Juma anaavaa nguo nzuri kila siku.

Juma wears nice clothes every day.

Breakdown of Juma anaavaa nguo nzuri kila siku.

• Juma: Juma
• kila: every
• siku: the day
• kuvaa: to wear
• nzuri: nice
• nguo: the clothes

Questions & Answers about Juma anaavaa nguo nzuri kila siku.

What does anaavaa mean, and how is it constructed in this sentence?

Anaavaa translates roughly to “wears” or “is wearing.” It’s formed by combining the subject prefix a- (referring to a third-person singular subject, in this case, Juma), the tense/aspect marker na- (which indicates a present, ongoing, or habitual action), and the root verb vaa (meaning “to wear” or “to dress”). Together, these parts create a single verbal element that tells us Juma is in the habit of wearing nice clothes.

Why does the adjective nzuri follow the noun nguo instead of preceding it, as is common in English?

In Swahili, adjectives generally come after the noun they modify. In this sentence, nguo means “clothes” and nzuri means “nice” or “beautiful.” Unlike English, where adjectives almost always precede the noun (e.g., “nice clothes”), Swahili places the descriptive adjective immediately after the noun, following its own syntactic rules.

How is the adverbial phrase kila siku constructed, and what purpose does it serve?

The phrase kila siku breaks down into kila, meaning “every,” and siku, meaning “day.” Together, they form the adverbial expression “every day,” which indicates the frequency with which the action occurs. In the sentence, it tells us that Juma wears nice clothes on a daily basis.

How is subject agreement shown in this sentence, and why is there both a proper noun and a verb prefix?

The subject of the sentence is clearly indicated in two ways. First, the proper noun Juma identifies the person performing the action. Second, the verb anaavaa starts with the prefix a-, which is the subject marker for third-person singular. This redundancy is common in Swahili; the subject marker confirms who is doing the action even if the subject is already mentioned explicitly.

What is the overall sentence structure of Juma anaavaa nguo nzuri kila siku, and how does it compare to English?

Swahili typically follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order, which is similar to English. In this sentence, Juma is the subject, anaavaa is the verb, and nguo nzuri serves as the object (with nzuri describing nguo). The adverbial phrase kila siku follows to provide additional information about the frequency of the action. Despite this similarity in word order, Swahili uniquely incorporates subject and tense markers within the verb and positions adjectives after the noun, which distinguishes its structure from that of English.