Marafiki ambao wanapenda kahawa wanakusanyika sokoni.

Usually, yes. A basic Swahili sentence often follows Subject + Verb + Object/Other information, much like English.

So in:

• Marafiki = friends
• wanakusanyika = are gathering / gather
• sokoni = at the market

the overall structure feels familiar to an English speaker.

The relative clause ambao wanapenda kahawa sits right after Marafiki and describes which friends are being talked about:

• Marafiki ambao wanapenda kahawa = friends who like coffee

So the sentence is literally organized as:

• Friends who like coffee gather at the market.

Ambao means who, which, or that in a relative clause.

In this sentence:

• Marafiki ambao wanapenda kahawa = friends who like coffee

It introduces extra information about marafiki.

A useful way to think of it is:

• ambao = the relative word connecting friends to they like coffee

So it works like English who in friends who like coffee.

Swahili relative words must agree with the noun they refer to.

Here, marafiki refers to people in the plural, so the sentence uses plural human agreement. That is why you get:

• ambao = the relative form used for plural people

This matches the same agreement you see in:

• wana-penda
• wana-kusanyika

That wa- idea is the key plural-human agreement throughout the sentence.

Because both verbs have the same subject: they = the friends.

In Swahili, the subject is built into the verb.
So:

• wa- = they for plural people
• -na- = present tense / general present
• verb stem follows after that

So:

• wana-penda = they like / they are liking
• wana-kusanyika = they gather / they are gathering

This is very common in Swahili: you often do not need a separate word for they, because the verb already shows it.

-na- is the common present-tense marker.

So:

• wa-na-penda = they like / they are liking
• wa-na-kusanyika = they gather / they are gathering

Depending on context, this form can express:

• a general/habitual action: they like coffee
• an action happening now: they are gathering

In this sentence, English might translate it naturally as either a general truth or a present scene, depending on context.

Swahili usually does not have articles like English the, a, or an.

So:

• marafiki can mean friends, the friends, or sometimes some friends
• kahawa can mean coffee or the coffee, depending on context

You figure out the exact meaning from the situation, not from an article.

That is very normal in Swahili.

Because Swahili nouns often appear without articles, and kahawa is being used as a general noun.

So:

• wanapenda kahawa = they like coffee

This is like English when we talk about a substance or category in general:

• I like coffee
• She likes tea

No article is needed.

wanakusanyika comes from the verb kukusanyika, which means:

• to gather
• to assemble
• to come together

So wanakusanyika means:

• they are gathering
• they gather
• they are assembling

In natural English, gather or meet up may sound best depending on context.

The ending -ni often marks a location in Swahili.

So:

• soko = market
• sokoni = at the market / in the market / to the market, depending on context

In this sentence, sokoni tells us where the gathering happens, so at the market is a natural translation.

This -ni location ending is very common:

• nyumbani = at home
• shuleni = at school
• mjini = in town

Yes. This is an important point.

Even though marafiki has the plural form ma-, it refers to people, so it normally takes human plural agreement in the sentence:

• ambao
• wana-

So Swahili treats it like a plural human noun for agreement purposes.

That is why you do not see non-human plural agreement here. You see the same agreement pattern used with plural people.

A natural singular version would be:

• Rafiki ambaye anapenda kahawa anakusanyika sokoni.

The important changes are:

• rafiki = friend
• ambaye = who (singular person)
• ana- = he/she (singular person)

So the pattern changes from plural human:

• marafiki ambao wana-... wana-...

to singular human:

• rafiki ambaye ana-... ana-...

In standard, careful Swahili, ambao is a clear and correct way to form this relative clause:

• Marafiki ambao wanapenda kahawa...

You may also come across another common relative style built directly into the verb, especially in modern usage:

• Marafiki wanaopenda kahawa wanakusanyika sokoni.

Here:

• wanaopenda = who like

Both patterns are used, but the sentence you were given uses the separate relative word ambao, which is very useful for learners because it clearly shows the relative-clause structure.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• Ma-ra-FI-ki AM-ba-o wa-na-PEN-da ka-HA-wa wa-na-ku-sa-NYI-ka so-KO-ni

Helpful notes:

• Swahili vowels are usually clear and consistent:
  • a as in father
  • e as in bed but often a bit cleaner
  • i as in machine
  • o as in more but pure
  • u as in rule
• ny in kusanyika sounds like the ny in canyon
• Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable

So:

• maraFIki
• wanaPENda
• kusaNYIka
• soKOni

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• Marafiki = friends
• ambao = who
• wana-penda = they-like
• kahawa = coffee
• wana-kusanyika = they-gather
• sokoni = at/in the market

So a very literal version is:

• Friends who like coffee gather at the market.

This sentence is a nice example of three useful Swahili patterns at once:

• relative clause: ambao wanapenda kahawa
• present tense: wana-
• location ending: -ni in sokoni