Mwalimu alituletea orodha ya msamiati mpya kabla ya mtihani.

The teacher brought us a list of new vocabulary before the exam.

Breakdown of Mwalimu alituletea orodha ya msamiati mpya kabla ya mtihani.

• mwalimu: the teacher
• mpya: new
• ya: of
• kuleta: to bring
• kabla ya: before
• mtihani: the exam
• orodha: the list
• msamiati: the vocabulary

Questions & Answers about Mwalimu alituletea orodha ya msamiati mpya kabla ya mtihani.

What does alituletea consist of, grammatically?

Alituletea is one verb made up of several parts:

• a- = subject prefix for he/she (3rd person singular)
• -li- = past tense marker (completed action)
• -tu- = object prefix for us (1st person plural)
• lete- = verb root meaning bring
• -a = applicative ending here, giving the sense of bring to/for

So alituletea literally means he/she brought (something) to us / for us.

Why is it alituletea and not alileta if both involve bringing something?

• Alileta = he/she brought (it) (no explicit indirect object).
• Alituletea = he/she brought (it) to us / for us.

The verb -letea is the applicative form of -leta and typically implies to/for someone. The object prefix -tu- tells you that the people benefiting or receiving are us.

In Mwalimu alituletea orodha ya msamiati mpya, how do we know that us is the indirect object and list is the direct object?

Swahili shows the person involved with an object prefix on the verb (-tu- = us), and uses word order plus context for the thing being moved.

• Alituletea says: (he/she) brought to us.
• The thing that was brought appears after the verb: orodha ya msamiati mpya (a list of new vocabulary).

So:

• Direct object (thing brought) = orodha ya msamiati mpya
• Indirect object (recipient) = tu (us), shown inside the verb as -tu-.

Why is it orodha ya msamiati mpya and not orodha ya mpya msamiati?

In Swahili, descriptive adjectives normally come after the noun they describe:

• msamiati mpya = new vocabulary
  
  • msamiati = vocabulary
  • mpya = new

Putting mpya before the noun (mpya msamiati) would be ungrammatical or at least very unusual in standard Swahili.

What does ya do in orodha ya msamiati mpya?

Ya is a possessive/associative connector meaning something like of.

• orodha ya msamiati mpya = a list of new vocabulary

Grammatically, orodha is an N-class noun, and its associative form is ya. That is why we say orodha ya … rather than orodha wa … or orodha la ….

How is msamiati classified in noun classes, and what is its plural?

Msamiati belongs to the m–mi noun class:

• Singular: msamiati (vocabulary)
• Plural: misamiati (vocabularies, vocabulary lists, vocabularies of different subjects, etc.)

So you could say:

• Orodha ya msamiati mmoja = a list of one set of vocabulary
• Orodha za misamiati tofauti = lists of different vocabularies.

Why do we use mpya after msamiati, and how does it agree with the noun class?

Mpya is the adjective new.

For the m–mi class (like msamiati / misamiati), the adjective -pya normally appears as:

• Singular: mpya → msamiati mpya (new vocabulary)
• Plural: mipya → misamiati mipya (new vocabularies)

So mpya is in its singular form here, agreeing with msamiati.

Can kabla ya mtihani come at the beginning of the sentence instead of the end?

Yes. You can say either:

• Mwalimu alituletea orodha ya msamiati mpya kabla ya mtihani.
• Kabla ya mtihani, mwalimu alituletea orodha ya msamiati mpya.

Both are grammatical. Swahili is fairly flexible with adverbial phrases like kabla ya mtihani (before the exam). Putting it first can emphasize the time more.

What does kabla ya literally mean, and can it be used without ya?

• kabla = before (as a time relation)
• kabla ya = before (something)

When followed by a noun or noun phrase, kabla is normally used with ya:

• kabla ya mtihani = before the exam
• kabla ya chakula = before the food / before eating

You can have kabla by itself when it’s more adverbial and not directly linked to a following noun, for example:

• Fika kabla. = Arrive earlier / arrive beforehand.

But in constructions like this sentence, with mtihani after it, you keep ya.

What does mtihani mean, and how do you make it plural?

Mtihani means exam / test. It is in the m–mi noun class:

• Singular: mtihani (an exam)
• Plural: mitihani (exams)

Example:

• Nina mitihani mitatu wiki hii. = I have three exams this week.

Why is the subject just Mwalimu with no article like the or a?

Swahili does not use articles like a/an or the. Nouns appear without articles, and definiteness is understood from context.

Mwalimu in this sentence can mean:

• the teacher (a specific one already known)
• our teacher (if context makes that clear)
• a teacher (if introducing them for the first time)

English forces you to choose an article; Swahili simply uses the bare noun.

Could we say Mwalimu alileta orodha ya msamiati mpya kwetu instead of alituletea?

Yes, that is possible and grammatical:

• Mwalimu alileta orodha ya msamiati mpya kwetu.
  
  • alileta = he/she brought
  • kwetu = to us

However, alituletea is more compact and sounds very natural, because it encodes to us inside the verb. With kwetu, the to-us part is expressed as a separate word instead of a verb object prefix. Both versions are understandable; alituletea is simply more idiomatic here.

How would the meaning change if the teacher brought the list after the exam, not before?

You would replace kabla ya with baada ya (after):

• Mwalimu alituletea orodha ya msamiati mpya baada ya mtihani.
  
  • baada ya mtihani = after the exam

Everything else stays the same. The time relationship is reversed.

How would I say The teacher did not bring us a list of new vocabulary before the exam?

You need the negative past form of the verb:

• Mwalimu hakutuletea orodha ya msamiati mpya kabla ya mtihani.

Breakdown of hakutuletea:

• ha- = negative marker for present/near past
• -ku- = past in negative constructions (functioning like past tense here)
• -tu- = us
• letea = bring to/for

So hakutuletea = did not bring to us.