Huduma ya usafi wa vyumba ilikuwa nzuri kiasi kwamba tuliamua kukaa.

Housekeeping was so good that we decided to stay.

Breakdown of Huduma ya usafi wa vyumba ilikuwa nzuri kiasi kwamba tuliamua kukaa.

• kuwa: to be
• nzuri: good
• kuamua: to decide
• kukaa: to stay

Questions & Answers about Huduma ya usafi wa vyumba ilikuwa nzuri kiasi kwamba tuliamua kukaa.

What does huduma ya usafi wa vyumba mean literally?

Literally, it is something like service of cleanliness of rooms.

A more natural English rendering is room-cleaning service or housekeeping service.

The phrase breaks down like this:

• huduma = service
• ya = of
• usafi = cleanliness / cleaning
• wa = of
• vyumba = rooms

So the whole noun phrase is built in layers:

• usafi wa vyumba = cleanliness/cleaning of rooms
• huduma ya usafi wa vyumba = service of room cleaning / housekeeping service

Why are both ya and wa used? Why not just one word for of?

In Swahili, the word that works like of changes to match the noun class of the noun before it.

So:

• huduma ya usafi: ya agrees with huduma
• usafi wa vyumba: wa agrees with usafi

This is very important: the linker agrees with the noun that comes before it, not the noun that comes after it.

So even though vyumba is class 8 and often goes with vya, you do not say usafi vya vyumba, because the linker is agreeing with usafi, not with vyumba.