Kabla hujatoka nyumbani, chukua miwani yako, soma kibao cha barabarani, na usimame kwenye makutano sahihi.

After kabla, Swahili very often uses a negative perfect-looking form like hujatoka to mean before you leave / before you have left.

So:

• Kabla hujatoka nyumbani = Before you leave home

Even though hujatoka by itself can mean you haven’t left, after kabla it functions as a normal before-clause. This is a very common pattern.

Another natural way to say it is:

• Kabla ya kutoka nyumbani = Before leaving home

Both are good, but kabla hujatoka... is especially common in everyday Swahili.

The ending -ni is often a locative ending. It gives the idea of in, at, on, to, or sometimes from, depending on context.

So:

• nyumba = house/home
• nyumbani = at home / home

And:

• barabara = road
• barabarani = on the road / by the roadside / at the road

In this sentence:

• nyumbani fits the idea of home
• barabarani helps describe something connected with the road, so kibao cha barabarani is a road sign

Yes. Chukua is the singular imperative of kuchukua = to take.

So:

• chukua = take!

The sentence is giving instructions to one person, so singular commands are used:

• chukua = take
• soma = read
• usimame = stop / stand

If you were speaking to more than one person, you would normally use plural forms such as:

• chukueni
• someni
• msimame or simameni, depending on structure

Yes. Miwani is the normal word for glasses / spectacles / eyeglasses.

In everyday Swahili, miwani usually refers to one pair of glasses, just as English uses the plural word glasses for one item.

So:

• miwani yako = your glasses

You do not usually need a separate special form to mean one pair.

Yako means your, and it agrees with the noun it belongs to.

So:

• miwani yako = your glasses

Swahili possessives change form depending on noun class. That is why you see different forms like:

• kitabu chako = your book
• viatu vyako = your shoes
• miwani yako = your glasses

A learner does not need to memorize all of this at once, but it helps to know that the possessive is matching the noun.

It can mean both.

Kusoma is a very common verb that can mean:

• to read
• to study
• sometimes more generally to learn from written material

In this sentence, because the object is kibao cha barabarani, the meaning is clearly read:

• soma kibao cha barabarani = read the road sign

But in another sentence:

• Ninasoma shule/chuoni could mean I study at school/college

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Cha links two nouns and can often be translated as of or turned into a natural English compound.

So:

• kibao = sign / board
• cha = of
• barabarani = on the road / roadside

Literally:

• kibao cha barabarani = sign of the road/roadside

Natural English:

• road sign

The word cha changes depending on the noun class of the first noun. Because kibao is in the ki-/vi- class, the connector is cha.

Swahili normally does not use articles like a, an, or the.

That means a phrase like:

• kibao cha barabarani

can mean:

• a road sign
• the road sign

depending on context.

Likewise:

• makutano sahihi

can mean something like:

• the correct intersection
• a correct intersection
• the right junction

English must choose an article, but Swahili often leaves that to context.

Here, usimame is not negative.

It is the subjunctive form of kusimama = to stop / stand:

• simama = stop! / stand!
• usimame = that you stop / you should stop

After another command, Swahili often uses this kind of subjunctive form for a following action, especially in instructional style.

So:

• chukua miwani yako, soma kibao cha barabarani, na usimame...

means:

• take your glasses, read the road sign, and stop...

It may look negative to English speakers because it begins with u-, but the true negative would be different, for example:

• usisimame = don’t stop

So in this sentence, usimame is affirmative.

Kwenye is a very common locative word meaning something like:

• in
• on
• at
• sometimes to

The exact English translation depends on context.

Here:

• kwenye makutano sahihi = at the correct intersection

So kwenye is telling you the location where the action happens.

Two things are happening here:

1. Makutano is a common word for intersection / crossroads / junction in real usage.
   Even if the form may look plural to a learner, English often translates it as singular when the context points to one specific place:

   • kwenye makutano sahihi = at the correct intersection

2. Sahihi means correct / right, and it is one of those adjectives that usually does not change much in form across noun classes.

So unlike some native Swahili adjectives, which visibly agree with the noun, sahihi stays the same:

• jibu sahihi = correct answer
• njia sahihi = correct route
• makutano sahihi = correct intersection

That is completely normal.