Mama anawaandalia watoto chakula cha jioni.

A useful breakdown is:

• a- = subject marker for he/she
• -na- = present tense
• -wa- = object marker for them (plural people)
• -andalia = prepare for

So anawaandalia means roughly he/she is preparing for them.

In this sentence, Mama is the subject, so in English we understand it as she.

The basic verb -andaa means prepare or get ready.

When it becomes -andalia, it adds the idea of doing something for someone. This is a very common Swahili pattern called the applicative.

So:

• kuandaa chakula = to prepare food
• kuwaandalia watoto chakula = to prepare food for the children

In other words, -andalia means prepare for.

Because wa- is the object marker that refers to watoto.

Swahili often uses an object marker in the verb even when the noun is also stated explicitly, especially when the object is:

• a person
• specific
• already known in the conversation

So anawaandalia watoto is very natural: the verb already says for them, and then watoto makes clear who them are.

This is a very common learner question.

Even though mama begins with ma-, it is not behaving like a normal ma-/ya- noun here. Words like mama and baba are human nouns, and they usually take class 1/2 agreement:

• singular human: a-
• plural human: wa-

So:

• Mama anapika = Mother is cooking
• Mama wanapika would be wrong if you mean one mother

The important thing is: agreement follows the noun’s meaning/class, not just its first letters.

It can mean either, depending on context.

The -na- tense often covers both:

• present ongoing: is preparing
• general present / habitual: prepares

So this sentence could mean:

• Mother is preparing dinner for the children
• or Mother prepares dinner for the children

In many everyday situations, English would choose is preparing if this is happening right now.

Because the sentence is built around the idea prepare someone something / prepare something for someone.

Here, watoto is the beneficiary: the children are the ones the food is being prepared for.

So the order is naturally:

• verb
• the people it is for
• the thing being prepared

That makes anawaandalia watoto chakula cha jioni sound very natural in Swahili.

Literally, it means food of the evening.

Breakdown:

• chakula = food, meal
• cha = of, agreeing with chakula
• jioni = evening

So chakula cha jioni is the normal way to say dinner or evening meal.

Because cha must agree with chakula.

This connector changes depending on the noun class of the first noun. Since chakula belongs to the class that takes cha, you get:

• chakula cha jioni = evening meal

So cha is not chosen because of jioni. It is chosen because of chakula.

Because watoto is the plural form of mtoto.

• mtoto = child
• watoto = children

This also matches the object marker wa- in the verb, which is used for plural human nouns.

So the agreement is:

• mtoto → m-/mw- object marker
• watoto → wa- object marker

No. a- is not specifically feminine.

In Swahili, the subject marker a- means he/she for a singular person. It does not show gender.

So:

• Mama anaenda = Mother is going
• Baba anaenda = Father is going

Both use a-.

English adds she or he, but Swahili does not need to mark that difference in the verb.

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

So nouns like:

• Mama
• watoto
• chakula

do not need separate article words.

Whether you translate them as mother, the mother, children, the children, and so on depends on context.