"Hawakuja nyumbani"

Translation: They didn't come home

[frank856835]

why not 'they did not come to the house'?

[AGreatUserName]

"to the house" should be accepted because it could be interpreted that way, but when "to the house" is meant, it's more likely that you'd say kwenye nyumba or katika nyumba.

[Yung_Biden]

How does this differ from the present tense? 12/23/19

[Catriona28475]

In the present tense, 'kuja' negates to '-ji'. So:
'ha-ji'= she does not come.
'hawa-ji'= they do not come.

In the simple past tense, 'kuja' negates to '-ja' and the prefix '.-li-' becomes '-ku-'. So:
'wali-kuja'= they came.
'hawaku-ja'= they did not come.

(What looks like the 'ku' in 'kuja' is in this case actually the '-ku-' in the negative past tense.)

[IndianaJBird]

Why is "They aren't coming home" not accepted?

[Catriona28475]

That would be "hawaji". Please see my answer to Yung_Biden.