Learn Hardcore Swahili: Mwalimu aliweka mkazo kwenye matumizi ya “-po” leo. - The teacher put emphasis on the use of “-po” today.

You could also, in some contexts, see ameweka mkazo (“has put emphasis”), which uses the -me- (perfect) tense to stress that the result is relevant now, but the -li- past in aliweka is perfectly normal here as a report of what happened today.

What exactly does mkazo mean, and where does it come from?

Mkazo is a noun meaning things like:

emphasis
stress / pressure
intensity / force

It comes from the verb -kaza = to tighten, press, apply pressure. So kuweka mkazo is very literally “to put pressure / focus” on something, and idiomatically “to put emphasis on” something.

Grammatically:

mkazo is in noun class 3 (singular, with m-)
its plural is mikazo (class 4)

Examples:

Aliweka mkazo mkubwa kwenye nidhamu.
“He/She put strong emphasis on discipline.”
Kulikuwa na mkazo wa sauti kwenye silabi ya kwanza.
“There was stress on the first syllable.”

A very close synonym as a noun is msisitizo (emphasis, insistence), and as a verb you also have kusisitiza (“to emphasize/insist”).

Why do we say aliweka mkazo kwenye and not just aliweka mkazo matumizi ya -po?

The pattern kuweka mkazo kwenye/kwa/katika X is a common and very natural expression meaning “to put emphasis on X”.

kwenye here works like “on / about / with regard to”.
Without kwenye (or something similar), aliweka mkazo matumizi ya -po feels incomplete or at least less idiomatic.

Compare:

Aliweka mkazo kwenye matumizi ya -po.
“He/She put emphasis on the use of -po.”
Aliweka mkazo kwenye nidhamu.
“He/She emphasized discipline.”

You can also replace kwenye with:

katika – more formal, “in / within / on”:
Aliweka mkazo katika matumizi ya -po.
juu ya – literally “on top of”, metaphorically “about / regarding”:
Aliweka mkazo juu ya matumizi ya -po.

All three are acceptable here, with kwenye being very common in everyday East African Swahili.

What does matumizi mean, and what kind of noun is it?

Matumizi is a noun meaning:

use / usage / application
sometimes expenditure / expenses (e.g. matumizi ya pesa = spending of money)

It is derived from the verb -tumia (“to use”).

Grammatically:

It belongs to noun class 6 (the ma- class).
It behaves like a plural or collective noun; the corresponding singular tumizi exists but is rarely used in everyday speech.
Adjectives agreeing with it take ma-, for example:
matumizi mazuri ya lugha – “good use of language”.

In your sentence, matumizi ya -po means “the use/usage of -po” (as a grammatical element).

Why is the connector ya used in matumizi ya -po, and not wa or la?

The word ya here is the genitive/possessive connector meaning “of”, and it must agree with the noun class of matumizi.

Matumizi is a class 6 noun.
The class 6 genitive connector is ya.

So we get:

matumizi ya -po = “use/usage of -po”

Compare with other classes:

Class 1 (mtu): mtu wa Mungu – “person of God”
Class 5 (neno): neno la Mungu – “word of God”
Class 6 (maneno): maneno ya mwalimu – “words of the teacher”
Class 6 (matumizi): matumizi ya -po – “use of -po”

So ya is not random; it’s there because matumizi is in a class that takes ya in this construction.

What is -po exactly? Is it a word, a suffix, or something else?

-po is a locative/relative marker in Swahili. It is usually written with a leading hyphen in grammar explanations (-po) to show that it normally attaches to other words rather than standing alone.

Broadly:

-po relates to a specific, known place or time (“where/when exactly”).
It appears in:
- Relative/temporal verb forms:
  - Alipofika… – “When he/she arrived / Where he/she arrived…”
  - Nitakapokuona… – “When I see you…”
- certain pronoun-like forms:
  - hapo – “right there/then (near addressee)”
  - pale – “there (farther away)”
  - popote – “anywhere / wherever (specific-type)”

It is often contrasted with:

-ko – more general, non-specific “at/where”
-mo – “inside / within”

In teaching, people talk about “matumizi ya -po” (“the use of -po”) as a topic, meaning how and when you use this specific locative element in verbs and pronouns. That’s what the teacher was emphasizing in the sentence.

Why is leo placed at the end of the sentence? Can it go somewhere else?

Leo means “today”, and Swahili time expressions are quite flexible in position.

Your sentence:

Mwalimu aliweka mkazo kwenye matumizi ya -po leo.
→ The teacher emphasized the use of -po today.

Other natural options:

Leo mwalimu aliweka mkazo kwenye matumizi ya -po.
→ Emphasis tends to fall more on “today (as opposed to other days)”.
Mwalimu leo aliweka mkazo kwenye matumizi ya -po.
→ Often heard in speech; slightly highlights that today, the teacher (maybe unusually) did this.

Placing leo at the end is very common and sounds neutral: it simply specifies when this happened, after the rest of the information.

There is no word like “the” before mwalimu. How do we know if it means “the teacher” or “a teacher”?

Swahili does not use articles like “a” or “the”. A bare noun like mwalimu can mean:

“a teacher”
“the teacher”
sometimes even “teachers in general”, depending on context.

The exact interpretation comes from:

context:
In a classroom story, mwalimu is almost always “the teacher” (the one both speaker and listener know).
extra words, when needed:
- yule mwalimu – “that (specific) teacher”
- mwalimu mmoja – “one teacher / a (certain) teacher”
- mwalimu fulani – “a certain teacher”

In your sentence, in a typical learning context, Mwalimu would naturally be understood as “the teacher”.

Could we say Mwalimu alisisitiza matumizi ya -po leo instead? Is it the same meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Mwalimu alisisitiza matumizi ya -po leo.

This is also good Swahili and very close in meaning. The difference is mostly in expression:

kuweka mkazo kwenye X = “to put emphasis on X”, literally “to place pressure/focus on X”
kusisitiza X = “to stress/emphasize/insist on X”

Nuance:

aliweka mkazo kwenye matumizi ya -po slightly highlights the focus or attention being placed on that topic.
alisisitiza matumizi ya -po can sound a bit more like he/she insisted on the use of -po (maybe repeating or strongly underlining it).

In many teaching contexts, both would simply be understood as “The teacher emphasized the use of -po today.”

Why is -po written as a separate item (with a hyphen and special marking) instead of just inside a verb form?

When we talk about a grammatical piece like -po itself (rather than using it inside a normal word), we usually highlight it:

We add a hyphen (-po) to show it is a bound element that attaches to other forms (like alipofika, mahali popote).
In teaching materials, we might also put it in bold or some other marking (like -po) to show it is the object of explanation, not part of the surrounding sentence.

In ordinary Swahili prose, you would almost never see -po on its own; instead you’d see it inside words:

Alipofika, tulianza. – “When he arrived, we started.”
Mahali popote alipo, tutamtafuta. – “Wherever he is, we will look for him.”

In your sentence, the teacher is talking about this element as a topic of grammar, which is why it is singled out visually.