Learn Hardcore Swahili: Kwenye ukuta wa sebule, tulibandika kalenda kubwa yenye rangi tofauti za kila mwezi. - On the living-room wall, we stuck a big calendar with different colors for each month.

kwenye – very common, general “in/at/on (a place)”
- kwenye ukuta = on the wall
- kwenye sebule = in the living room
katika – a bit more formal or “bookish”, often “in/within”
- katika ukuta would sound odd, but katika sebule = in the living room
- Often used in writing: katika nchi hii = in this country
juu ya – literally “on top of”
- juu ya ukuta = on top of the wall (emphasising the top surface)

So kwenye ukuta is the natural everyday way to say “on the wall” here. You could also say ukutani (using the locative suffix -ni), but the given sentence chooses kwenye ukuta.

Why is it ukuta wa sebule and not ukuta ya sebule?

The choice between wa / ya / za / la / cha, etc., depends on noun class, not on gender.

ukuta (wall) is in noun class 11 (u-), whose possessive marker is wa.
sebule (living room) is what the wall “belongs to”, but the possessive word has to agree with ukuta, not sebule.

So:

ukuta wa sebule = wall of the living room
- wa agrees with ukuta (class 11).

If the head noun were different, the possessive form would change:

kuta za sebule = the walls of the living room
- kuta is class 10 → za
meza ya sebule = the table of the living room
- meza is class 9 → ya

So it is ukuta wa sebule because ukuta is the head noun and it uses wa.

What noun class is ukuta, and what is its plural?

Ukuta (wall) is in noun class 11 (often labelled u-).

Its plural is:

ukuta (singular) → kuta (plural, class 10)

Examples:

Ukuta huu ni mrefu. = This wall is tall.
Kuta hizi ni ndefu. = These walls are tall.

So in the sentence, ukuta is one specific wall (the living room wall), not several.

How is the verb tulibandika built up, and what exactly does it mean?

Tulibandika comes from the infinitive kubandika = to paste / to stick (something onto a surface).

Breakdown of tulibandika:

tu- = we (subject prefix, 1st person plural)
-li- = past tense marker (simple past)
-bandika = verb stem “stick, paste, put up (by sticking)”

So:

tulibandika = we stuck / we pasted / we put up (by sticking)

In context, tulibandika kalenda = we stuck/put up a calendar (e.g. with tape or glue) on the wall.

Could you say tuliweka instead of tulibandika? What is the difference?

Yes, you could say tuliweka kalenda kubwa kwenye ukuta wa sebule, and it would be understood as we put a big calendar on the living room wall.

The nuance:

tulibandika – specifically stuck/pasted it (using tape, glue, pins, etc.), emphasises the method (attaching to the wall surface).
tuliweka – more general, we placed / we put it there, without specifying the method.

In everyday speech both can be used for things put on a wall, but bandika is more precise for something attached flat to a surface, like a calendar or a poster.

Why is it kalenda kubwa instead of kubwa kalenda?

In Swahili, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

kalenda kubwa = big calendar
(literally “calendar big”)

Putting kubwa before the noun (kubwa kalenda) is not standard and would sound incorrect or at least very strange.

More examples with the same pattern:

mtoto mzuri = good / beautiful child
chumba kidogo = small room
kitabu kipya = new book

So kalenda kubwa follows the normal “noun + adjective” order.

What does yenye mean in kalenda kubwa yenye rangi tofauti…, and why use it instead of just na?

Yenye is a relative adjective that basically means “that has / having / with”.

In this phrase:

kalenda kubwa yenye rangi tofauti…
≈ a big calendar that has different colours…
or a big calendar with different colours…

You could also say:

kalenda kubwa na rangi tofauti…
(a big calendar and different colours…)

but there is a nuance:

yenye ties the colours more tightly as an inherent attribute of the calendar: a calendar that has those colours.
na is more general “and/with”; it can feel slightly looser, more like just listing features.

Both are grammatically correct. Yenye is very common when describing a thing by what it has:

mtu mwenye pesa = a person who has money / a rich person
nyumba yenye vyumba vitatu = a house with three rooms

Does yenye change form with different noun classes?

Yes. Yenye is part of a small set of forms (wenye, yenye, lenye, chenye, etc.) that agree with the noun class of the noun they describe.

In the sentence:

kalenda is class 9 (like meza, nguo), so we use yenye:
- kalenda yenye rangi tofauti
- meza yenye miguu minne (a table with four legs)

Some common forms:

Class 1 (mtu) → mtu mwenye… (person with…)
Class 2 (watu) → watu wenye… (people with…)
Class 3 (mti) → mti wenye…
Class 4 (miti) → miti yenye…
Class 5 (tunda) → tunda lenye…
Class 6 (matunda) → matunda yenye…
Class 7 (kitu) → kitu chenye…
Class 8 (vitu) → vitu vyenye…
Class 9/10 (kalenda, meza, rangi) → yenye…
Class 11 (ukuta) → often ukuta wenye…

So kalenda kubwa yenye rangi tofauti is using the 9/10 form yenye to agree with kalenda.

In rangi tofauti, why doesn’t tofauti change form to agree with rangi?

Many Swahili adjectives do change form with noun class (like -kubwa, -zuri, -refu), but some words that function like adjectives are invariable; they keep the same form regardless of noun class.

Tofauti is one of these. It can mean different, separate, or difference, and it usually stays the same:

rangi tofauti = different colours
watu tofauti = different people
maeneo tofauti = different areas

So you don’t say “rangi zotofauti” or anything like that; just rangi tofauti.

What does rangi tofauti za kila mwezi literally mean, and how does za work here?

Piece by piece:

rangi = colours
tofauti = different
za = of (possessive/associative for noun class 9/10 plural)
kila = each / every
mwezi = month

So a very literal structure is:

rangi tofauti za kila mwezi
= different colours of each month

Here, za links rangi (head noun, plural) with kila mwezi (what they are related to):

rangi za kila mwezi → the colours of each month

Why za?

rangi is class 9/10; in the plural it takes za for “of”:
- rangi za maua = colours of the flowers
- rangi za bendera = colours of the flag

So za is just the possessive/associative marker agreeing with rangi.

Why is it kila mwezi and not kila miezi?

With kila (each/every), the noun that follows is always singular in standard Swahili, even if the meaning is “each of many”.

kila mwezi = each month / every month
kila mtoto = each child
kila mtu = everyone / each person

Using the plural (kila miezi) would be ungrammatical.

So rangi tofauti za kila mwezi = different colours for each month, even though there are many months.

What does sebule mean exactly, and does it have a plural?

Sebule means living room / sitting room / lounge.

It is a loanword (often traced to Arabic or other contact languages) and is treated as a class 9/10 noun in modern Swahili.

In practice:

It’s most often used in the singular to mean “the living room” of a house.
A plural is theoretically sebule (same form, since many 9/10 nouns don’t change), but people very rarely talk about “living rooms” in the plural; if needed, context or additional words disambiguate.

In this sentence, wa sebule clearly means “of the living room” (of this house), not several living rooms.