Learn Hardcore Swahili: Maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji jana jioni na kaka yangu. - The flowers in the garden were watered yesterday evening by my brother.

Maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji jana jioni na kaka yangu.

The flowers in the garden were watered yesterday evening by my brother.

Breakdown of Maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji jana jioni na kaka yangu.

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Questions & Answers about Maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji jana jioni na kaka yangu.

What is the word‑for‑word breakdown of Maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji jana jioni na kaka yangu?

A fairly literal breakdown is:

Maua – flowers
ya – of (agreeing with maua)
bustani – garden
yalinyunyiwa – were sprinkled / were watered (passive verb)
maji – water
jana – yesterday
jioni – evening
na – by / with
kaka yangu – my brother

So a very literal rendering is:

Flowers of garden were-sprinkled water yesterday evening by my brother.

Natural English: The flowers in the garden were sprinkled with water yesterday evening by my brother.

Why is it maua ya bustani and not something like maua katika bustani for “flowers in the garden”?

Swahili often uses the “of” construction instead of a preposition like “in” for close relationships:

maua ya bustani – literally “flowers of the garden”
→ understood contextually as “the flowers (that are) in the garden / belonging to the garden”

You could say:

maua katika bustani – “flowers in the garden”

…but maua ya bustani is shorter and very natural when you’re talking about the flowers that are associated with or belonging to that garden, not just any flowers physically located there by accident.

So:

ya = “of” and links two nouns (flowers
- garden) in a tight relationship.
katika = “in/inside”, more clearly spatial, slightly heavier.

Why is the connector ya used in maua ya bustani, and not wa or another form?

The small word ya is a possessive/“of” agreement marker that must match the noun class of the first noun.

maua “flowers” is in noun class 6.
The “of” form that agrees with class 6 is ya.

Some common “of” forms by noun class:

Class 1 (person, sg): wa – e.g. rafiki *wa mtoto (friend *of the child)
Class 5/6 (ua/maua): la / ya – e.g. ua *la bustani, maua **ya bustani*

So:

maua ya bustani is correct: class‑6 noun maua → “of” form ya
maua wa bustani would be wrong, because wa is not the class‑6 form.

Why does the verb start with yali‑ in yalinyunyiwa? What does each part mean?

Yalinyunyiwa can be broken down like this:

ya‑ – subject marker agreeing with maua (class 6, “they/it [plural non‑human]”)
‑li‑ – past tense marker (“did / was / were”)
‑nyuny‑ – root meaning “sprinkle / spray / water”
‑i‑ – an “applied” extension (meaning “to/onto/for”)
‑wa – passive ending (“be [done]”)

So functionally:

ya‑li‑nyuny‑i‑wa → “they‑PAST‑sprinkle‑to‑PASSIVE”
= “they were sprinkled (on / watered)”

Because of sound changes, nyuny + i + wa surfaces as nyunyiwa in spelling: yalinyunyiwa.

What is the active‑voice version of this sentence?

A natural active version is:

Kaka yangu alinyunyia maua ya bustani maji jana jioni.
“My brother sprinkled water on the flowers in the garden yesterday evening.”

Here the pieces line up like this:

Kaka yangu – my brother (subject)
alinyunyia – he sprinkled (on)
- a‑ (he), ‑li‑ (past), ‑nyuny‑ (sprinkle), ‑ia (applied “onto/for”)
maua ya bustani – the flowers of the garden (indirect object/goal)
maji – water (direct object, what is being sprinkled)

In the original passive:

The flowers are promoted to subject (maua … yalinyunyiwa …),
The agent goes into a na + noun phrase (na kaka yangu),
maji stays as the object of what was sprinkled.

What exactly is the role of maji here? Is it “with water” or a direct object?

Grammatically, maji behaves like the object of the action – it’s the thing being sprinkled.

Because the verb has the applied extension (‑i‑) and is passive, the structure is:

Subject (recipient/target): maua ya bustani – the flowers (that get sprinkled on)
Verb (passive applied): yalinyunyiwa – were sprinkled (on)
Object (thing sprinkled): maji – water

In English we normally say “sprinkled with water”, so it feels like an instrument phrase, but in Swahili the verb morphology lets maji stay as a straightforward object.

