Kiwanda hiki ni kikubwa.

to be

Breakdown of Kiwanda hiki ni kikubwa.

• hiki: this
• kikubwa: big
• kiwanda: the factory

Questions & Answers about Kiwanda hiki ni kikubwa.

Why is hiki used for this instead of something like hii?

Because Swahili uses noun classes, and words that go with a noun must agree with that noun’s class.

Kiwanda belongs to the ki-/vi- noun class:

• singular: kiwanda = factory
• plural: viwanda = factories

For a singular noun in this class, this is hiki. So:

• kiwanda hiki = this factory

You cannot use hii here, because hii agrees with nouns from a different noun class.

What does the ki- at the beginning of kiwanda and kikubwa do?

The ki- shows agreement with the noun class of kiwanda.

In this sentence:

• kiwanda is the noun
• kikubwa is the adjective big, but it has been changed to agree with kiwanda

The basic adjective is -kubwa = big / large.
To match kiwanda, it becomes:

• ki- + -kubwa = kikubwa

So kikubwa means big for a noun in the ki-/vi- class.

Why does the adjective come after the noun?