Mbuni huyo anakimbia haraka sana.

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

So Swahili says:

mbuni huyo = that ostrich

not the English-style order that ostrich.

This is a very normal pattern in Swahili:

• mtu huyo = that person
• kitabu hiki = this book
• mbuni huyo = that ostrich

Huyo is a demonstrative, meaning something like that.

In the set for singular animate nouns, you often see:

• huyu = this
• huyo = that
• yule = that over there / that one farther away

So mbuni huyo points to a specific ostrich that is not right here as this, but is identifiable as that one.

In everyday learning materials, huyo is often the best simple match for that.

Because Swahili often treats animate nouns—people and animals—with the same agreement pattern.

So even though mbuni is not a human being, it still commonly takes animate agreement:

• huyo for that one
• ana- for he/she/it as an animate singular subject

That is why you get:

• Mbuni huyo anakimbia...

and not an inanimate-style agreement pattern.

This is very common with animals in Swahili.

Anakimbia can be divided like this:

• a- = subject marker for singular animate he/she/it
• -na- = present tense
• -kimbia = run

So:

a-na-kimbia = he/she/it is running or he/she/it runs

Since the subject is mbuni huyo, the whole verb agrees with it.

Because Swahili usually builds subject and tense information into the verb itself.

In English, you need separate pieces:

• is running

In Swahili, those ideas are packed into one word:

• anakimbia

So anakimbia already contains:

• the subject
• the present tense
• the main verb

That is why there is no separate standalone word for is here.

It can mean either, depending on context.

With -na-, Swahili often expresses a present action. In English, that may come out as:

• is running if the action is happening now
• runs in a more general or habitual sense

In this sentence, if you are looking at the ostrich right now, is running very fast is the most natural English translation.

Haraka means fast / quickly, and sana means very.

Together:

• haraka sana = very fast / very quickly

So the sentence ends with an adverbial idea describing how the ostrich runs.

A useful point: sana usually comes after the word it intensifies.

So:

• haraka sana = very fast
• not usually sana haraka

Here it works like an adverb, because it describes the verb anakimbia:

• The ostrich runs how?
• haraka sana

So in this sentence, haraka means quickly / fast.

Swahili does not always separate adjective and adverb forms the way English does, so one word can often cover both ideas depending on context.

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

That means a noun like mbuni can mean:

• an ostrich
• the ostrich

The context tells you which one is meant.

In this sentence, huyo makes the noun specific, so the sense is more like that ostrich rather than just an ostrich.

A natural plural version would be:

Mbuni wale wanakimbia haraka sana.

Here is what changed:

• mbuni stays mbuni
• huyo becomes wale = those
• anakimbia becomes wanakimbia because the subject is now plural animate

Breakdown:

• wa- = plural animate subject marker
• -na- = present tense
• -kimbia = run

So:

• Mbuni huyo anakimbia haraka sana. = That ostrich is running very fast.
• Mbuni wale wanakimbia haraka sana. = Those ostriches are running very fast.

Mbuni is pronounced roughly m-boo-nee.

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• The mb at the beginning is pronounced together, not split apart.
• u sounds like oo in food
• i sounds like ee in see

Also, Swahili stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable, so in mbuni the stress is on bu:

• mBUni

And in anakimbia, the stress is on bi:

• ana-kim-BI-a