Learn Hardcore Swahili: Nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo, lakini bustani yake ni kubwa. - The house itself is small, but its garden is big.

“The house itself is small (even if something connected to it, like the garden, is not).”
It contrasts the house with other things (here, the garden), highlighting that we’re talking specifically about the house as an object on its own.

Why is it yenyewe and not some other form like wenyewe or zenyewe?

The form of -enyewe changes depending on the noun class of the noun it describes.

Both nyumba (house) and bustani (garden) are in noun class 9/10. For this class, the agreement prefix for -enye is y-, giving:

class 9/10 + -enye → yenye
then we add -we to make yenyewe (“itself / the very one”)

Some other examples for comparison:

class 1: mtu mwenyewe (the person himself/herself)
class 2: watu wenyewe (the people themselves)
class 10: nyumba zenyewe (the houses themselves – plural)

So nyumba yenyewe is correct because nyumba is class 9.

Could I just say nyumba ni ndogo instead of nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say nyumba ni ndogo; it’s perfectly correct and means simply “the house is small.”

The version with yenyewe:

nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo

adds emphasis and contrast:

“The house itself is small (even though, for example, the garden is big).”

So:

nyumba ni ndogo = neutral statement of size
nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo = draws attention to the house as distinct from other things and can imply a contrast or slight surprise.

How does ni work here? Where is the word for “is”?

In Swahili, ni often functions as a copula, like “is/are” in English, especially in the present tense:

nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo
- literally: house itself is small

Some key points:

There is no separate subject pronoun (“it”) here; you don’t say “it is”.
ni is not marked for tense by itself; in simple present equational sentences like this, just ni
- adjective/noun is enough.
If you wanted past or future, you might change the structure (for example, using ilikuwa ndogo = “was small”), rather than changing ni itself.

Why is ndogo used for nyumba and kubwa used for bustani without changing form? Don’t adjectives change?

Swahili adjectives normally agree with the noun class, but some adjective stems take the same form for certain classes.

Here:

nyumba – class 9
bustani – class 9

Common adjective patterns:

class 9/10 often uses the same form as the bare adjective stem (no visible prefix), e.g.
- ndogo (small)
- kubwa (big)

So:

nyumba ndogo – small house
bustani ndogo – small garden
nyumba kubwa – big house
bustani kubwa – big garden

The agreement is there, but for these particular adjectives in this class, it isn’t shown by a visible prefix; the form stays ndogo or kubwa.

Can I change the word order and say nyumba ni ndogo yenyewe?

No, that would sound wrong in standard Swahili.

The usual order is:

Noun
Adjective-like modifier such as -enyewe, -angu, -ake, etc.
Then the rest of the sentence

So we say:

nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo (the house itself is small)

-enyewe behaves like an adjective that follows the noun it modifies. It sticks close to the noun:

mtoto mwenyewe (the child himself/herself)
kitabu chenyewe (the book itself)
nyumba yenyewe (the house itself)

Putting yenyewe after ni ndogo breaks that close connection, so it’s not natural.

In bustani yake, how do I know who yake refers to?

Yake is a third-person singular possessive for class 9/10:

ya- (agreement with class 9/10 noun) + -ke (his/her/its)
→ yake = his/her/its (for a class-9/10 possessed noun like bustani)

So:

bustani yake = his garden / her garden / its garden

Who exactly “his/her/its” is depends entirely on context, because Swahili doesn’t distinguish gender in this form. It could mean:

his garden
her garden
the house’s garden (its garden)

In this particular sentence, many speakers would naturally interpret bustani yake as “its garden”, referring back to the house, but context is what really decides that.

Why is it yake and not wake, lako, or something else?

Swahili possessives have two parts:

A class agreement prefix that matches the possessed noun (here, bustani, class 9)
A person marker (my, your, his/her, etc.)

For class 9/10 + “his/her/its”:

agreement for class 9/10 = ya-
person marker for 3rd sing. = -ke
→ yake

Some comparisons:

bustani yangu – my garden (9/10 + -angu)
bustani yako – your garden (9/10 + -ako)
bustani yake – his/her/its garden (9/10 + -ke)
bustani yetu – our garden

So yake is correct here because the garden belongs to him/her/it, not to you or me.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before nyumba or bustani?

Swahili does not use separate words for “the” or “a/an”. The bare noun can mean:

nyumba = house / a house / the house
bustani = garden / a garden / the garden

Definiteness (whether you should translate it as “a house” or “the house”) is determined by context, not by an article word.

In this sentence, because we are clearly talking about a specific house with its own garden, translating with “the house” and “the garden” in English is natural, but Swahili itself just uses nyumba and bustani.

Could I leave out yake and just say lakini bustani ni kubwa? What would change?

Yes, you can say:

lakini bustani ni kubwa – “but the garden is big.”

This is still correct. The difference:

bustani yake ni kubwa – emphasizes the ownership or association (its garden / his garden). It more strongly ties the garden to the house mentioned earlier.
bustani ni kubwa – simply states a fact about the garden; the link to the house is still understood from context, but it’s not spelled out.

So yake adds an explicit possessive connection.

Is there any tense shown in Nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo, lakini bustani yake ni kubwa? Could it mean past or future?

This structure with ni + adjective is normally understood as present or general timeless description:

nyumba yenyewe ni ndogo – the house (itself) is small
bustani yake ni kubwa – its garden is big

To clearly talk about the past, Swahili usually uses a different verb form, for example:

nyumba yenyewe ilikuwa ndogo, lakini bustani yake ilikuwa kubwa
– the house itself was small, but its garden was big

For clear future, you might say:

nyumba yenyewe itakuwa ndogo, lakini bustani yake itakuwa kubwa
– the house itself will be small, but its garden will be big

So as written, the sentence is naturally read as present or as a general fact.