Jumla ya pesa tulizotumia sokoni leo ni kubwa.

Jumla means total, sum, or overall amount.

So jumla ya pesa means the total amount of money or the sum of money.

Ya is the associative/genitive linker, often translated as of.

So:

• jumla ya pesa = total of money

The form of this linker changes with noun class. Here it is ya because it agrees with jumla.

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

Whether something is the total or a total usually comes from context. So jumla ya pesa can be understood naturally without an article.

It can be split like this:

• tu- = we
• -li- = past tense
• -zo- = relative marker, roughly that/which
• -tumia = use

So tulizotumia means that we used, and with money, that often means that we spent.

Because the sentence is talking about the money that we spent, not just saying we spent.

• tulitumia = we used / we spent
• tulizotumia = that we used / that we spent

The -zo- part connects the verb back to pesa. It works like English that or which in a relative clause.

Because the relative clause refers back to pesa.

Pesa belongs to the N-class in Swahili, and in this kind of structure it commonly takes the relative marker -zo-.

So pesa tulizotumia means the money that we spent.

A useful thing to remember is that Swahili relative markers change depending on the noun class of the noun being described.

Literally, kutumia means to use.

But with money, to use money naturally means to spend money.

So:

• kutumia pesa = to spend money

This is very normal Swahili usage.

Soko means market.

The ending -ni is a locative ending, so:

• soko = market
• sokoni = at the market / in the market / to the market

In this sentence, sokoni means at the market.

Leo means today.

It tells you when the spending happened. In this sentence it goes with the idea of we spent:

• tulizotumia sokoni leo = that we spent at the market today

Ni is the copula, meaning is/are.

So:

• jumla ... ni kubwa = the total ... is large

It links the subject to the description kubwa.

Kubwa means big, large, or great.

Here it describes jumla: the total amount is large.

With amounts, totals, and prices, kubwa often means something like:

• large
• high
• a lot

So it is not about physical size here.

Because the adjective agrees with jumla, and jumla is a class 9 noun.

With many adjectives in class 9/10, the form often appears without an obvious extra prefix, so kubwa is the correct form here.

Compare:

• kitabu kikubwa = big book
• jumla kubwa = big/large total

So the agreement is there, but it is not always very visible.

Pesa is one of those Swahili nouns whose form often stays the same in singular and plural-looking uses.

Very often, it is best understood as a mass noun: money.

So learners should not expect a visible change like English coin/coins. With pesa, the surrounding agreement often gives you more information than the noun form itself.

Yes, Swahili word order is somewhat flexible, especially with time and place expressions.

For example, you may also hear:

• Leo, jumla ya pesa tulizotumia sokoni ni kubwa.
• Jumla ya pesa tulizotumia leo sokoni ni kubwa.

The original sentence is natural, and it clearly keeps leo connected to the spending event.