Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu.

Democracy is important for our community.

Breakdown of Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu.

• ni: to be
• kwa: for
• muhimu: important
• yetu: our
• jamii: the community
• demokrasia: the democracy

Questions & Answers about Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu.

What does ni mean in this sentence, and why is it used?

Ni is the copula “to be” in Swahili, used to link a subject with a noun or an adjective.

In Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu:

• Demokrasia = subject (democracy)
• ni = is
• muhimu = important

Swahili does not conjugate this copula for person or number in the present tense like English does. So:

• Mimi ni mwalimu. = I am a teacher.
• Wewe ni mwanafunzi. = You are a student.
• Demokrasia ni muhimu. = Democracy is important.

The ni stays the same in all of them (for present tense).

Why isn’t there a word for “is” at the very end, like in some languages, or a verb like ina instead of ni?

Swahili uses ni (the copula) to express “is/are” when linking a subject to a noun or adjective. Ina is not the equivalent of “is” here:

• ni = “is/are” (linking verb)

  • Demokrasia ni muhimu. = Democracy is important.
  • Juma ni daktari. = Juma is a doctor.

• ina is “it has” or “it is (doing/having something)” from kuwa na = to have

  • Demokrasia ina changamoto. = Democracy has challenges.

So ni muhimu means “is important”, not “has important”.

What exactly does muhimu mean? Is it always “important”?

Muhimu generally means “important, significant, essential”. The exact nuance depends on context:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu. = Democracy is important.
• Ni jambo muhimu. = It’s an important matter.
• Ni kitu muhimu sana. = It’s a very important/essential thing.

Muhimu doesn’t change form for singular/plural or noun class; it stays muhimu with all nouns. That’s different from many other Swahili adjectives, which do change (e.g., mzuri / nzuri / wazuri, etc.).

Why is it kwa jamii yetu and not something like ya jamii yetu?

Kwa here means roughly “for” or “to/for the benefit of”.

• ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu
  = is important for our society.

If you used ya jamii yetu, that would be possessive/genitive: “of our society”, which changes the meaning:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu ya jamii yetu ❌
  This is ungrammatical in Swahili.

Ya is a possessive/“of” marker (it agrees with the noun class); kwa is a preposition meaning for, to, by, in, at depending on context. In this sentence you want “for our society”, so kwa jamii yetu is correct.

Could I say Demokrasia ni muhimu katika jamii yetu instead of kwa jamii yetu? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu katika jamii yetu.

The nuance is slightly different:

• kwa jamii yetu = important for our society (for its benefit, advantage, well-being).
• katika jamii yetu = in/within our society (within the context/setting of our society).

Both are acceptable and natural.

• kwa emphasizes benefit / effect on the society.
• katika emphasizes location/context (within the society).

What does jamii mean exactly? “Society” or “community” or something else?

Jamii can be translated as:

• society
• community
• group / social group / people as a collective

The exact English choice depends on context:

• Jamii yetu ina matatizo mengi.
  = Our society has many problems. (or our community)

• Jamii za jadi
  = traditional communities / traditional societies.

In Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu, “our society” is the most straightforward translation, but “our community” could also work depending on context.

Why is it jamii yetu instead of jamii zetu?

Jamii belongs to noun class 9/10 (often called the N-class). Its agreement patterns are a bit special.

The possessive -etu (“our”) must agree with the noun class of jamii. For class 9/10 nouns, the possessive form is yetu, not zetu.

So:

• jamii yetu = our society/community ✅
• jamii zetu ❌ (ungrammatical here)

Zetu is used for many class 10 plurals of non-N-class nouns, e.g.:

• Nyumba zetu = our houses
• Kalamu zetu = our pens

But jamii is one of those nouns where jamii yetu is the correct form for both singular and plural contexts, depending on meaning.

How would I say “Democracy is very important for our society”?

Add sana (very) after the adjective:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu sana kwa jamii yetu.
  = Democracy is very important for our society.

The typical pattern is:
[subject] + ni + [adjective] + sana

• Ni ghali sana. = It’s very expensive.
• Ni muhimu sana. = It’s very important.

There’s no word for “the” or “a” in the Swahili sentence. How do I know when it’s “the society” vs “a society” vs “our society”?

Swahili doesn’t use separate words for articles like a/an/the. These ideas are expressed by:

1. Context
2. Possessives or demonstratives (our, this, that, etc.)
3. Sometimes word order/emphasis

In jamii yetu:

• yetu = our
  So the phrase literally is “our society”, and that automatically implies “the society that is ours”.

If you wanted “a society” in a more general sense, you would typically just say jamii and let context make it general:

• Jamii bila sheria si salama.
  = A society without laws is not safe. / Society without laws is not safe.

Could I say simply Demokrasia ni muhimu and leave off kwa jamii yetu?

Yes, Demokrasia ni muhimu is a complete and natural sentence. It means:

• Democracy is important.

Adding kwa jamii yetu specifies for whom or for what it is important:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu.
  = Democracy is important. (general statement)

• Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu.
  = Democracy is important for our society. (applies specifically to our society)

Why is yetu after jamii, and not before, like English “our society”?

In Swahili, possessives usually come after the noun they modify:

• jamii yetu = our society
• rafiki yangu = my friend
• nyumba yenu = your (plural) house
• kitabu changu = my book

So the pattern is generally:
[noun] + [possessive]
This is the normal word order in Swahili, unlike English where “our” comes before the noun.

Is the word Demokrasia Swahili, or is it borrowed from another language?

Demokrasia is a loanword (borrowed term), ultimately from Greek via European languages (like “democracy” in English). Swahili has many loanwords, especially for political, technical, and modern concepts:

• demokrasia = democracy
• siasa = politics
• teknolojia = technology
• shule = school

Even though it’s borrowed, Demokrasia is treated as a normal Swahili noun and follows Swahili grammar (e.g., it takes ni, and you talk about it like any other noun).

Does Demokrasia have to be capitalized in Swahili like in English?

In Swahili, capitalization rules are similar to English in many contexts, but practice varies by publisher and region. Generally:

• Sentences start with a capital letter.
• Proper nouns (names of people, countries, specific institutions) are capitalized.

Demokrasia is a common noun, not a proper noun, so it does not have to be capitalized in the middle of a sentence:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu.
• demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu.

Both occur in real text; many formal texts would use a lowercase d unless the word starts the sentence.

How would I turn this sentence into a question: “Is democracy important for our society?”

You can keep the word order and just use a question mark and/or rising intonation:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu?
  = Is democracy important for our society?

In spoken Swahili, intonation does much of the work. If you want to be more explicitly question-like, you can add a question word or phrase, for example:

• Je, demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu?
  (formal/written style; je introduces a yes/no question)

But the basic yes/no question can simply be:

• Demokrasia ni muhimu kwa jamii yetu? ✅