Nitamkamulia mtoto chungwa kabla ya chakula cha mchana.

It breaks down like this:

• ni- = I
• -ta- = will
• -m- = him/her (here, referring to mtoto)
• kamulia = squeeze for

So Nitamkamulia means roughly I will squeeze for him/her. Swahili verbs often pack subject, tense, and object information into one word.

The -m- and mtoto refer to the same person. This is normal in Swahili: the verb can contain an object marker, and the full noun can still be said as well.

This is especially common when the object is:

• animate (like a person)
• specific/known
• being given extra emphasis or clarity

So the child is already indexed in the verb, and then mtoto is added explicitly.

It can mean either one. Swahili does not mark gender in the third-person singular the way English does.

So:

• mtoto = child (not specifically boy or girl)
• -m- = him/her depending on context

You need context to know whether the child is male or female.

It is built into the verb kamulia.

The basic verb is kamua, meaning to squeeze or to milk.
When it becomes kamulia, the verb takes an applicative meaning: to squeeze for someone.

So instead of using a separate word like English for, Swahili often changes the verb form.

No. Kamua can mean milk an animal, but it is also used more generally for squeezing liquid out of something.

With chungwa, it means to squeeze an orange for juice. So here the idea is not milking anything; it is squeezing the fruit.

Because with kamulia, the person benefiting from the action is treated as especially important in the structure.

So the sentence is organized like:

• verb
• beneficiary/person concerned: mtoto
• thing being squeezed: chungwa

A very literal feel is something like I will squeeze-for the child an orange. That sounds unusual in English, but it is a natural kind of pattern in Swahili.

Kabla ya means before when followed by a noun phrase.

So:

• kabla ya chakula cha mchana = before lunch

The ya links kabla to the noun phrase that follows. You see the same pattern in expressions like:

• baada ya kazi = after work
• kabla ya safari = before the trip

Because cha has to agree with chakula.

In Swahili, linking words like this change according to noun class. Since chakula belongs to a noun class that takes cha, you get:

• chakula cha mchana

Literally, this is food of midday/daytime, which is the normal way to say lunch.

Yes, depending on what is already clear from context.

For example:

• Nitamkamulia chungwa = I will squeeze an orange for him/her
• Nitakamulia mtoto chungwa = I will squeeze an orange for the child

Both are possible. But with an animate object like mtoto, many speakers naturally like to include the object marker -m-, especially when the child is specific or already known.