Jana hatukuwa kwenye supermarketi; tulinunua mboga kwenye duka dogo karibu na nyumba.

Jana means yesterday. In Swahili, time words very often come at the beginning of the sentence to set the time frame for everything that follows.

So:

• Jana hatukuwa kwenye supermarketi = Yesterday, we were not at the supermarket
• Jana tulinunua mboga... = Yesterday, we bought vegetables...

You could move jana later in some contexts, but putting it first is very natural.

Hatukuwa means we were not.

It can be broken down like this:

• ha- = negative marker
• tu- = we
• -kuwa = to be

So:

• tulikuwa = we were
• hatukuwa = we were not

This is a very useful pattern to learn.

Examples:

• Tulikuwa nyumbani = We were at home.
• Hatukuwa nyumbani = We were not at home.

They are expressing two different ideas:

• hatukuwa = we were not → a form of to be
• tulinunua = we bought → a completed past action

Hatukuwa uses -kuwa (to be), while tulinunua uses -nunua (to buy).

Breaking down tulinunua:

• tu- = we
• li- = past tense marker
• nunua = buy

So tulinunua literally means we-bought.

Kwenye usually means in, at, on, or to depending on context. In this sentence, it is best understood as at or in.

So:

• kwenye supermarketi = at/in the supermarket
• kwenye duka dogo = at/in a small shop

It is a very common location word in everyday Swahili.

You may also see other location expressions such as:

• katika = in/inside
• kwenda kwenye duka = to go to the shop
• kwenye meza = on the table

Supermarketi is a borrowed word from English supermarket, adapted to Swahili spelling and sound patterns.

Swahili often changes borrowed words so they fit more naturally into Swahili pronunciation. Final consonants are often avoided, so an extra vowel may be added:

• supermarket → supermarketi
• bank → benki
• school often appears as shule (from another source, but adapted to Swahili sound patterns)

So supermarketi is just the Swahili form of the borrowed word.

Mboga usually means vegetables or sometimes vegetable dishes/greens, depending on context.

In this sentence, tulinunua mboga most naturally means we bought vegetables.

A useful thing to know is that mboga can be a broad category word, not necessarily one specific vegetable.

Examples:

• Nimenunua mboga = I have bought vegetables.
• Mboga za majani = leafy vegetables/greens

Swahili does not use articles like a, an, and the the way English does.

So mboga can mean:

• vegetables
• some vegetables
• the vegetables

The exact meaning depends on context.

That is very normal in Swahili. For example:

• Nimenunua kitabu can mean I bought a book or I bought the book, depending on context.
• Tulinunua mboga simply means we bought vegetables.

In Swahili, adjectives usually come after the noun, unlike in English.

So:

• duka dogo = small shop
• nyumba kubwa = big house
• mtoto mdogo = small child / young child

That is one of the most important word-order differences between English and Swahili.

Yes, adjectives in Swahili often change form to agree with the noun class of the noun they describe.

Here, duka belongs to a class where the adjective appears as dogo:

• duka dogo = small shop

But with other noun classes, the adjective may look different:

• mtoto mdogo = small child
• kitabu kidogo = small book
• nyumba ndogo = small house

So the basic adjective idea is -dogo (small), but the beginning changes depending on the noun class.

Karibu na nyumba means near the house or near home, depending on context.

Breaking it down:

• karibu = near/close
• na = with/by/to, but here it means something like to in the sense of proximity
• nyumba = house/home

So:

• duka dogo karibu na nyumba = a small shop near the house/home

In natural English, we often say near the house or near our house, even though Swahili does not explicitly say our here.

Swahili often leaves out possessive words when the meaning is obvious from context.

So:

• karibu na nyumba can naturally mean near the house or near home
• karibu na nyumba yetu would be more explicitly near our house

Both are possible, but the shorter version is common when the listener can easily understand which house is meant.

The semicolon separates two closely related ideas:

• Jana hatukuwa kwenye supermarketi
• tulinunua mboga kwenye duka dogo karibu na nyumba

The relationship is clear: we were not at the supermarket; instead, we bought vegetables at a small shop near the house.

In Swahili writing, just as in English, punctuation helps show how ideas connect. A comma or a full stop could also appear in some contexts, but the semicolon nicely links the two related clauses.

That would not be the natural way to say it here.

The correct and natural form is:

• Jana hatukuwa kwenye supermarketi = Yesterday we were not at the supermarket.

Hatukuwa already contains the negative past meaning were not, so you do not need another negative form like hatuko.

Compare:

• hatuko = we are not
• hatukuwa = we were not

So for yesterday, hatukuwa is the right choice.

Yes. It is one location phrase describing where the buying happened.

Its structure is:

• kwenye duka dogo = at/in a small shop
• karibu na nyumba = near the house/home

Together:

• kwenye duka dogo karibu na nyumba = at a small shop near the house

So the shop is near the house.

The positive version is:

• Jana tulikuwa kwenye supermarketi = Yesterday we were at the supermarket.

Compare:

• tulikuwa = we were
• hatukuwa = we were not

This is a very useful contrast to memorize.

Yes, very much so. The sentence shows several common Swahili patterns:

1. Time expression first

   • Jana = yesterday

2. Subject and tense built into the verb

   • hatukuwa = we were not
   • tulinunua = we bought

3. Location with kwenye

   • kwenye supermarketi
   • kwenye duka dogo

4. Adjective after the noun

   • duka dogo = small shop

So this is a very good example of natural everyday Swahili structure.