Bibi anapenda kusagia iliki kwa mkono.

Bibi most often means grandmother, but depending on context it can also mean an old woman, a lady, or a respectful way of referring to an older woman.

So this sentence could mean Grandmother likes..., but in another context The old lady likes... could also be possible.

Because Bibi refers to a person, it takes the class 1 singular subject marker a-, which means he/she.

So:

• a- = he/she
• Bibi anapenda = Grandmother / she likes

This is important because in Swahili, agreement follows noun class, and human nouns usually take the human agreement pattern.

anapenda can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -na- = present / general non-past
• -penda = like, love

So anapenda means he/she likes, he/she loves, or sometimes he/she is fond of.

In this sentence, the most natural translation is likes.

The ku- at the beginning marks the infinitive, like English to in to grind.

After anapenda (likes), Swahili commonly uses an infinitive:

• anapenda kusagia = she likes to grind

So the structure is very similar to English:

• She likes to grind
• Bibi anapenda kusagia

The basic verb is -saga, meaning grind.

kusagia includes an added verb extension, -ia, which often gives an extra sense such as for, with, on, or a more directed relationship to something. In real usage, though, the difference can be subtle, and in a sentence like this many learners can understand kusagia simply as to grind.

So for this sentence, a practical learner-level understanding is:

• kusaga = to grind
• kusagia = to grind (with a slightly extended or directed nuance)

You may see both forms in different contexts.

Because what she likes is the action of grinding cardamom, not just cardamom by itself.

So:

• Bibi anapenda iliki = Grandmother likes cardamom
• Bibi anapenda kusagia iliki = Grandmother likes grinding cardamom

The whole phrase kusagia iliki kwa mkono works as the thing she likes.

Literally, kwa mkono means with the hand.

In natural English, it usually means:

• by hand
• manually

So kusagia iliki kwa mkono means to grind cardamom by hand, rather than with a machine or grinder.

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

That means nouns often appear on their own, and context tells you how to understand them.

So:

• Bibi can mean grandmother, the grandmother, or a grandmother
• iliki can mean cardamom or the cardamom, depending on context

This is completely normal in Swahili.

Here it normally expresses a general liking or preference, not an action happening right now.

So this sentence means something like:

• Grandmother likes grinding cardamom by hand
• Grandmother enjoys grinding cardamom by hand

If you wanted to say she is actually grinding it now, you would normally use the verb to grind directly, not anapenda.

The sentence follows a very common Swahili order:

• Bibi = subject
• anapenda = main verb
• kusagia = infinitive verb
• iliki = object of that infinitive
• kwa mkono = adverbial/instrument phrase

So the pattern is roughly:

Subject + verb + infinitive/action + object + phrase of means

That is why the sentence feels close to English in structure:

Grandmother + likes + to grind + cardamom + by hand