Biskuti hizi za chokoleti ni tamu sana kwa chai ya jioni.

In standard Swahili, demonstratives usually come after the noun they describe. So biskuti hizi is the normal way to say these biscuits.

English says these biscuits, but Swahili usually says biscuits these in that order:

• mtoto huyu = this child
• vitabu hivi = these books

Here it is plural, and you can tell because of hizi.

Many borrowed nouns in Swahili, including biskuti, often have the same form in singular and plural. So the surrounding words show you the number:

• biskuti hii = this biscuit
• biskuti hizi = these biscuits

Because biskuti belongs to noun class 9/10, and in this sentence it is plural.

Swahili uses noun-class agreement, so words connected to the noun change their form to match it. For a class 10 plural noun like biskuti here, you get forms such as:

• hizi = these
• za = the class-10 form of the -a connector

So the grammar is not random; those words are matching biskuti.

Za is the connector often translated as of.

So biskuti za chokoleti is literally biscuits of chocolate. In natural English, though, we usually say chocolate biscuits.

This is very common in Swahili: where English uses a noun directly before another noun, Swahili often uses:

noun + connector + noun

No. It is a noun, not an adjective.

English can use chocolate like an adjective in chocolate biscuits, but Swahili usually expresses that idea with a noun phrase:

• biskuti za chokoleti
• literally: biscuits of chocolate

So chokoleti is not behaving like an English-style adjective here.

Ni is the copula, the word that links the subject to a description or identification. Here it works like English are:

• Biskuti hizi ni tamu
• These biscuits are tasty

It is very common in simple present-tense statements like this.

Yes, adjectives in Swahili do agree with noun class, but with class 9/10 nouns the agreement is often not visibly marked. That is why you simply see tamu here.

So biskuti hizi ni tamu is correct.

With other noun classes, the agreement may be more visible. For example:

• chakula hiki ni kitamu
• vyakula hivi ni vitamu

So the agreement is real, but with biskuti it happens in a form that looks unchanged.

Sana means very or very much.

In Swahili, sana usually comes after the adjective or verb it modifies, so:

• tamu sana = very tasty

That word order is normal in Swahili.

Here kwa means something like for or with, depending on how naturally you want to say it in English.

So kwa chai ya jioni can mean:

• for evening tea
• with evening tea

Kwa is a very flexible preposition in Swahili, so its exact English translation depends on context.

Because this is another connector phrase.

Ya is the form of the -a connector that agrees with chai, so chai ya jioni is literally:

• tea of evening

In natural English, that becomes evening tea.

Swahili does not have articles like English a/an and the.

Meaning like definiteness is usually understood from context, or made clearer in other ways, such as with a demonstrative like hizi = these.

So Swahili often leaves out something that English requires.