Mama humwagilia bustani jioni kabla ya kulala.

hu- marks a habitual action in Swahili. It tells you that this is something that happens regularly, usually, or as a habit.

So humwagilia means something like:

• usually waters
• waters regularly
• tends to water

It does not usually mean is watering right now.

In this habitual form, hu- is used without the usual subject prefix.

For many other tenses, Swahili verbs show the subject clearly:

• anamwagilia = she is watering
• alimwagilia = she watered
• atamwagilia = she will water

But in the habitual, Swahili commonly uses just hu-:

• Mama humwagilia = Mother usually waters
• Juma husoma = Juma usually reads

So the subject is understood from Mama, and the verb stays in the hu- form.

The dictionary form is kumwagilia, which means to water or to pour water on / onto something.

So:

• ku- = the infinitive marker, like to in to water
• humwagilia = the habitual finite verb form

A learner will often want to strip off the tense/aspect marking and look up the verb under ku-.

Because bustani is the direct object of the verb.

In this sentence:

• Mama = subject
• humwagilia = verb
• bustani = object

So the structure is the very common Swahili pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object

That is why bustani comes right after humwagilia.

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

So bustani can mean:

• a garden
• the garden

The exact meaning depends on context.

In real use, the listener usually already knows whether it is a specific garden or just a garden in general.

jioni is a time expression meaning in the evening / evening time.

It tells you when the action happens:

• Mama humwagilia bustani jioni = Mother usually waters the garden in the evening

In Swahili, words for time often appear without a preposition. English needs in the evening, but Swahili can simply say jioni.

Because Swahili often uses time words directly as adverbial expressions.

So you can say things like:

• asubuhi = in the morning
• mchana = in the daytime / afternoon
• jioni = in the evening
• usiku = at night

English usually needs a preposition, but Swahili often does not.

It means before sleeping or before going to sleep.

Breaking it down:

• kabla = before
• ya = a linking word here, part of the expression kabla ya
• kulala = to sleep / sleeping

So kabla ya kulala is a very natural way to say:

• before sleeping
• before going to bed

In this phrase, ya is part of the fixed pattern kabla ya, which means before when followed by a noun or an infinitive.

Examples:

• kabla ya chakula = before food / before the meal
• kabla ya kazi = before work
• kabla ya kulala = before sleeping

So it is best to learn kabla ya as a chunk.

Because after kabla ya, Swahili often uses the infinitive form of the verb.

So:

• kulala = to sleep
• in this phrase, it works a lot like English sleeping

That means kabla ya kulala is structurally like:

• before sleeping
• before going to sleep

This is a very common Swahili pattern.

It can work like both, depending on context and tone.

Mama is the normal word for mother, but in many situations it also feels natural as mom or as a respectful way to refer to a woman. In a sentence like this, English might translate it as either:

• Mother usually waters the garden...
• Mom usually waters the garden...

The best choice depends on how natural you want the English to sound.

Yes, to some extent. The sentence as given uses a very normal order:

Mama humwagilia bustani jioni kabla ya kulala.

But Swahili can move time expressions for emphasis or style. For example:

• Jioni, mama humwagilia bustani kabla ya kulala.

That puts extra focus on in the evening.

Still, the original order is straightforward and very natural for learners to model.

You would normally change the verb from the habitual hu- form to a present/progressive form such as anamwagilia.

Compare:

• Mama humwagilia bustani = Mother usually waters the garden
• Mama anamwagilia bustani = Mother is watering the garden

So the biggest difference is:

• hu- = habitual / usual
• ana- = happening now / present action

It is often used in the sense of watering something, especially plants or a garden. More literally, it is related to the idea of pouring liquid onto something.

In everyday translation, though, waters the garden is exactly the kind of natural English meaning you should take from it here.