Learn Hardcore Swahili: Simulizi hizo hutusaidia kuelewa historia ya familia yetu. - Those narratives help us understand our family history.

simulizi belongs to noun classes (9/10) where the singular and plural forms look the same. You tell it’s plural here because of the plural demonstrative hizo (“those”) and the context. Without hizo, you’d have to rely on context or verb agreement, but with hizo simulizi it’s clearly “those stories.”

Why is the demonstrative hizo placed after simulizi, and how does it differ from hizi or zile?

Swahili usually uses post-nominal demonstratives (after the noun). For class 9/10 nouns like simulizi:

hizi = “these” (proximal plural)
hizo = “those” (distal plural)
Pre-nominal forms also exist (e.g. zile simulizi = “those stories”), but the post-nominal pattern (simulizi hizo) is more common in everyday speech.

Can you break down the verb hutusaidia into its component parts?

Certainly. hutusaidia =
• hu- : present-habitual marker (“usually/regularly”)
• -tu- : object concord “us”
• saidia : verb root “help”
• -a : final vowel for an affirmative verb
All together: “(they) help us” in a general/habitual sense.

Why does this sentence use hu- instead of the more familiar -na- for present tense? Could I say zinatusaidia instead?

hu- marks the habitual aspect (“it helps us as a rule”).
-na- plus a subject concord (e.g. zi-) marks the present simple/progressive (“it is helping us right now”).
So yes, you could say simulizi hizo zinatusaidia kuelewa… meaning “those stories are helping us [at this moment] to understand….” But hutusaidia gives a more neutral, habitual sense: “those stories help us [in general] to understand….”

What is kuelewa, and why is there a ku- at the beginning?

kuelewa = ku- (infinitive marker “to”) + elewa (root “understand”). In Swahili, verbs like saidia (“help”) take a following infinitive as their complement: “help to do something.” Hence hutusaidia kuelewa = “help us to understand.”

In historia ya familia yetu, what role does ya play?

ya is the genitive/linking particle meaning “of.” It connects the head noun historia (“history”) to its possessor familia (“family”). Because historia is a class 9 noun, the correct genitive concord is ya.

Why is it familia yetu and not familia ya yetu or familia zetu?

When you use an independent possessive pronoun (here yetu = “our”), you drop the genitive particle. You get familia yetu = “our family.” “familia ya yetu” would double up the link (ungrammatical), and zetu is the possessive form for a different noun class, so it doesn’t match familia.

How does Swahili word order for head nouns and modifiers compare to English, as seen in historia ya familia yetu?

Swahili is head-first: you always state the main noun before its modifiers. Here:

historia (head noun, “history”)
ya familia (“of family”)
yetu (“our”)
In English you’d say “our family’s history,” putting the possessor first. In Swahili you keep the head noun up front.

What happens if I drop the demonstrative and say Simulizi hutusaidia kuelewa historia ya familia yetu?

Without hizo, simulizi could be singular or plural, and it loses the specificity “those stories.” Simulizi hutusaidia… might read as “a story helps us…” or “stories help us…”—still grammatical, but less precise. Adding hizo makes it clear you mean “those particular stories.”