Tafadhali soma kibao kinachoonyesha njia ya kwenda stesheni.

Tafadhali means please. It makes the sentence polite.

In this sentence, Tafadhali soma... is a polite command: Please read...

You will often see tafadhali at the beginning of a request, but it can also appear elsewhere depending on style and emphasis.

Yes. Soma is the imperative singular form of kusoma, meaning to read.

So soma means read! when speaking to one person.

If you were speaking to more than one person, you would usually say someni.

Because kibao here refers to a sign or signboard with written information on it, so soma kibao means read the sign.

In English, we sometimes say look at the sign, but in Swahili, if the focus is on reading the information, soma is very natural.

Here, kibao means something like sign, signboard, or board.

Depending on context, kibao can also mean a board, plaque, or even other kinds of flat objects. In this sentence, the context makes signboard/sign the best interpretation.

Its plural is vibao.

It describes kibao, not njia.

So the structure is:

kibao kinachoonyesha njia...
= the sign that shows the way...

A learner might wonder whether it refers to njia, but the agreement shows that it goes with kibao.

Because Swahili uses noun-class agreement, and kibao belongs to the ki-/vi- class.

So the relative verb must match kibao:

• kibao = singular, class 7
• therefore: ki-...-cho-...

That is why you get kinachoonyesha = which is showing / that shows

If the noun were plural, it would change:

• vibao vinavyoonyesha = signs that show

It can be broken down like this:

• ki- = subject agreement with kibao
• -na- = present tense
• -cho- = relative marker for this noun class
• -onyesha = show

So kinachoonyesha literally means something like which is showing or that shows.

This is a very common Swahili pattern for relative clauses.

Literally, it means the way/path of going to the station.

More natural English would be:

• the way to the station
• the route to the station
• directions to the station

So:

njia = way, path, route, method
ya kwenda = for going / to go
stesheni = station

Ya is the connector that agrees with njia.

Swahili often links nouns and other phrases with an agreeing form of -a, and the form changes depending on the noun class. With njia, the correct connector here is ya.

So:

njia ya kwenda stesheni
literally = way of going to the station

In smoother English, that becomes way to the station.

Kwenda is the infinitive form meaning to go.

After ya, it helps express purpose or destination:

njia ya kwenda stesheni
= the way for going to the station
= more naturally, the way to the station

This is a very common structure in Swahili.

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

So words like kibao, njia, and stesheni can mean:

• a sign or the sign
• a way or the way
• a station or the station

The exact meaning depends on context.

Stesheni is a loanword, ultimately from English station.

That is very common in Swahili. Many modern terms, especially for transport, technology, and administration, are borrowed and adapted to Swahili pronunciation and spelling.

So stesheni sounds and looks Swahili in usage, even though its origin is foreign.