Kadiria gharama ya safari kabla hujanunua tiketi, la sivyo unaweza kukosa pesa.

Kadiria means estimate or calculate.

In this sentence, it is a singular imperative: a command addressed to one person, like Estimate ... in English.

A few useful points:

• Swahili often gives commands with just the verb, without saying you.
• If you were speaking to more than one person, you would typically say Kadirieni.

So:

• Kadiria gharama ... = Estimate the cost ...
• Kadirieni gharama ... = Estimate the cost ... (to more than one person)

ya is a connector meaning of.

So:

• gharama ya safari = the cost of the journey/trip

This kind of connector has to agree with the noun before it. Since gharama belongs to a noun class that uses ya, you get:

• gharama ya safari
• bei ya tiketi
• rangi ya gari

So for an English speaker, ya is often the easiest way to think of of in this kind of phrase.

Here, safari means journey, trip, or travel.

So gharama ya safari is not just the ticket price. It means the overall travel cost or trip cost.

Depending on context, safari can refer to:

• a trip
• a journey
• travel

In this sentence, gharama ya safari suggests the total cost connected with the trip, which is why the warning about money makes sense.

Because Swahili normally does not use articles like a, an, and the.

So a noun like tiketi can mean:

• a ticket
• the ticket
• sometimes just ticket/tickets in a general sense

The exact meaning comes from context.

That is why:

• nunua tiketi can mean buy a ticket or buy the ticket
• gharama ya safari can mean the cost of the trip or trip cost

English requires articles much more often than Swahili does.

Yes—literally, hujanunua means you have not bought yet or you haven't bought.

But after kabla (before), this is a very common Swahili pattern:

• kabla hujanunua = before you buy
• literally: before you have not yet bought

This sounds strange in English, but it is normal in Swahili.

You can think of it as a set pattern:

• kabla hujaenda = before you go
• kabla hajasema = before he/she speaks
• kabla hatujaondoka = before we leave

So even though the form is negative, the whole phrase means before someone does something.

Yes, absolutely.

Both are natural:

• kabla hujanunua tiketi = before you buy a ticket
• kabla ya kununua tiketi = before buying a ticket

The difference is mostly in structure:

• kabla hujanunua ... uses a full clause with you
• kabla ya kununua ... uses the infinitive kununua and feels a bit more general

Both are common and correct.

la sivyo means otherwise or if not.

It introduces a consequence:

• ..., la sivyo unaweza kukosa pesa.
• ..., otherwise you may run short of money.

It is a fixed expression, so it is best learned as one chunk.

A near equivalent you may also see is:

• vinginevyo = otherwise

But la sivyo is very common and natural.

Literally, unaweza means you can or you are able to.

But in warning-type sentences, it often works like:

• may
• might
• could

So:

• unaweza kukosa pesa can be understood as
  • you may run out of money
  • you might not have enough money
  • you could end up short of money

This is very common in Swahili: -weza often covers both ability and possibility, depending on context.

kukosa is a very useful verb. It can mean:

• to lack
• to be without
• to fail to get
• to miss

So kukosa pesa means:

• to be short of money
• to not have enough money
• to run out of money

In this sentence, the idea is probably not just having zero money, but more generally not having enough money for the trip or related costs.

So the warning is:

• estimate the trip cost first,
• otherwise you may end up without enough money.

Here, tiketi is understood as singular or as a general noun meaning ticket.

A useful thing to know is that many Swahili nouns, especially loanwords like tiketi, often look the same in singular and plural.

So:

• tiketi can mean ticket
• tiketi can also mean tickets, depending on context

In this sentence, because of the meaning, learners usually understand it as:

• before you buy a ticket

But grammatically, the form itself does not change.