Mara nyingi mwalimu hutuuliza tuandike muhtasari mfupi wa kile tulichosoma.

Often the teacher asks us to write a brief summary of what we have read.

Breakdown of Mara nyingi mwalimu hutuuliza tuandike muhtasari mfupi wa kile tulichosoma.

• mwalimu: the teacher
• kuandika: to write
• wa: of
• mara nyingi: often
• kile: that
• kuuliza: to ask
• sisi: us
• muhtasari: the summary
• mfupi: short
• tulichosoma: which we read

Questions & Answers about Mara nyingi mwalimu hutuuliza tuandike muhtasari mfupi wa kile tulichosoma.

What does mara nyingi mean here, and does it always have to go at the beginning of the sentence?

Mara nyingi literally means “many times”, but in practice it corresponds to “often / usually / frequently”.

Word order:

• Mara nyingi mwalimu hutuuliza… – Very natural, like “Often the teacher asks us…”
• You can also put it after the subject: Mwalimu mara nyingi hutuuliza…

Both are correct. Putting mara nyingi at the beginning makes it a bit more of an overall setting for the sentence (“as a rule, often…”), but the meaning doesn’t really change.

What is the function of hu- in hutuuliza?

The hu- here is the habitual marker, used in the present tense to mean “usually / generally / habitually does X”.

• Mwalimu hutuuliza… = “The teacher often/usually asks us…”
• Without hu-, you would have a more neutral present:
  Mwalimu anatuuliza… = “The teacher is asking us / asks us (now / these days).”

Important points about hu-:

• It replaces the normal subject prefix in the present tense (so you don’t say mwalimu hu-tu-uliza, you just say hutuuliza).
• It doesn’t combine with tense markers like -li- (past) or -ta- (future). It’s its own “tense” meaning “habitually.”
  You don’t say: mwalimu alihutuuliza.

How is the verb hutuuliza broken down? Why does it look like there are two u’s in a row?

Hutuuliza breaks down like this:

• hu- = habitual marker (“usually / often”)
• -tu- = object marker “us”
• -uliza = verb root “ask”

So morphologically it is: hu–tu–uliza → hutuuliza.

The two u’s meet at the junction of tu- and uliza:

• tu + uliza → tuuliza

Swahili spelling keeps both vowels, so you see tuu in the middle: hutuuliza.

Why is it tuandike and not kuandika after hutuuliza?

Tuandike is the subjunctive form, used for requests, commands, or things that someone wants/asks another person to do.

• tu- = “we”
• andik- = verb root “write”
• -e = subjunctive ending

So tuandike = “(that) we write”.

The structure is:

• Mwalimu hutuuliza tuandike…
  = “The teacher often asks us to write…”

Using kuandika would change the feel:

• Mwalimu hutuuliza kuandika… – sounds more like “The teacher asks about writing… / asks the question ‘to write…?’” and is not the natural way to say “asks us to write” here.

When someone asks/tells/wants someone else to do something, Swahili strongly prefers the subjunctive:

• Ananiambia niende. – He tells me (that) I should go.
• Walituomba tuwasaidie. – They asked us (that) we help them. → They asked us to help them.

Is kuuliza really used for “ask someone to do something”? In English we’d often say “tell” or “ask (someone) to do X”.

Yes, kuuliza literally means “to ask (a question)”, but in practice it is often used where English says “ask someone to do X”. The pattern is:

• [subject] + [kuuliza] + [person] + [subjunctive clause]

Example (like our sentence):

• Mwalimu hutuuliza tuandike muhtasari.
  “The teacher often asks us to write a summary.”

Other options:

• Mwalimu hutuumba tuandike muhtasari. – “The teacher often asks (politely) us to write a summary.”
• Mwalimu hutuambia tuandike muhtasari. – “The teacher often tells us to write a summary.”

All are possible, but hutuuliza tuandike… is very natural and common.

Why is the adjective mfupi after muhtasari and not before it?

