Manukuu yanakusaidia kuelewa fumbo?

Swahili verbs agree with the subject noun class. Since manukuu is plural, the verb takes the class 6 subject marker ya-. Then the present marker -na- is added, giving yana-.

So:

ya- = subject agreement with manukuu
-na- = present/imperfective marker

That is why you get yanakusaidia rather than some other verb form.

Yes. Swahili often packs several pieces of information into one verb word.

yanakusaidia can be broken down like this:

ya- = they, referring to manukuu
-na- = present/imperfective
-ku- = you
-saidia = help

So the whole word means something like they help you or they are helping you.

-na- is the present/imperfective marker. In English, that often has more than one possible translation.

So yanakusaidia can mean:

• they help you
• they are helping you
• they do help you

Context tells you which English wording sounds best.

-ku- is the object marker meaning you. It shows who is being helped.

So:

yanasaidia = they help
yanakusaidia = they help you

This is very common in Swahili: object pronouns are often attached directly to the verb.

Because kuelewa is the infinitive form, meaning to understand.

It breaks down as:

ku- = infinitive marker, like English to
elewa = understand

After verbs like -saidia meaning help, Swahili commonly uses an infinitive:

yanakusaidia kuelewa = they help you understand / they help you to understand

Because fumbo is the thing being understood. It belongs with kuelewa, not directly with yanakusaidia.

In other words, the structure is:

manukuu + help you + understand the riddle

So fumbo is the object of kuelewa.

Fumbo is singular. Its plural is mafumbo.

So:

fumbo = riddle, puzzle, mystery
mafumbo = riddles, puzzles, mysteries

Swahili does not have articles like English a, an, and the. Whether fumbo means a riddle or the riddle depends on context.

That is normal in Swahili, so you should not expect a separate word for articles.

In Swahili, yes/no questions often keep the same word order as statements. The sentence is understood as a question from intonation in speech or from the question mark in writing.

So this can work as a question just as it is:

Manukuu yanakusaidia kuelewa fumbo?

If you want, you can also add je at the beginning for extra clarity:

Je, manukuu yanakusaidia kuelewa fumbo?

Yes. Without question intonation or a question mark, it could be read as a statement:

Manukuu yanakusaidia kuelewa fumbo.
meaning The quotations/captions help you understand the riddle.

So punctuation and intonation matter here.

You would change both the noun and the verb agreement:

Nukuu inakusaidia kuelewa fumbo?

Here:

nukuu = singular
i- = the singular subject agreement used with that noun class
-na- = present marker

So the plural manukuu yanakusaidia becomes singular nukuu inakusaidia.