Katika supermarketi hiyo, kulikuwa na ofa ya maziwa, na keshia alitupa chenji haraka.

Yes, here katika means in or inside.

In this sentence, Katika supermarketi hiyo means In that supermarket.

A few useful notes:

• katika is a normal preposition meaning in / inside / within
• In everyday speech, Swahili speakers also often use kwenye for at / in / on, depending on context
• katika can sound a little more formal or careful than kwenye

So:

• Katika supermarketi hiyo = In that supermarket
• Kwenye supermarketi hiyo would also be very natural in many situations

In Swahili, demonstratives like this / that usually come after the noun.

So:

• supermarketi hiyo = that supermarket
• not hiyo supermarketi

This is a very common word order pattern in Swahili:

• mtu huyu = this person
• kitabu hicho = that book
• nyumba ile = that house

So the noun comes first, and the demonstrative follows it.

Because hiyo has to match the noun class of supermarketi.

In Swahili, nouns belong to grammatical classes, and words like demonstratives often agree with that class. Supermarketi is treated like a noun in the N-class here, so the matching demonstrative is hiyo.

That is why you get:

• supermarketi hiyo = that supermarket

This kind of agreement is very important in Swahili grammar, even with borrowed words.

Kulikuwa na is a very common Swahili way to say there was or there were.

It breaks down like this:

• ku- = an impersonal subject marker used in expressions like there is / there was
• -li- = past tense
• -kuwa = be
• na = with / having

Together, kulikuwa na literally works something like there was with..., but naturally it means:

• there was
• there were

So:

• Kulikuwa na ofa ya maziwa = There was a milk offer or There was an offer on milk

This pattern is extremely common:

• Kuna = there is / there are
• Kulikuwa na = there was / there were
• Kutakuwa na = there will be

Because this construction is impersonal. It does not agree directly with the noun that comes after it the way English sometimes makes a distinction between there was and there were.

So Swahili commonly uses:

• Kulikuwa na mtu = there was a person
• Kulikuwa na watu = there were people

The form kulikuwa na can be used with both singular and plural nouns in this kind of existential sentence.

Ofa ya maziwa means a milk offer, more naturally an offer on milk or a milk promotion.

It breaks down like this:

• ofa = offer / promotion / deal
• ya = a linker meaning of / for, agreeing with ofa
• maziwa = milk

So literally it is:

• offer of milk

But in natural English, that usually means:

• an offer on milk
• a promotion on milk
• a milk special

The connector -a changes form to agree with the noun before it. Since ofa is being treated as an N-class noun here, the connector appears as ya.

So:

• ofa ya maziwa = offer of milk

This agreeing -a connector is very common in Swahili:

• kitabu cha mwanafunzi = the student’s book
• bei ya mkate = the price of bread
• soko la matunda = market of fruits / fruit market

So here, ya links offer and milk.

That is just how Swahili treats the noun maziwa. It belongs to the ma- noun class in form, even though in English the meaning is usually just milk.

So although it may look plural to an English speaker, it often translates simply as:

• milk

This is a good reminder that noun classes in Swahili do not always match English ideas like singular, plural, or countable exactly.

Keshia means cashier, and it is a borrowing from English.

Swahili uses many loanwords, especially for modern jobs, technology, shopping, and business. So words like this are very normal in everyday language.

You may also hear other expressions depending on region or style, but keshia is easy to understand and common in contexts like supermarkets and stores.

Alitupa breaks down like this:

• a- = he / she
• -li- = past tense
• -tu- = us
• -pa = give

So alitupa means:

• he gave us
• she gave us

In this sentence, the subject is keshia, so the natural translation is:

• the cashier gave us

This is a very useful example of how Swahili packs several pieces of information into one verb.

Yes, that is a very common learner question, because it can look confusing.

There are two different verbs involved:

• -pa = give
• -tupa = throw

So:

• a-li-tu-pa = he/she gave us
• a-li-tupa = he/she threw

They can look similar, but they are built differently.

In alitupa here, the tu is the object marker us, and the verb root is -pa. The context also makes it clear:

• the cashier gave us change quickly

That makes much more sense than the cashier threw us quickly.

Because Swahili often puts object pronouns inside the verb instead of using separate words.

So in:

• alitupa

the -tu- already means us.

This is very common:

• aliniona = he/she saw me
• alikusaidia = he/she helped you
• alitupa chenji = he/she gave us change

So English may use separate pronouns, but Swahili often builds them into the verb.

Chenji means change, as in money returned after paying.

So:

• alitupa chenji = he/she gave us change

Like keshia, this is also a borrowing from English. Loanwords of this kind are very common in shopping contexts.

Haraka means quickly or fast.

In this sentence:

• alitupa chenji haraka = he/she gave us change quickly

Putting haraka near the end is very natural in Swahili when it functions adverbially.

You will often see it used like this:

• alikuja haraka = he/she came quickly
• fanya haraka = hurry up / do it quickly

So its position here is normal and natural.

Here na means and. It joins the two parts of the sentence:

• Katika supermarketi hiyo, kulikuwa na ofa ya maziwa
• na keshia alitupa chenji haraka

So the full structure is:

• In that supermarket, there was an offer on milk, and the cashier gave us change quickly.

Be careful, because na can also mean with, depending on context. Swahili often uses the same word for both meanings.

Yes, very normal.

The sentence structure is:

• Katika supermarketi hiyo = location phrase
• kulikuwa na ofa ya maziwa = there was an offer on milk
• na = and
• keshia alitupa chenji haraka = the cashier gave us change quickly

This is a natural flow in Swahili:

1. set the scene or location
2. state what existed or happened
3. add the next action

So for a learner, this sentence is a good example of ordinary narrative or descriptive Swahili.