Baada ya kutoka sokoni, tuliweka sandaali chafu kando ya beseni na tukachukua kibanio cha nguo.

In Swahili, baada ya is usually followed by an infinitive, not a fully conjugated verb.

• baada ya = after
• kutoka = to leave / leaving / coming from

So baada ya kutoka sokoni literally means after leaving the market.

This is very natural Swahili. English often uses either after leaving or after we left, but Swahili commonly prefers the infinitive structure here.

Kutoka has several related meanings, including:

• to leave
• to come from
• to come out
• to depart

In this sentence, with sokoni, it means something like to leave the market or to come from the market.

So baada ya kutoka sokoni is best understood as after leaving the market.

The ending -ni is a locative ending. It often adds the idea of in / at / to / from a place, depending on context.

• soko = market
• sokoni = at the market / in the market / to the market / from the market

Here, because of kutoka, sokoni is understood as from the market.

This is very common in Swahili with place nouns.

Tuliweka breaks down like this:

• tu- = we
• -li- = past tense
• -weka = put / place

So tuliweka means we put or we placed.

Swahili verbs often combine subject, tense, and verb root into one word.

Tukachukua uses the -ka- consecutive marker, which often shows the next action in a sequence.

Breakdown:

• tu- = we
• -ka- = and then / next
• -chukua = take

So na tukachukua means something like and then we took.

This is very common in storytelling and when describing actions one after another.
If you said na tulichukua, it would still make sense, but tukachukua sounds more natural for a sequence of events.

In Swahili, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• sandaali = sandal
• chafu = dirty

Together: dirty sandal

This is the normal word order in Swahili:

• noun + adjective

Yes, it does agree.

Sandaali is treated like a class 9/10 noun, which is common for many loanwords in Swahili. With this noun class, the adjective form here is chafu.

So:

• sandaali chafu = dirty sandal
• if plural is intended, many class 9/10 loanwords still keep the same visible form

That is one reason these nouns can feel tricky to English speakers: the singular and plural may look the same.

Formally, sandaali can be tricky because many borrowed nouns in Swahili, especially in class 9/10, have the same form in singular and plural.

So depending on context, sandaali may refer to:

• a sandal
• sandals

Usually the context or translation tells you which is intended. If the meaning has already been provided to the learner, that will tell you whether it is singular or plural in this sentence.

Kando ya beseni means beside the basin or next to the basin.

Breakdown:

• kando = side / edge / beside
• ya = of
• beseni = basin / washbasin / tub

Literally, it is something like at the side of the basin, but in natural English we say beside the basin or next to the basin.

Kibanio cha nguo literally means clip of clothes, but the natural meaning is clothespin or clothes peg.

Breakdown:

• kibanio = clip / peg / fastener
• cha = of, agreeing with kibanio
• nguo = clothes / clothing

So the phrase means a clip for clothes.

This is a very common Swahili pattern:
noun + connector + noun

The connector agrees with the first noun, not the second one.

Here the first noun is kibanio, which is in noun class 7. The class 7 possessive/genitive connector is cha.

So:

• kibanio cha nguo = clothes clip / clothespin

Even though nguo means clothes, the connector is chosen because of kibanio, not because of nguo.

Swahili does not normally use articles like English does.

So a noun like beseni can mean:

• a basin
• the basin

And kibanio cha nguo can mean:

• a clothespin
• the clothespin

The exact meaning comes from context, not from a separate word like a or the.