How does na kaka yangu mean “by my brother”? Doesn’t na usually mean “and” or “with”?

Na is quite flexible. It can mean:

and – maua *na miti (flowers *and trees)
with (in company) – nilienda sokoni *na rafiki yangu (I went to the market *with my friend)
by (agent in a passive) – as in this sentence

In passive sentences:

na + person is the usual way to mark the agent:
- Barua iliandikwa na mwalimu – The letter was written by the teacher.
- Maua yalinyunyiwa maji na kaka yangu – The flowers were sprinkled with water by my brother.

So here, na kaka yangu is “by my brother”, not “with my brother”.

Why isn’t there a separate word for “were”? Why doesn’t Swahili have something like “Maua … walikuwa kunyunywa …”?

Swahili usually builds tense and voice into the verb itself, instead of using separate auxiliary verbs like “was/were”.

In yalinyunyiwa:

‑li‑ = past tense (did / was / were)
‑wa at the end = passive (be [done])

So:

yalinyunyiwa already means “were sprinkled”.
You do not say walikuwa yalinyunyiwa here; that would be ungrammatical and redundant.

When you see a Swahili verb with a tense marker and passive ending, think:

“subject‑[tense]‑[verb‑root]‑[passive]” = “subject was/were [verb]‑ed”

How do the time words jana and jioni work together? Could I move them somewhere else in the sentence?

Jana jioni literally = “yesterday evening”. It’s a combined time phrase: jana (yesterday) + jioni (evening).

In this sentence:

Maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji jana jioni na kaka yangu.

the usual pattern is:

Subject
Verb
Object(s)
Time
Agent (if passive) / other extra information

So “jana jioni” sits naturally between the main action and the final agent phrase.

You can move the time phrase to the front for emphasis:

Jana jioni maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji na kaka yangu.
“Yesterday evening, the garden flowers were sprinkled with water by my brother.”

But putting it in the middle, as in the original sentence, is very common and neutral.

Is there any difference between bustani and bustanini? Could I say maua ya bustanini?

Yes, there is a nuance:

bustani – “garden” (plain noun)
bustanini – “in the garden / at the garden” (noun with ‑ni locative ending)

So:

maua ya bustani – “flowers of the garden” (flowers belonging to that garden)
maua ya bustanini – literally “flowers of the in‑the‑garden place” (odd; usually avoided)
maua bustanini – “flowers in the garden” (using ‑ni to show location)

Natural options:

Maua ya bustani yalinyunyiwa maji… (as given – “the garden’s flowers”)
Maua bustanini yalinyunyiwa maji… (“the flowers in the garden were sprinkled…”)

So you usually don’t stack ya and ‑ni on the same noun the way maua ya bustanini would.

Why is there no word like “the” in front of maua or bustani?

Swahili doesn’t have articles like “a, an, the”. Definiteness (whether you mean “some flowers” or “the flowers”) is understood from:

context,
whether you’ve mentioned the thing before,
and sometimes word order or extra description.

So maua ya bustani can mean:

“flowers of a garden”
“the flowers of the garden”

In this sentence, because we’re clearly talking about a specific garden and its flowers (and an event at a specific time), English naturally uses “the flowers in the garden”, but Swahili doesn’t need a separate word for “the” to show that.

How would I change this sentence if I wanted to use a more common verb for “to water (plants)” instead of yalinyunyiwa?

A very common verb for watering plants is kumwagilia (“to water, to pour water on”). You could say:

Passive:
Maua ya bustani yalimwagiliwa maji jana jioni na kaka yangu.
“The flowers in the garden were watered yesterday evening by my brother.”
Active:
Kaka yangu alimwagilia maua ya bustani maji jana jioni.
“My brother watered the flowers in the garden with water yesterday evening.”

The structure is parallel:

yalimwagiliwa = ya‑li‑mwagili‑wa (they‑PAST‑water‑PASS)
yalinyunyiwa = ya‑li‑nyuny‑i‑wa (they‑PAST‑sprinkle‑APPL‑PASS)

Both are correct; kumwagilia just sounds more straightforwardly like “watering plants”.