Kutopika chakula cha jioni kutatufanya tuwe na njaa.

Because it is built from:

• ku- = the infinitive marker, like to in to cook
• -to- = negation inside the infinitive
• -pika = cook

So:

• kupika = to cook / cooking
• kutopika = not to cook / not cooking

In this sentence, kutopika chakula cha jioni works like a noun phrase and means not cooking dinner or failing to cook dinner.

It is the subject of the sentence.

Swahili often allows an infinitive phrase to act as the subject, just like English can do:

• Not cooking dinner will make us hungry.

So the structure is:

• Kutopika chakula cha jioni = the thing being talked about
• kutatufanya tuwe na njaa = what it will do

This is very natural in Swahili.

Literally, it means food of evening.

Breakdown:

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

So:

• chakula cha jioni = evening meal = dinner

Because cha has to agree with the noun chakula.

Chakula belongs to the ki-/vi- noun class, and the connector for that class is cha.

Examples:

• chakula cha jioni = dinner
• kitabu cha mwanafunzi = the student's book

If the noun belonged to a different class, the connector would change.

It can be broken down like this:

• ku- = subject prefix for the infinitive idea here, meaning it
• -ta- = future marker, will
• -tu- = object marker, us
• -fanya = make / cause / do

So kutatufanya means:

• it will make us
• or more literally, it-will-us-make

The it refers back to the whole idea kutopika chakula cha jioni.

Because Swahili usually puts tense inside the verb rather than using a separate helping verb.

Here, -ta- inside kutatufanya shows the future:

• -ta- = will

So instead of saying something like will make, Swahili says it in one verb form:

• kutatufanya = it will make us

Because after fanya when it means make someone do/be something, Swahili commonly uses the subjunctive.

Breakdown:

• tu- = we
• -we = subjunctive form of kuwa (to be)

So tuwe na njaa means:

• that we be hungry
• more naturally in English, for us to be hungry or simply be hungry

This is why the sentence uses:

• kutatufanya tuwe na njaa
• literally: it will make us be hungry

Literally, it means with hunger.

In Swahili, a common way to say be hungry is:

• kuwa na njaa = to have hunger / to be hungry

So:

• tuwe na njaa = we be hungry
• natural English: we are hungry or we become hungry

This is a very common Swahili pattern:

• kuwa na... = to have / to be with...

Yes. The infinitive in Swahili can often correspond to several English forms depending on context:

• to cook
• cooking

So kutopika can mean:

• not to cook
• not cooking

In this sentence, because it is the subject, the best English rendering is:

• not cooking dinner
• or failing to cook dinner

Yes. A very common alternative would be a conditional sentence, for example:

• Tusipopika chakula cha jioni, tutakuwa na njaa.

That means:

• If we do not cook dinner, we will be hungry.

The original sentence is slightly more abstract:

• Kutopika chakula cha jioni kutatufanya tuwe na njaa.
• Not cooking dinner will make us hungry.

Both are natural, but the original uses an infinitive phrase as the subject.

Because the two tu parts do different jobs:

1. In kutatufanya

   • -tu- = us
   • object marker
   • it will make us

2. In tuwe

   • tu- = we
   • subject marker
   • we be hungry

So the sentence is literally structured like:

• not cooking dinner
• will make us
• we be hungry

That is why both forms appear.