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Sufuria hii inatumika kupika wali.

Sufuria hii inatumika kupika wali.
This pot is used to cook rice.
FromLesson 35inHardcore Swahili
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Breakdown of Sufuria hii inatumika kupika wali.

kupika
to cook
hii
this
wali
the rice
sufuria
the pot
kutumika
to be used
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Questions & Answers about Sufuria hii inatumika kupika wali.

Why is the demonstrative hii placed after sufuria rather than before like in English, and how do we choose its form?
In Swahili, demonstratives follow the noun (structure: Noun + Demonstrative). The form of the demonstrative must agree with the noun class. Sufuria has no Bantu prefix, so it belongs to class 9/10. Its singular demonstrative is hii (“this”); if it were plural you’d say sufuria hizi (“these pots”).
What does inatumika mean, and how is it constructed?

Inatumika is the present‐tense passive of -tumia (“to use”). Break-down:
• Subject concord for class 9: i-
• Present tense marker: -na-
• Passive verb stem: -tumika
So i- + na- + tumika = inatumika, literally “it is being used” or simply “it is used.”

Why is the infinitive kupika used after inatumika?

The pattern X inatumika + infinitive expresses “X is used for [doing something].” The infinitive (marked by ku-) functions like English “to …,” showing purpose:
“sufuria hii inatumika kupika wali” = “this pot is used to cook rice.”

Can you explain why it’s kupika wali and not kupikia wali?
Kupika (“to cook [something]”) is transitive and takes the direct object wali (“rice”) after it. The applicative extension -ia in kupikia changes the sense to “to cook for someone.” Since here we only need “to cook rice,” we use kupika wali. If you said kupikia, you’d need to specify a person: e.g. kumupikia wali (“to cook rice for him/her”).
Where is the English equivalent of “it” in this sentence?
Swahili builds the subject into the verb. The “it” is encoded by the subject concord i- in inatumika, so no separate pronoun is needed.
Could I rephrase this sentence in the active voice, and how?

Yes. Use an active subject (e.g. Watu “people”) with the active verb tumia (“use”):
“Watu hutumia sufuria hii kupika wali.”
Here hu- is the general present‐tense prefix for class 2 (“people”), and tumia is active “use.”

Is the preposition kwa ever required before the infinitive (i.e. inatumika kwa kupika wali)?
You can insert kwa (“for/by”) to introduce purpose, but Swahili often prefers the bare infinitive. Both are grammatically correct, though inatumika kupika wali is more idiomatic than inatumika kwa kupika wali.