Walipomaliza chakula cha mchana, walienda shule.

Walipomaliza can be broken down like this:

• wa- = they
• -li- = past tense
• -po- = when
• -maliza = finish

So walipomaliza literally means when they finished.

In natural English, this can also be translated as after they finished, depending on context.

The -po- here is a very useful Swahili marker that often gives the sense of when in past narration.

So:

• walimaliza = they finished
• walipomaliza = when they finished

This is a common way to connect events in a story:

• Walipofika, waliketi. = When they arrived, they sat down.
• Waliposoma, walielewa. = When they read, they understood.

In your sentence, it links the first action to the next one.

It most directly means when they finished, but in many sentences like this, English will often translate it as after they finished.

So both ideas are close here:

• Walipomaliza chakula cha mchana, walienda shule.
• When they finished lunch, they went to school.
• After they finished lunch, they went to school.

The Swahili form itself is centered on when, but the sequence of actions often makes after sound more natural in English.

Chakula cha mchana literally means food of midday or midday meal.

It is made of:

• chakula = food / meal
• cha = of / for agreement word
• mchana = daytime / noon / afternoon

So chakula cha mchana is the meal associated with midday: lunch.

This is a very normal Swahili way to form noun phrases.

The connector changes to agree with the noun that comes before it.

Here the noun is chakula, and chakula belongs to a noun class that takes cha for this kind of connection.

So:

• chakula cha mchana = lunch
• literally: meal of midday

This agreement pattern is very important in Swahili grammar. The connector is not always the same; it depends on the noun class of the first noun.

The subject marker is wa-, and it means they.

You can see it in both verbs:

• wa-li-po-maliza = they finished / when they finished
• wa-li-enda = they went

So the same group of people is doing both actions.

Walienda breaks down as:

• wa- = they
• -li- = past tense
• -enda = go

So walienda means they went.

The verb to go is usually listed in the dictionary as kwenda. But when conjugated, Swahili very often uses the stem -enda.

So:

• infinitive: kwenda = to go
• past: walienda = they went

Learners often expect something like walikwenda, but walienda is the common standard form you should learn.

In Swahili, verbs of movement often do not need a separate word for to before a place.

So:

• walienda shule = they went to school

Swahili simply puts the destination noun after the verb.

This is very common:

• alienda nyumbani = he/she went home
• tunaenda sokoni = we are going to the market

So even though English needs to, Swahili often does not.

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

So shule can mean:

• school
• the school
• to school

The exact meaning comes from context.

In this sentence, walienda shule is naturally understood as they went to school.

Here, shule means school as a destination.

So walienda shule means they went to school.

Depending on context, shule can refer to:

• school as a place
• school as an institution
• being at school in general

In this sentence, it simply refers to where they went.

Yes, it is very normal.

The structure is:

• Walipomaliza chakula cha mchana = when/after they finished lunch
• walienda shule = they went to school

This kind of order is common in Swahili: first one event, then the next.

It is especially natural in storytelling or narration.

Yes. One common alternative would be:

• Baada ya kumaliza chakula cha mchana, walienda shule.

This also means After finishing lunch, they went to school or After they finished lunch, they went to school.

The version with walipomaliza is very natural and compact, especially in narrative Swahili.

Swahili verbs are often written as single words because several pieces of grammar attach directly to the verb stem.

For example:

• wa- = subject
• -li- = tense
• -po- = when
• -maliza = finish

All of that combines into walipomaliza.

This is one reason Swahili verbs can look long to English speakers: information that English often puts into separate words is built into one verb form.

Mchana has a range of related meanings, including:

• daytime
• noon
• afternoon

In chakula cha mchana, it refers to the meal eaten around midday, so the whole phrase means lunch.

So you should understand mchana broadly, and let context guide the exact English translation.

A fairly literal breakdown would be:

• Walipomaliza = when they finished
• chakula cha mchana = midday meal / lunch
• walienda = they went
• shule = school

So the literal sense is:

When they finished the midday meal, they went to school.

Natural English is usually:

After they finished lunch, they went to school.