Learn Hardcore Swahili: Desemba, nyumba yetu ina taa nyingi usiku. - In December, our house has many lights at night.

In Swahili you can add a comma after a time expression placed at the beginning for clarity or emphasis. It’s optional and simply separates the time phrase from the rest of the sentence.

How do you say “in December”? Do you need a preposition like katika or mnamo before Desemba?

You can just use Desemba alone to mean “in December” as an adverb of time. If you want to be more formal or explicit, you could say katika Desemba (“in December”) or mnamo Desemba, but it’s not necessary in everyday speech.

What does ina mean, and why ina instead of something like inao?

ina is the present-tense form of the verb kuwa na (“to have”) agreeing with a class 9/10 subject (the prefix i-). Swahili verbs take subject prefixes: nyumba (class 9/10) uses i-, so i-na = “it has.”

Why is it nyumba yetu and not nyumba sisi or nyumba ya sisi?

Possession in Swahili uses possessive pronouns that agree with the noun class. For class 9/10 nouns like nyumba, the possessive for “our” is -etu, so nyumba yetu means “our house.” You don’t attach sisi directly.

Why is taa not pluralized to something like taas? How do you say “lights” in the plural?

taa is a class 9/10 noun that is invariable—its singular and plural forms are both taa. To show plurality, you rely on context and modifiers like the adjective nyingi (“many”). So taa nyingi = “many lights.”

Why does the adjective for “many” change to nyingi?

Adjectives in Swahili must agree with the noun class. The adjective root is ingi (“many”), and for class 9/10 nouns it takes the prefix n-, giving nyingi.

What does usiku mean, and why is there no preposition like kwa usiku?

usiku means “night” or “at night” depending on context. Used as an adverb of time, usiku by itself means “at night.” You don’t need kwa; Swahili often uses the bare noun for time-of-day expressions.

Can you explain the word order of this sentence?

The structure is:
Time phrase (Desemba) + Subject (nyumba yetu) + Verb (ina) + Object/complement (taa nyingi) + Adverbial phrase (usiku).
Swahili typically follows Subject-Verb-Object order, and adverbials like time can appear at the start or end.