Learn Hardcore Swahili: Ujana ni muhimu kama kipindi cha kujifunza maadili. - Youth is important as a period for learning ethics.

It’s more like “youth (as a phase of life)” than “young people” as a group.
If you want to emphasize young people themselves, you’d more often see words like vijana (young people / youths).

So in this sentence, Ujana is “youth” understood as a life stage, which fits with the idea of “a period of learning morals.”

What is the role of ni in this sentence?

Ni is the copula here, similar to the English verb “to be” in statements like “X is Y.”

Ujana ni muhimu = “Youth is important.”
ni does not change with person or number in standard Swahili. It’s used with all subjects (mimi ni…, wewe ni…, yeye ni…, etc.).

So ni simply links the subject (ujana) to the complement (muhimu kama kipindi cha kujifunza maadili).

How is muhimu working here? Should it agree with ujana in class?

Muhimu is an adjective meaning “important.” It’s one of a small group of adjectives that generally do not change form for noun class.

So:

ujana muhimu – important youth
kitabu muhimu – an important book
miji muhimu – important cities

There’s no visible agreement change here; muhimu stays the same regardless of the noun class of ujana.

Does kama here mean “like,” “as,” or “as … as”? I’m confused about the comparison.

Kama can mean several things, depending on context:

“like / as” (in comparison)
- Anaimba kama ndege. – He/She sings like a bird.
“as” (in the role of / in the capacity of)
- Nimekuja hapa kama rafiki. – I’ve come here as a friend.

In your sentence:

Ujana ni muhimu kama kipindi cha kujifunza maadili.

The intended meaning is more like “Youth is important as a period for learning morals”, i.e. youth is important in its role as that learning phase.

It is not really “Youth is as important as the period of learning morals,” because youth itself is that period. Here kama is closer to English “as (a)” in the sense of function or role:

Youth is important as a time of learning morals.

Could this sentence also be written without kama, and what would change? For example: Ujana ni kipindi muhimu cha kujifunza maadili.

Yes, Ujana ni kipindi muhimu cha kujifunza maadili is also correct and very natural.

Ujana ni muhimu kama kipindi cha kujifunza maadili.
Emphasizes: Youth is important as a period for learning morals (focusing on the importance and its role).
Ujana ni kipindi muhimu cha kujifunza maadili.
Emphasizes: Youth is an important period of learning morals (it directly identifies youth as “an important period”).

The overall idea is roughly the same, but the structure shifts:

With kama, you have: Youth is important as X.
Without kama, you have: Youth is (an) X important for learning morals.

What does kipindi mean, and how is it different from words like wakati or muda?

Kipindi (class 7/8: kipindi / vipindi) means:

a period, phase, or term (of time),
sometimes a session or even a TV/radio program (a “show”).

In this sentence, it’s used as “period” or “phase” of life.

Comparison with similar words:

wakati – time, a point/period in time, “when” (used in phrases like wakati wa ujana – the time of youth).
muda – a duration or stretch of time (“for how long”).
kipindi – a more defined, bounded period or phase (a school term, a stage of life, a TV episode).

Here kipindi nicely fits the idea of youth as a distinct phase in which something happens (learning morals).

What is the function of cha in kipindi cha kujifunza maadili?

Cha is a possessive / connective form meaning roughly “of.”

It is agreeing with kipindi, which is noun class 7:

Class 7 (ki-/vi-) uses cha for “of” in singular:
- kitabu cha mwanafunzi – the student’s book / book of the student
- kipindi cha mchana – the afternoon period

So:

kipindi – period
cha kujifunza maadili – of learning morals

Together: kipindi cha kujifunza maadili = “a period of learning morals.”

What exactly is kujifunza? Why is there “ji” in the middle?

Kujifunza is the infinitive form of the verb kujifunza = “to learn.”

Morphologically:

ku- – infinitive prefix (like “to” in English infinitives)
-ji- – reflexive marker (“oneself”)
-funza – base verb meaning roughly “to teach / instruct”

So kujifunza literally has the sense of “to teach oneself” → to learn.

This is why it’s different from kufundisha:

kufundisha = to teach (someone else)
kujifunza = to learn (oneself)

In the sentence, kujifunza maadili = “to learn morals.”

Is kujifunza here acting more like a verb (“to learn”) or a noun (“learning”)?

In Swahili, the ku- infinitive can behave like a verbal noun. It often translates into English either as:

“to learn” (verb)
or “learning” (gerund/noun)

In kipindi cha kujifunza maadili, kujifunza is functioning like a noun phrase “learning”:

literally: “a period of learning morals.”

So grammatically, the infinitive kujifunza serves as a kind of noun, but in English we can render it either way: “to learn morals” or “of learning morals.”

What does maadili mean, and what noun class is it in?

Maadili means “morals,” “ethics,” “moral values,” or “moral principles.”

It belongs to the ma- noun class (class 6) in its plural-like form.
Its singular is adili, but in practice maadili is usually used as a collective, abstract noun for “morality / ethics.”

You’ll often see it in phrases like:

maadili ya kazi – work ethics
maadili ya kijamii – social morals / social ethics

Why is maadili not marked as plural in English, even though it looks like a “ma-” plural in Swahili?

In Swahili, the ma- class often indicates plural, but there are many abstract or mass nouns in this class that don’t map neatly onto English singular/plural.

Maadili is typically treated as a mass/collective concept:

It covers morals / moral values / ethics as a whole.
In English, we usually talk about “morality” or “ethics” (both can be grammatically singular).

So even though maadili looks plural morphologically, in translation we can say either:

“morals” (count-like) or
“morality / ethics” (mass / abstract).

Both are acceptable; the important point is that it refers to moral principles generally.

Could I say “kujifunza kuhusu maadili” instead of “kujifunza maadili”?

Yes, you could say kujifunza kuhusu maadili, which would mean “to learn about morals.”

kujifunza maadili – to learn morals (more direct, as if you are acquiring them).
kujifunza kuhusu maadili – to learn about morals (emphasizes learning information or teachings about morality).

Both are grammatically fine; choice depends on nuance. The original is slightly more direct and compact.

Is the word order in this sentence flexible, or does it have to stay like this?

The core structure:

[Subject] ni [complement].

is quite fixed:

Ujana ni muhimu kama kipindi cha kujifunza maadili.

However, you can express the same idea in different but still natural ways, changing how you say it, not just shuffling the same words:

Ujana ni kipindi muhimu cha kujifunza maadili.
Kipindi cha ujana ni muhimu kwa kujifunza maadili.
Ujana ni wakati muhimu wa kujifunza maadili.

But within the original sentence, you wouldn’t normally move elements around like:

✗ Ujana kama kipindi cha kujifunza maadili ni muhimu. (understandable but awkward)

The given order is the most natural for that exact wording.