Filamu hii ni ya kusisimua sana.

to be

Breakdown of Filamu hii ni ya kusisimua sana.

• hii: this
• sana: very
• filamu: the movie

Questions & Answers about Filamu hii ni ya kusisimua sana.

What does each word in Filamu hii ni ya kusisimua sana do in the sentence?

Word-by-word:

• filamu – film, movie (a noun in noun class 9)
• hii – this (demonstrative agreeing with class 9)
• ni – is (copula, linking subject and description)
• ya – of (the -a connector, agreeing with filamu’s class)
• kusisimua – to excite / exciting (verb in the infinitive form)
• sana – very / very much (intensifier)

Overall structure:
Filamu hii (this film) ni (is) ya kusisimua (of-exciting = exciting) sana (very).

Why is hii after filamu, not before like in English?

In Swahili, the most typical, neutral pattern is:

• noun + demonstrative

So:

• filamu hii = this film
• kitabu hiki = this book
• mtu huyu = this person

You can sometimes put the demonstrative before the noun (for emphasis or a slightly different focus):

• hii filamu – this film (with extra emphasis on this)

For a learner, it is safest to treat filamu hii as the normal, default order for this film in this kind of sentence.

What exactly is ni doing here? Can I ever drop it?