Chakula cha jioni ni tamu.

Dinner is delicious.

Breakdown of Chakula cha jioni ni tamu.

• ni: to be
• chakula cha jioni: the dinner
• tamu: delicious

Questions & Answers about Chakula cha jioni ni tamu.

What does the sentence Chakula cha jioni ni tamu. translate to in English?

It translates to "Dinner is tasty" or "The evening meal is delicious." Here, chakula means food/meal, cha jioni indicates of the evening, ni functions as is, and tamu means tasty/delicious.

How is possession expressed in the phrase chakula cha jioni?

In Swahili, possession is shown by linking the possessed noun with its possessor using a connector that agrees with the noun class. Chakula belongs to a particular noun class (typically class 7/8), so the respective possessive marker is cha. Thus, chakula cha jioni literally means "food of the evening", which naturally implies the evening meal.

What role does the word ni play in this sentence?

The word ni is the copula in Swahili. It links the subject (chakula cha jioni) to its predicate (tamu), functioning similarly to the English verb "is" in a statement. It is used in the present tense to assert a state or quality.

Does the adjective tamu need to agree with the noun chakula in this sentence?

No, it does not. When adjectives are used predicatively after the copula, as in ni tamu, they generally stay in their uninflected form without a noun-class agreement prefix. In contrast, when adjectives directly modify a noun (attributively), they do take prefixes that agree with the noun's class.

Why is the sentence structured as Chakula cha jioni ni tamu rather than placing the adjective before the noun?

Swahili typically structures descriptive sentences by stating the subject followed by the copula and then the predicate (often an adjective that describes the subject). Here, chakula cha jioni is the subject, ni links that subject to the quality being described, and tamu is the predicate adjective. This order clearly conveys that "the evening meal is tasty."