Rahma aliweka rimoti ndani ya droo, lakini Juma hakujua ilipo.

Because in Swahili, the verb normally agrees with the subject even when the subject noun is stated explicitly.

So aliweka includes:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• weka = put/place

That means Rahma aliweka is literally something like Rahma she-put. This is completely normal Swahili grammar.

Aliweka breaks down as:

• a- = third-person singular subject marker, he/she
• -li- = past tense
• weka = put, place

So aliweka means he/she put or he/she placed.

A useful point for English speakers: Swahili does not mark gender here, so the same a- can mean he or she.

It literally means inside of the drawer.

• ndani = inside, interior
• ya = a linker meaning something like of
• droo = drawer

So ndani ya droo is the normal way to say inside the drawer or in the drawer when you want to emphasize that something is physically inside it.

Here ya links ndani to droo.

You can think of it as the word that turns inside into inside of:

• ndani = inside/interior
• ndani ya droo = inside of the drawer

This ya is a very common connector in Swahili.

Yes, you often can.

• ndani ya droo = specifically inside the drawer
• kwenye droo = in/on/at the drawer, depending on context

In this sentence, ndani ya droo is a bit more precise because it clearly tells you the remote was put inside the drawer.

Hakujua is the negative past form of kujua, which means to know.

It breaks down as:

• ha- = negative marker for third-person singular
• -ku- = past in negative forms
• jua = know

So hakujua means he/she did not know.

With the subject named, Juma hakujua means Juma did not know.

Ilipo means where it was or more literally the place where it was.

It is built from:

• i- = agreement with rimoti
• -li- = past tense
• -po = locative relative element, often giving the idea of where / at the place where

So Juma hakujua ilipo means Juma did not know where it was.

The i- agrees with rimoti.

In this sentence, rimoti is being treated as a noun that takes class-9-type agreement, and one common singular agreement marker for that is i-.

That is why you get:

• rimoti ... ilipo = the remote ... where it was

For learners, the main thing to notice is that Swahili often makes later words agree with the noun they refer to.

Because Swahili often prefers a relative locative form like ilipo in embedded clauses.

Compare:

• Iko wapi? = Where is it?
  This is a direct question.
• Hakujua ilipo. = He did not know where it was.
  This is an embedded where-clause.

So wapi is very common in direct questions, while ilipo is a very natural way to say where it was inside a longer sentence.

Yes. Lakini means but or however.

Its position here is completely normal:

• first clause: Rahma aliweka rimoti ndani ya droo
• connector: lakini
• second clause: Juma hakujua ilipo

So the sentence structure is basically: Rahma put the remote in the drawer, but Juma did not know where it was.

Because Swahili does not have articles like English a, an, and the.

So:

• rimoti can mean a remote or the remote
• droo can mean a drawer or the drawer

The exact meaning is understood from context.

They are loanwords, adapted from English:

• rimoti from remote
• droo from drawer

This is very common in Swahili, especially for modern objects and household items. Even when a word is borrowed, it still follows Swahili grammar patterns in the sentence.