Kuku jike huyu ni mpole sana.

Because Swahili often builds this kind of meaning with:

• kuku = chicken
• jike = female

So kuku jike means female chicken, i.e. hen.

This is a very normal pattern in Swahili: the general animal name can be followed by a word showing sex.

Jike means female when talking about animals.

It is often paired with:

• dume = male
• jike = female

So you may see contrasts like:

• kuku jike = female chicken / hen
• kuku dume = male chicken / rooster

In Swahili, demonstratives like this and that usually come after the noun, not before it as in English.

So:

• kuku jike huyu = this female chicken
• not usually huyu kuku jike as the basic noun phrase order

This is one of the biggest word-order differences from English.

Huyu is the demonstrative used here for a singular animate being: this one.

Animals are very often treated with the same agreement pattern as people when they are specific living creatures. So even though kuku does not look like a typical m-/wa- noun, it can still take animate agreement here:

• singular: huyu = this
• plural: hawa = these

So kuku jike huyu means this female chicken.

Ni is the copula here — the word that links the subject to a description, like is/are in English.

So the structure is:

• Kuku jike huyu = this female chicken
• ni = is
• mpole sana = very gentle / very calm / very docile

A useful point: in simple present-tense sentences like this, Swahili often uses ni where English uses is or are.

Mpole means gentle, calm, docile, or mild-tempered.

The form mpole already shows the singular agreement used here. With a plural animate subject, you would normally get wapole instead.

For example:

• kuku huyu ni mpole = this chicken is gentle
• kuku hawa ni wapole = these chickens are gentle

So yes, the descriptive word can reflect agreement.

Sana means very or very much.

It usually comes after the word it strengthens:

• mpole sana = very gentle
• nzuri sana = very good / very nice
• kubwa sana = very big

So its position is normal Swahili word order.

No. Swahili does not use articles like English a, an, and the.

Whether something is definite or indefinite is usually understood from:

• context
• word order
• demonstratives like huyu = this

So kuku jike huyu is clearly definite because huyu points to a specific chicken.

As a basic noun phrase, Swahili normally prefers:

• kuku jike huyu

rather than English-style:

• huyu kuku jike

So if you are simply saying this female chicken, keep the demonstrative after the noun phrase.

You can sometimes move words around for special emphasis in broader discourse, but for learners, noun + demonstrative is the safe pattern to follow.

A natural plural version would be:

Kuku jike hawa ni wapole sana.

Changes:

• huyu → hawa = this/these agreement for plural animate
• mpole → wapole = plural animate agreement

So the pattern is:

• singular: Kuku jike huyu ni mpole sana.
• plural: Kuku jike hawa ni wapole sana.

A rough guide:

• mpole ≈ m-PO-leh
• huyu ≈ HOO-yoo
• jike ≈ JEE-keh
• kuku ≈ KOO-koo

A couple of pronunciation notes:

• Swahili vowels are usually clear and steady.
• e and o are usually pronounced, not reduced like English often does.
• At the start of mpole, pronounce the m: it is not silent.

So try the sentence smoothly as:

KOO-koo JEE-keh HOO-yoo nee m-PO-leh SAH-nah.