Learn Hardcore Swahili: Katika nyumba yetu kuna chumba cha kulia chakula karibu na jikoni. - In our house there is a dining room near the kitchen.

ndani ya nyumba yetu – literally inside of our house. Slightly more physical/inside-feeling.
nyumbani kwetu – at our home / in our home (more idiomatic for “at home”).
kwenye nyumba yetu – in/at our house (very common in speech).

All of these would be understood. The choice is mostly about style and nuance rather than strict grammar in this sentence.

Why is it nyumba yetu and not yetu nyumba?

In Swahili, possessive words usually follow the noun they describe:

nyumba yetu – our house
rafiki yangu – my friend
vitabu vyake – his/her books

So the normal pattern is:

[noun] + [possessive]

Putting yetu first (yetu nyumba) would be incorrect in standard Swahili.

Why is it yetu and not wetu after nyumba?

Possessives change form depending on the noun class of the noun they refer to.

nyumba belongs to noun class 9/10.
The class 9/10 form of “our” is yetu, not wetu.

Some common forms of “our”:

Class 1/2 (person): mtoto wetu, watoto wetu
Class 3/4: mti wetu, miti yetu
Class 9/10: nyumba yetu, nguo yetu

So nyumba yetu is grammatically correct for “our house”.

What does kuna mean, and why is it used instead of something like iko?

Kuna is an existential verb meaning there is / there are.

Katika nyumba yetu kuna chumba…
= In our house there is a room…

Key points:

kuna does not change for singular or plural:
- kuna chumba – there is a room
- kuna vyumba – there are rooms
iko/ako/yuko point to a specific thing/person and place:
- chumba kiko karibu na jikoni – the room is near the kitchen.
In this sentence, we first introduce the existence of the room, so kuna is the natural choice.

You could continue with chumba hiki kiko karibu na jikoni – this room is near the kitchen – after introducing it with kuna.

What does chumba cha kulia chakula literally mean?

Breaking it down:

chumba – room
cha – of / for (agreement with class 7 noun chumba)
kulia – (here) to eat / for eating
chakula – food

So chumba cha kulia chakula literally means:

“room for eating food”

Functionally, that is a dining room.

Often you will simply see:

chumba cha kulia – dining room
(the idea of “food” is already implied)

What exactly is cha doing in chumba cha kulia?

Cha is the genitive/possessive connector meaning roughly of / for, and it must agree with the noun class of the first noun.

chumba is class 7 (ki-/vi- class).
The class 7 “of/for” form is cha.

Patterns (singular examples):

Class 1: mtoto wa… – child of…
Class 3: mti wa… – tree of…
Class 7: chumba cha… – room of/for…
Class 9: nyumba ya… – house of…

So chumba cha kulia = room for eating (literally “room of eating”).

If the head noun were nyumba instead, you’d say:

nyumba ya kulia – house for eating (odd meaning, but shows the change from cha → ya).

Isn’t kulia the verb “to cry”? How can it mean “to eat” here?

There are actually two different verbs that look the same as infinitives:

kulia from the root -lia – to cry / weep.
kulia from the root -la (to eat) + the applied suffix -ia, which adds the meaning in/on/at/for.

In chumba cha kulia, the intended meaning is related to -la (eat), so:

kulia here ≈ “to eat (in/at a place)” → “for eating (in)”.

Because context is about a room, Swahili speakers automatically understand it as “room for eating”, not “room for crying”.

Many learners (and some teachers) simplify this and just remember:

chumba cha kulia = dining room

You will also hear and see chumba cha kula (using the simpler infinitive kula “to eat”). Both are understood as “dining room”.

Why is chakula added after kulia? Isn’t “eating” already clear?

Yes, chumba cha kulia by itself is enough to mean dining room.

Adding chakula:

chumba cha kulia chakula – literally room for eating food

The extra chakula can:

Make the meaning extra explicit for learners or in formal descriptions.
Remove any tiny possibility of confusion for people who think of kulia only as “crying”.

In normal conversation, chumba cha kulia is probably more common and completely natural.

What does karibu na mean, and is there a difference from just karibu?

Karibu as an adverb/preposition means near / close (by).

karibu na literally: near to / close to
karibu jikoni – near the kitchen
karibu na jikoni – near the kitchen (slightly more explicit)

Both are widely used. Karibu na is often a little clearer because na works like with/to:

karibu na mji – near the town
karibu na barabara – near the road

Note that karibu is also used as a greeting:

Karibu! – Welcome! / Come in!

That is a different but related use (the idea of coming “close” / “near” someone).

Why is it jikoni and not just jiko?

Jiko is a noun meaning stove / cooker, and by extension often kitchen.

Adding -ni makes a locative form, meaning in/at/on that place:

jikoni – in the kitchen / at the kitchen area

Other examples:

nyumba → nyumbani – in/at home
shule → shuleni – at school
chumba → chumbani – in the room

So:

karibu na jikoni – near the kitchen
(literally: near at-the-kitchen)

Does kuna chumba mean “there is a room” or “there is one room”? How do you say “one room”?

Kuna chumba is indefinite, like English “there is a room” or “there is a room/a certain room”. Swahili does not have a separate word for the article “a”.

If you want to stress that it is one single room, you can add the numeral:

kuna chumba kimoja – there is one room.

Similarly:

kuna vyumba vitatu – there are three rooms.

Could we say Nyumbani kwetu kuna chumba cha kulia chakula karibu na jikoni instead of Katika nyumba yetu…?

Yes, that is perfectly natural:

Nyumbani kwetu kuna chumba cha kulia chakula karibu na jikoni.

Nyumbani kwetu means at our home / in our home, and in many contexts it sounds more idiomatic and homely than Katika nyumba yetu.

Nuance:

Katika nyumba yetu – a bit more neutral or descriptive.
Nyumbani kwetu – more like “at our place / at our home”, slightly warmer and more personal.

How is the word order in the whole sentence different from English word order?

Swahili and English pack the information in almost the same sequence, but some details differ.

Swahili:

Katika nyumba yetu kuna chumba cha kulia chakula karibu na jikoni.
In our house there is a room for eating food near the kitchen.

Key word-order points:

Prepositional phrase Katika nyumba yetu (In our house) comes first – very similar to English.
Existential kuna (“there is/are”) comes right after that phrase.
The head noun comes before its describers:
- chumba (room) + cha kulia chakula (for eating food)
Location phrase karibu na jikoni is placed at the end.

So structurally, it’s close to English, but inside the noun phrase:

Swahili: chumba cha kulia chakula
English: a room for eating food

Swahili keeps the head noun first, and the explaining part follows it.