionary form; it is an added object marker.

Because Swahili handles this differently from English.

In English, we say say goodbye to someone.
In Swahili, the verb -aga can take the person directly as its object.

So:

• English: say goodbye to our friends
• Swahili: waaga marafiki zetu

There is no separate word corresponding exactly to English to here.

Because marafiki is plural:

• rafiki = friend
• marafiki = friends

Since the sentence means more than one friend, marafiki is the correct form.

In Swahili, possessives agree with the noun class of the noun they describe.

Here:

• marafiki is a plural noun
• its possessive agreement form is za-
• so our becomes zetu

That is why you get:

• marafiki zetu = our friends

Even though the friends are people, the grammatical agreement follows the noun class of marafiki, not natural gender.

kabla ya means before.

More literally:

• kabla = before
• ya = a linking word, often used before a noun or infinitive phrase

So:

• kabla ya kuondoka = before leaving / before departing

The ya is part of the normal structure here. You usually say kabla ya before an infinitive like kuondoka.

Because after kabla ya, Swahili often uses the infinitive as a verbal noun.

So:

• kuondoka = to leave / leaving / departure

In this sentence, kabla ya kuondoka is best understood as before leaving.

This is similar to how English often uses an -ing form after before.

Normally, it is understood to be the same subject as the main verb: we.

So the sentence is understood as:

• Tomorrow morning, we will say goodbye to our friends before leaving.

However, kuondoka itself does not explicitly mark the subject here. The subject is understood from context.

If you wanted to make it very explicit, Swahili could also say something like kabla hatujaondoka = before we leave.

They refer to two different actions:

• kuaga = to say goodbye / to bid farewell
• kuondoka = to leave / to depart

So in this sentence:

• first, we say goodbye
• then, we leave

That is why both verbs are needed.

Yes, Swahili word order is somewhat flexible, especially with time expressions.

For example, these are natural:

• Kesho asubuhi, tutawaaga marafiki zetu kabla ya kuondoka.
• Tutawaaga marafiki zetu kesho asubuhi kabla ya kuondoka.

The version starting with kesho asubuhi emphasizes the time first: tomorrow morning.

Not strictly.

The comma is mostly a writing choice, especially when the time phrase is placed at the beginning. It helps readability:

• Kesho asubuhi tutawaaga marafiki zetu kabla ya kuondoka.
• Kesho asubuhi, tutawaaga marafiki zetu kabla ya kuondoka.

Both are acceptable.