Nyani wawili wamekaa juu ya mti.

the tree

Breakdown of Nyani wawili wamekaa juu ya mti.

• kukaa: to sit
• wawili: two
• juu ya: on top of

Questions & Answers about Nyani wawili wamekaa juu ya mti.

What does each word in Nyani wawili wamekaa juu ya mti do?

A quick breakdown:

• Nyani = monkey / monkeys
• wawili = two
• wamekaa = they are sitting / they have sat down and are now seated
• juu ya = on top of / above / up on
• mti = tree

So the sentence structure is basically:

• Nyani wawili = two monkeys
• wamekaa = are sitting
• juu ya mti = on a tree / up in the tree

Why doesn’t nyani change form to show plural?

Because some Swahili nouns have the same form in singular and plural. Nyani is one of them.

So:

• nyani can mean monkey
• nyani can also mean monkeys

You tell the number from the other words around it, especially:

• wawili = two
• wa- in wamekaa = they

Those agreement clues show clearly that this sentence is about more than one monkey.

Why is it wawili and not mbili for two?