In Swahili, adjectives usually come after the noun:

• muhtasari mfupi – “short summary”
• msichana mrefu – “tall girl”
• kitabu kizuri – “good book”

So:

• muhtasari mfupi is normal.
• mfupi muhtasari would sound wrong or at least very strange.

Also notice agreement:

• muhtasari is a class 3 noun.
• The adjective “short” is -fupi, and in class 3 it takes the agreement m- → mfupi.

Why do we say muhtasari wa kile… and not muhtasari ya kile…?

The preposition-like element wa/ya/cha/la/za etc. that links nouns must agree with the noun class of the first noun.

• muhtasari is a class 3 noun.
• Class 3 uses wa for “of”:
  • mti wa embe – mango tree
  • mlango wa nyumba – door of the house
  • muhtasari wa kile… – summary of what…

Compare:

• Class 9: hadithi ya kile… – story of what…
• Class 7: kitabu cha kile… – book of what…

So it is muhtasari wa…, not muhtasari ya….

What is the difference between kile and just saying tulichosoma after wa?

Kile tulichosoma literally means “that which we read” or “what we read”.

Breakdown:

• kile – demonstrative, “that (thing), that which”
• tulichosoma – “(which) we read”

If you only said wa tulichosoma, it would be ungrammatical: the “of” (wa) needs a noun or pronoun to attach to.

The structure is:

• muhtasari wa [kile tulichosoma]
  • “a summary of [that which we read]”
  • i.e. “a summary of what we read”

So kile acts as the “thing” that the relative verb tulichosoma is describing. It’s similar to English “what” in “a summary of what we read,” but in Swahili it’s built as “that which we read.”

What exactly is going on inside tulichosoma? How is it formed?

Tulichosoma is a relative verb form built from:

• tu- = subject “we”
• -li- = past tense marker
• -cho- = relative marker agreeing with kile (class 7)
• -soma = verb root “read”

So: tu–li–cho–soma → tulichosoma
= “(which) we read”

Used with kile:

• kile tulichosoma = “that which we read / what we read”

The -cho- part is the key relative element; it ties the verb soma back to kile.

Why is the relative marker -cho- and not -lo- or something else?

Relative markers in Swahili agree with the noun class of the thing they refer to.

Here, the thing is kile, which is class 7.
Class 7 uses -cho- as its relative marker.

Examples:

• kitu kilichovunjika – “the thing that broke”
• kitabu nilichosoma – “the book that I read”

In our sentence:

• kile (class 7) → relative marker -cho-
• tulichosoma = “(which) we read”

If the noun were class 3, for example, you’d see -lo-:

• mti nilioupanda – “the tree that I planted”
• (more explicitly: mti nilioupanda = mti niliou -panda; here -o- for class 3/4, but with inserted object; relative systems can be a bit more complex, but for class 7 -cho- is standard.)

Could we say mara nyingi mwalimu hutuliza tuandike muhtasari… instead of hutuuliza?

No – that would change the meaning completely.

• kuuliza = to ask
• kutuliza = to calm, to soothe

So:

• hutuuliza = hu- (habitual) + tu (us) + uliza (ask) → “he often asks us”
• hutuliza = hu- (habitual) + tuliza (calm) → “he often calms (us / things) down”

The extra -u- and the object marker -tu- in hutuuliza are essential.

Are there other natural ways to say this same sentence?

Yes. A few stylistic variations while keeping the same meaning:

• Mwalimu mara nyingi hutuuliza tuandike muhtasari mfupi wa kile tulichosoma.
  (Just moved mara nyingi.)

• Mara nyingi mwalimu hututaka tuandike muhtasari mfupi wa kile tulichosoma.
  (hututaka “usually wants us to write…”)

• Mara nyingi mwalimu hutuambia tuandike muhtasari mfupi wa kile tulichosoma.
  (“often tells us to write…”)

All are natural; the original is very standard and idiomatic.