Learn Hardcore Swahili: Mama alitulia aliposikia mtoto wake anacheka sebuleni. - Mother calmed down when she heard her child laughing in the living room.

It can mean the mother / the mom (a specific mother in the story being told).
In real life, when someone talks about Mama in isolation, it often means my mother, depending on context and who is speaking.
It can also be more general, like a mother, if the context is generic.

In this example sentence, in English we’d most naturally say The mother or Mom. Swahili doesn’t need a word like the or a here; mama alone is enough, and context tells you whether it’s the or my mother.

What tense is alitulia, and what does it literally mean?

Alitulia is in the simple past tense.

Breakdown:

a- = subject marker for he/she (class 1, singular)
-li- = past tense marker
-tulia = verb root meaning to calm down, become calm, settle, be still

So alitulia literally means she/he became calm or she/he calmed down.

Note that tulia is intransitive here (the subject calms down themself).
If the mother calmed someone else down, you’d expect alituliza mtoto (from tuliza, to calm/soothe someone).

How does aliposikia mean when she heard? Where is when?

The when idea is packed into the verb itself by the piece -po-.

Breakdown of aliposikia:

a- = she/he
-li- = past tense
-po- = a relative/locative marker that often means when/where (at the time/place that)
-sikia = hear

So aliposikia literally means something like:

when she/he heard
at the time that she/he heard

There is no separate word for when; instead, -po- attached to the verb gives that meaning. This is very typical in Swahili:

alipofika = when he/she arrived
alipomaliza = when he/she finished

Why is aliposikia written as one word and not as two words, like alipo sikia?

In Swahili, all the pieces of a verb (subject, tense, relative marker, object marker, root, suffixes) are normally written as one word.

So:

a- (she/he)
-li- (past)
-po- (when/where)
sikia (hear)

combine to form aliposikia as a single verb word.

You almost never separate these pieces in normal writing. They are treated as parts of one grammatical word, not as independent words.

How does possession work in mtoto wake? Why is it mtoto wake and not wake mtoto?

In Swahili, the possessed noun comes first, and the possessive word follows it.

Pattern:

[thing possessed] + [possessive]

So:

mtoto wake = her/his child
kitabu changu = my book
rafiki yetu = our friend

You do not reverse the order like English her child → child her is actually the normal Swahili order: mtoto wake.

So mtoto wake = her/his child, with wake agreeing with mtoto in its noun class.

Why is it wake and not yake in mtoto wake?

Both wake and yake can mean his/her, but they depend on the noun class of the noun they describe.

Mtoto is in noun class 1 (the m-/wa- class: mtu, mtoto, mwanafunzi, etc.).
The class‑1 form of -ake (his/her) is wake.

Some common -ake forms:

mtoto wake = his/her child (class 1 → wa-)
kitabu chake = his/her book (class 7 → cha-)
vitabu vyake = his/her books (class 8 → vya-)
meza yake = his/her table (class 9/10 → ya-/za-)

So:

Class 1 → wake
Other classes → forms like yake, chake, vyake, lake, zake, etc.

That’s why mtoto wake, not mtoto yake.

There are no separate words for she or he. How do we know who is doing what in this sentence?

Swahili usually doesn’t use separate subject pronouns like English she/he.
Instead, it uses subject markers attached to the verb:

a- = he/she (class 1 singular)
wa- = they (class 2, or class 1 plural)

In the sentence:

alitulia → a- tells us she/he calmed down. Context tells us it is mama.
aliposikia → again a- = she/he (still mama).
anacheka → a- = he/she (this time, context tells us it is mtoto wake).

So the subject is understood from:

The subject marker on the verb (a-), and
The nearest relevant noun (first mama, then mtoto wake).

Swahili trusts context much more than English for this.

Why is anacheka in the present tense when the main action alitulia / aliposikia is in the past? Could we say alicheka or akicheka instead?

Anacheka is present (progressive/habitual):

a- = he/she
-na- = present
-cheka = laugh

In this kind of sentence, present tense after a past alipo- often describes an action that was in progress at that moment:

aliposikia mtoto wake anacheka sebuleni
= when she heard that her child was laughing in the living room
(the laughing is ongoing at the time she hears it)

Alternatives:

mtoto wake alicheka sebuleni
- This is simple past (he laughed).
- It sounds more like a single event: when she heard that her child laughed (once) in the living room, which is a bit odd in this context.
mtoto wake akicheka sebuleni
- Here akicheka uses the -ki- marker: while/when doing.
- aliposikia mtoto wake akicheka sebuleni = when she heard her child laughing (while he was laughing) in the living room.
- This is also very natural and, in fact, many speakers might prefer akicheka here.

So:

anacheka = emphasises that the child is currently laughing at that moment.
akicheka = emphasises simultaneity: while he was laughing.
Both can work; the nuance is slightly different.

What exactly does sebuleni mean, and what does the -ni ending do?

The base noun is sebule = sitting room / living room.

When you add -ni to certain nouns, it often makes a locative form meaning in/at/on [that place].

So:

sebule = living room
sebuleni = in the living room / at the living room

Other examples:

nyumba → nyumbani = at home / in the house
shule → shuleni = at school
kanisa → kanisani = at church

So sebuleni already includes the idea of in, so you don’t normally say katika sebuleni unless you really want to emphasise inside.

Can the order of the clauses change? For example, can we start with aliposikia instead of Mama alitulia?

Yes, you can move the aliposikia clause to the beginning without changing the meaning:

Mama alitulia aliposikia mtoto wake anacheka sebuleni.
Aliposikia mtoto wake anacheka sebuleni, mama alitulia.

Both mean:

When she heard her child laughing in the living room, the mother calmed down.

Swahili is fairly flexible with clause order like this.
If you put the aliposikia clause first, you usually separate it with a comma in writing.

Should there be an object marker in aliposikia for mtoto wake? What would alipomsikia mtoto wake anacheka mean?

You can add an object marker, but you don’t have to.

Current sentence: aliposikia mtoto wake anacheka
- mtoto wake is the direct object of sikia.
- There is no object marker; the object is expressed only by the noun phrase mtoto wake.

If you add an object marker for a singular human object, you get -m-:

alipomsikia mtoto wake anacheka sebuleni
- a- (she) + -li- (past) + -po- (when) + -m- (him/her) + sikia (hear)
- Literally: when she heard him/her, her child, laughing in the living room

Nuance:

Without -m-, it is neutral: she heard her child laughing.
With -m-, it can sound a bit more emphatic or specific, as if the child is particularly important or previously mentioned. In many regions, speakers often include object markers with definite human objects, but their use is somewhat stylistic and dialect‑dependent.

Both versions are grammatically correct.