Twiga huyu ana shingo ndefu sana.

to have

Breakdown of Twiga huyu ana shingo ndefu sana.

• sana: very
• huyu: this
• ndefu: long

Questions & Answers about Twiga huyu ana shingo ndefu sana.

What is the literal word-for-word order of Twiga huyu ana shingo ndefu sana?

A very literal breakdown is:

twiga = giraffe
huyu = this
ana = has
shingo = neck
ndefu = long
sana = very

So the structure is basically giraffe this has neck long very.

That sounds odd in English, but it is a normal Swahili word order.

What does huyu mean, and why does it come after twiga?

Huyu means this one / this for a singular animate noun.

In Swahili, demonstratives like this usually come after the noun, not before it. So:

twiga huyu = this giraffe
literally: giraffe this

That pattern is very common in Swahili.

What does ana mean here?