Tafadhali weka kikombe juu ya meza.

• Tafadhali = please
• weka = put / place
• kikombe = cup
• juu ya = on / on top of
• meza = table

So the structure is basically:

please + put + cup + on + table

Swahili often uses a very direct, clear word order in commands like this.

Weka is the imperative singular form of the verb kuweka, which means to put, to place, or to set.

• kuweka = infinitive, to put
• weka = command to one person: put

So in this sentence, weka is giving an instruction to one person.

In Swahili, commands usually do not need an explicit subject like you.

English says:

• Please put the cup on the table.

Swahili naturally says:

• Tafadhali weka kikombe juu ya meza.

The idea of you is already built into the command form weka. This is normal in Swahili, just like English can say Come here! without saying You come here!

If you are speaking to more than one person, the imperative changes:

• weka = put (to one person)
• wekeni = put (to more than one person)

So:

• Tafadhali weka kikombe juu ya meza. = said to one person
• Tafadhali wekeni kikombe juu ya meza. = said to several people

This -ni ending is a common way to make plural commands.

Tafadhali means please and makes the command more polite.

Without it:

• Weka kikombe juu ya meza. = Put the cup on the table.

With it:

• Tafadhali weka kikombe juu ya meza. = Please put the cup on the table.

You do not have to use tafadhali, but it is very useful when you want to sound courteous.

Juu ya means on, on top of, or above, depending on context.

In this sentence, it means on the table or more literally on top of the table.

A helpful way to see it is:

• juu = top / upper part / above
• ya = linking word, often like of

So juu ya meza is literally something like the top of the table or above the table, but in normal English here the natural translation is on the table.

In Swahili, words like juu, chini, ndani, and others often connect to the following noun with a form like ya.

So:

• juu ya meza = on the table
• chini ya meza = under the table
• ndani ya kikombe = inside the cup

This ya acts as a linker. It is very common in location expressions.

Swahili does not have articles like a, an, and the.

So:

• kikombe can mean a cup or the cup
• meza can mean a table or the table

The exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, English uses the cup and the table, but Swahili does not need separate words for that.

Yes. Kikombe belongs to the ki-/vi- noun class, which is an important Swahili noun class.

• singular: kikombe = cup
• plural: vikombe = cups

This matters because other words in a sentence may agree with the noun class in longer sentences.

For example:

• kikombe kikubwa = big cup
• vikombe vikubwa = big cups

In your sentence, you do not see much agreement yet, but it is useful to recognize that ki- is the singular prefix here.

Meza is one of the nouns whose singular and plural are often the same form:

• meza = table
• meza = tables

Context tells you whether it is singular or plural.

This can feel strange to English speakers, but it is very normal in Swahili. Many nouns in this class do not change form between singular and plural.

The basic order here is very natural:

• Tafadhali
  • weka
    • kikombe
      • juu ya meza

That is the normal order for a polite command: please + verb + object + location.

You may sometimes hear tafadhali in a different position, such as after the verb or elsewhere in conversation, but for learners this sentence order is an excellent default pattern.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• Tafadhali: ta-fa-DHA-li
• weka: WE-ka
• kikombe: ki-KOM-be
• juu ya: JOO ya
• meza: ME-za

A few helpful points:

• Swahili vowels are usually clear and consistent: a, e, i, o, u
• dh in tafadhali is like the th in this
• j is like English j in jam
• Stress is usually near the second-to-last syllable

So the whole sentence is roughly:

ta-fa-DHA-li WE-ka ki-KOM-be JOO ya ME-za

Yes, sometimes you can, but the nuance is slightly different.

• juu ya meza = on top of the table
• kwenye meza = on the table / at the table / on the surface of the table, depending on context

For this sentence, juu ya meza is very clear if you specifically mean placing the cup on top of the table.
Kwenye meza is also common in everyday Swahili, but juu ya meza is more explicitly spatial.