Questions & Answers about Nyumba yenu ni nzuri sana.
Roughly, word by word:
- Nyumba – house / home
- yenu – your (belonging to you plural)
- ni – is / are (linking verb “to be”)
- nzuri – good / nice / beautiful
- sana – very / very much
So the structure is: House your is beautiful very.
Ni is the present‑tense form of the verb to be when linking a subject to a noun/adjective. In English you need is/are; in Swahili you use ni:
- Nyumba yenu ni nzuri – Your house is beautiful.
- Hawa ni walimu – These (people) are teachers.
So ni is the copula, the linking is/are.
Swahili distinguishes between singular you and plural you:
- yako – your (belonging to one person you are talking to)
- yenu – your (belonging to more than one person you are talking to)
So:
- Nyumba yako ni nzuri sana. – Your (one person’s) house is very beautiful.
- Nyumba yenu ni nzuri sana. – Your (you all’s) house is very beautiful.
Yenu tells you that the owners (the “you”) are plural, not the house.
- Nyumba yenu – the house of you (plural) = your (plural) house
- Nyumba zenu – the houses of you (plural) = your (plural) houses
The change from yenu to zenu shows the house(s) becoming plural, not the people.
Swahili possessives agree with the noun class of the thing owned.
- Nyumba belongs to noun class 9 (and its plural, class 10).
- The possessive stem for “your (plural)” is -enu.
- In class 9, the agreement prefix is y-, so we get y- + -enu → yenu.
If the noun were plural nyumba (class 10), the agreement prefix would be z-, giving zenu:
- Nyumba yenu – your (plural) house
- Nyumba zenu – your (plural) houses
The adjective stem is -zuri (“good, nice, beautiful”), but it changes its initial consonant to agree with the noun class:
- Class 1 (person, singular, e.g. mtu) → mzuri
- Mtu mzuri – a good person
- Class 2 (person, plural, e.g. watu) → wazuri
- Watu wazuri – good people
- Class 9 (e.g. nyumba, singular) → nzuri
- Nyumba nzuri – a beautiful house
- Class 10 (e.g. nyumba, plural) → nzuri as well
- Nyumba nzuri – beautiful houses
So nzuri is the correct agreement form with nyumba.
Nzuri is quite broad in meaning. It can be translated as:
- good
- nice
- fine
- beautiful
- pleasant
The best English choice depends on context. For a house, beautiful or nice are common:
- Nyumba yenu ni nzuri sana. – Your house is very beautiful / very nice.
All of those are natural translations; the Swahili word itself is flexible.
Sana means very / very much / a lot. It comes after the word it intensifies:
- After an adjective:
- nzuri sana – very beautiful
- ghali sana – very expensive
- After a verb:
- Ninakupenda sana. – I love you very much.
That’s why we say nzuri sana, not sana nzuri.
In careful, standard Swahili, you normally include ni:
- Nyumba yenu ni nzuri sana.
In informal speech, especially in quick conversation, some speakers may drop ni and say:
- Nyumba yenu nzuri sana.
This is understandable but more colloquial. For clear, standard Swahili (especially in writing or exams), keep ni in.
Change only the possessive:
Our house is very beautiful.
- Nyumba yetu ni nzuri sana.
- yetu = our (agreeing with nyumba, class 9)
My house is very beautiful.
- Nyumba yangu ni nzuri sana.
- yangu = my (agreeing with nyumba, class 9)
You need both the noun and the possessive in the plural form:
- Nyumba zenu ni nzuri sana.
Breakdown:
- Nyumba – houses (same form as singular; class 10 here)
- zenu – your (plural), with z- agreeing with class 10
- ni nzuri sana – are very beautiful
Note that nzuri stays the same for singular and plural nyumba.
Use the negative copula si instead of ni:
- Nyumba yenu si nzuri sana. – Your house is not very beautiful.
You may also hear siyo or sio in speech:
- Nyumba yenu siyo nzuri sana.
But si is the core negative form that directly contrasts with ni.
Nyumba is pronounced roughly as:
- nyu-mba
Details:
- ny is a single sound [ɲ], like ñ in Spanish niño, or the ny in English canyon.
- All vowels (u, a) are short and clear.
- Stress is usually on the second‑to‑last syllable: NYU-mba.