Learn Hardcore Swahili: Mkurugenzi mpya ni mwanamume mwenye uzoefu mkubwa. - The new director is a man with great experience.

ni is the copula meaning is/are; it simply links two nouns or a noun and a descriptor. It doesn’t change for person or number and doesn’t carry tense.

Negative (present): Use si (or commonly sio/siyo). Example: Mkurugenzi mpya si/sio mwanamume mwenye uzoefu mkubwa.
Past: Use the verb kuwa. Example: Mkurugenzi mpya alikuwa mwanamume mwenye uzoefu mkubwa. (was)
Future: atakuwa (will be). Example: Mkurugenzi mpya atakuwa mwanamume mwenye uzoefu mkubwa.

Note: ni itself doesn’t change to show tense; you switch to forms of kuwa for past/future. It also stays the same in singular and plural (is/are).

Why is mpya after mkurugenzi? In English, adjectives come before.

In Swahili, adjectives typically follow the noun they modify. So you say mkurugenzi mpya (director new), not the other way around. This pattern holds for most adjectives and adjective-like words.

How does adjective agreement work in this sentence (e.g., mpya, mkubwa)?

Adjectives agree with the noun class of the noun they describe by taking an agreement prefix.

Mkurugenzi is class 1 (m-/wa- for people), so -pya becomes mpya: mkurugenzi mpya.
Inside the phrase mwenye uzoefu mkubwa, the adjective -kubwa agrees with uzoefu (an u- class mass noun), which takes an m-/mw- agreement for many adjectives, giving mkubwa: uzoefu mkubwa.

Compare:

Class 1 singular: mtoto mzuri (a good child)
Class 2 plural: watoto wazuri (good children)
u- class (mass): uzito mkubwa (great weight)

What does mwenye mean, and why is it here?

mwenye means with/possessing/having and functions like an adjective that links a noun to something it has. Here, mwanamume mwenye uzoefu mkubwa means a man with great experience.

mwenye agrees with the head noun it modifies (here, mwanamume, class 1). If plural, it becomes wenye: wanaume wenye uzoefu mkubwa.
Other examples:
- mwanamke mwenye elimu (a woman with education)
- nyumba yenye bustani (a house with a garden) — class 9 uses yenye
- kitu chenye thamani (a thing that has value) — class 7 uses chenye

Could I just say “has a lot of experience” with ana instead of using mwenye?

Yes. You can say:

Mkurugenzi mpya ana uzoefu mkubwa. (The new director has great experience.) You can also use a relative form:
Mkurugenzi mpya ni mwanamume aliye na uzoefu mkubwa. (… is a man who has …)

All three are natural; mwenye is concise and common in descriptions.

Is uzoefu mkubwa the best way to say “a lot of experience”? What about uzoefu mwingi?

Both are fine, with a slight nuance:

uzoefu mkubwa literally “big/great experience,” often rendered as great/considerable experience.
uzoefu mwingi literally “much/plenty of experience,” emphasizing quantity.

Either works; choose based on whether you want great/considerable (qualitative) or much/plenty (quantitative).

What are the plurals of the key nouns here?

mkurugenzi (director) → wakurugenzi
mwanamume (man) → commonly wanaume (also seen as wanamume, but wanaume is most common) Example plural sentence: Wakurugenzi wapya ni wanaume wenye uzoefu mkubwa.

Why mwanamume and not mwanaume? Are both correct?

Both are encountered. mwanamume is the fully transparent form (mwana + mume), while mwanaume is very common in everyday use and accepted. Be aware:

mume by itself means husband.
The female counterpart is mwanamke (or commonly mwanamke pronounced quickly like two syllables after mwan-).

How would the sentence change if the director were a woman?

Use mwanamke:

Mkurugenzi mpya ni mwanamke mwenye uzoefu mkubwa. Plural: Wakurugenzi wapya ni wanawake wenye uzoefu mkubwa.

How do I mark “the” vs “a”? Swahili has no articles, so how do we know it’s “the new director”?

Swahili doesn’t have articles; definiteness comes from context or demonstratives:

Mkurugenzi mpya can mean either the new director or a new director.
To be explicit:
- Mkurugenzi mpya huyu (this new director)
- Mkurugenzi mpya yule (that new director)

Can I drop ni and just say everything as a noun phrase?

In normal sentences, keep ni. You might see ni omitted in headlines, notes, or lists, but in standard speech/writing you’d say Mkurugenzi mpya ni …

Is there an even shorter way to say “the new director is experienced”?

Yes:

Mkurugenzi mpya ni mzoefu. (mzoefu = experienced/seasoned) Or attributively:
Mkurugenzi mpya mzoefu… (as part of a larger noun phrase) You can also say: Mkurugenzi mpya ni mwanamume mzoefu.

Any pronunciation tips for tricky clusters like mkurugenzi and mwenye?

mk- in mkurugenzi: pronounce the initial m before k (like m+k together).
mw- in mwenye: a rounded m-w glide; the ny is like the “ny” in canyon (ñ sound).
Stress is typically penultimate: mku-ru-GEN-zi; mWE-nye.

Why does mkubwa start with m-? Sometimes I see adjectives like kubwa without it.

The initial m-/mw-/w-/y-/ch-/v-/l- etc. on adjectives comes from agreement with the noun class. With u- class nouns like uzoefu, many adjectives take an m-/mw- agreement: uzoefu mkubwa. You’ll see bare stems (e.g., kubwa) when the agreement prefix for that noun class is zero or when dictionary entries show the root form. In real sentences, use the agreement form that matches the noun.