Juzi nilitumia brashi mpya kusafisha skrini ya simu yangu.

The day before yesterday I used a new brush to clean my phone screen.

Breakdown of Juzi nilitumia brashi mpya kusafisha skrini ya simu yangu.

• mimi: I
• mpya: new
• simu: the phone
• yangu: my
• kusafisha: to clean
• ya: of
• kutumia: to use
• skrini: the screen
• juzi: the day before yesterday
• brashi: the brush

Questions & Answers about Juzi nilitumia brashi mpya kusafisha skrini ya simu yangu.

What does juzi mean and where do time words like juzi go in a Swahili sentence?

juzi means the day before yesterday. Swahili often places time adverbs at the beginning to set when the action happened. If the event happened just yesterday, you would use jana instead.

Break down nilitumia: what do ni-, -li-, and tumia signify?

• ni- is the 1st person singular subject marker (“I”).
• -li- is the past-tense marker (“did”).
• tumia is the verb root meaning use.
Together, nilitumia means “I used.”

Why is kusafisha in the infinitive form here and how does it function?

kusafisha means “to clean.” After verbs of using or doing something, Swahili uses the infinitive to express purpose.
So nilitumia brashi mpya kusafisha skrini literally is “I used a new brush to clean the screen.”

How do you say “a new brush” in Swahili? Why is there no article like “a” or “the”?

Swahili does not have articles. You simply say brashi mpya:
– brashi = brush
– mpya = new
Adjectives follow the noun and agree with its class when needed. For class 9/10 loanwords, mpya remains unchanged.

How is skrini ya simu yangu formed to mean “the screen of my phone”?

This is a genitive (possessive) structure:

1. skrini (“screen”) is class 9, so it takes ya as the genitive linker.
2. simu (“phone”) is also class 9.
3. yangu (“my”) attaches to simu.
   Literally: screen of phone of mine.

What noun class do brashi and skrini belong to, and how can you recognize it?

They’re treated as class 9/10 loanwords. Indicators:

• No visible noun-class prefix (class 9’s nasal prefix usually assimilates).
• Plural form is identical.
• Agreement patterns use class 9/10 markers (e.g., genitive ya, possessive yangu).

Could you express the same idea without using nilitumia? For example, “I cleaned my phone screen with a new brush.”

Yes. You can mark the instrument with kwa:
• Nilisafisha skrini ya simu yangu kwa brashi mpya.
Or keep tumia in the infinitive:
• Nilisafisha skrini ya simu yangu kwa kutumia brashi mpya.
Both mean “I cleaned my phone screen with a new brush.”