Fundi anasawazisha sakafu kabla ya kuweka vigae.

Fundi means a skilled worker, craftsperson, technician, or tradesperson. In this sentence, it most likely refers to someone doing construction work, such as a builder or tiler.

It is not specifically masculine. Swahili does not mark nouns and verbs for he vs she the way English does, so fundi can refer to a man or a woman.

The plural is mafundi.

So if the sentence had a plural subject, you would get:

• Mafundi wanasawazisha sakafu... = The workers are leveling the floor...

Notice that the verb also changes from a- to wa- to match a plural human subject.

Anasawazisha can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -na- = present / ongoing action
• sawazisha = make level, make even, align
• -a = final vowel

So anasawazisha means he/she is leveling or he/she levels, depending on context.

Also, sawazisha is related to sawa, which has the idea of being correct, equal, or even.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In many beginner translations, -na- is taught as the present tense and is often translated as is doing. But in real use, it can also express a more general present meaning:

• anasawazisha = he/she is leveling
• anasawazisha = he/she levels

In this sentence, English will often use is leveling because it describes an action in progress.

Because Swahili usually builds that information into the verb itself.

In English, you need separate words like:

• he is leveling

In Swahili, the verb already includes the subject and tense:

• a- = he/she
• -na- = present / ongoing

So anasawazisha already contains the idea of he/she is leveling.

Yes, quite similar in this sentence.

The basic order is:

• Fundi = subject
• anasawazisha = verb
• sakafu = object

So it follows a normal Subject–Verb–Object pattern, just like English:

• The worker / is leveling / the floor

Then the phrase kabla ya kuweka vigae adds before laying tiles.

Kabla ya means before.

The ya is part of the normal Swahili construction here. It links kabla to what follows. So in standard Swahili, you normally say:

• kabla ya kuweka vigae = before laying tiles

You can think of kabla ya as a set expression meaning before.

After kabla ya, Swahili usually uses the infinitive form of the verb.

So:

• kuweka = to place / to put / placing

That is why:

• kabla ya kuweka vigae

means:

• before placing tiles
• more naturally in English: before laying tiles

If you used anaweka, that would be a fully conjugated verb meaning he/she is placing, which does not fit this structure.

Vigae means tiles.

Its singular form is kigae, meaning tile.

This is a common singular-plural pairing in Swahili:

• kigae = one tile
• vigae = tiles

This belongs to the ki-/vi- noun pattern.

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

So:

• sakafu can mean a floor or the floor
• vigae can mean tiles or the tiles

The exact meaning is understood from context. In this sentence, English naturally uses the floor because it is a specific floor being worked on.

Yes.

The subject marker a- for a singular human subject can mean:

• he
• she

So anasawazisha does not tell you the person’s gender. You learn that only from context, or from extra words if the speaker chooses to add them.