Learn Hardcore Swahili: Mtihani wa leo umeandikwa kwa uangalifu na walimu wawili. - Today’s exam has been written carefully by two teachers.

Mtihani – exam / test
wa – of (linking word for possession/association, agreeing with mtihani)
leo – today
→ Mtihani wa leo – today’s exam / the exam of today
u- (in umeandikwa) – subject prefix for class 3 nouns like mtihani
-me- – perfect tense marker (has/have done)
-andik- – write
-w- – passive marker
-a – final vowel
→ umeandikwa – has been written / was written
kwa – with / in (used to form adverbial expressions)
uangalifu – carefulness / care
→ kwa uangalifu – carefully (literally: with carefulness)
na – by (in a passive), also “and” in other contexts
walimu – teachers (plural of mwalimu)
wawili – two (for people in this noun class)
→ na walimu wawili – by two teachers

Whole: Mtihani wa leo umeandikwa kwa uangalifu na walimu wawili.
→ Today’s exam has been written carefully by two teachers.

Why is it wa leo and not ya leo?

The choice between wa and ya is about noun class agreement.

Mtihani belongs to noun class 3/4 (m/mi).
For this class, the associative “of” is wa (singular) and ya (plural).

So:

mtihani wa leo – today’s exam (singular, class 3 → wa)
mitihani ya leo – today’s exams (plural, class 4 → ya)

You use wa because you’re talking about one exam (mtihani), not many exams (mitihani).

What exactly does umeandikwa mean, and how is it formed?

umeandikwa is a passive perfect verb form:

u- – subject prefix for class 3 (mtihani → it)
-me- – perfect tense/aspect (“has/have already done”)
-andik- – write
-w- – passive marker
-a – final vowel

So umeandikwa literally is:

it (class 3) has been written

In natural English:

has been written (present perfect passive)
often translated also as was written if the context is recent or clearly past.

What’s the difference between umeandikwa and uliandikwa?

Two things change: the tense marker and the aspect.

umeandikwa
- u- – subject prefix (class 3: mtihani)
- -me- – perfect
- -andikw- – be written
  → has been written / was written (recently)
  It focuses on the result: the exam is now in a written state.
uliandikwa
- u- – subject prefix (class 3)
- -li- – simple past
- -andikw- – be written
  → was written (simple past event, no special focus on the present result)

In context:

Mtihani wa leo umeandikwa kwa uangalifu…
→ Suggests the exam is (now) ready, already written.
Mtihani wa jana uliandikwa kwa uangalifu…
→ Purely about what happened yesterday, no emphasis on the current state.

In this sentence, does na mean “and” or “by”?

Here, na means “by” because the verb is in the passive.

In passive sentences, na + agent often means “by + agent”:
- Mtihani umeandikwa na walimu wawili.
  → The exam has been written by two teachers.
In many other contexts, na means “and” or “with”:
- mwalimu na mwanafunzi – a teacher and a student
- ninaenda na rafiki yangu – I’m going with my friend

So in …umeandikwa … na walimu wawili, na = by.

Why do we say kwa uangalifu for “carefully” instead of just angalifu?

Swahili often forms adverb-like expressions with kwa + noun.

angalifu is an adjective: careful
uangalifu (with u-) is the abstract noun: care / carefulness
kwa uangalifu literally: with carefulness → adverbial “carefully”

This is a common pattern:

pole (sorry, gentle) → upole (gentleness) → kwa upole – gently
hakika (sure) → uhakika (certainty) → kwa uhakika – certainly, confidently

So kwa uangalifu is the natural way to say “carefully”.

Why do both walimu and wawili start with wa-?

This is noun class agreement in the people class (class 1/2).

mwalimu – teacher (singular, class 1)
walimu – teachers (plural, class 2)

Numbers that count people in this class also take wa- in the plural:

mwalimu mmoja – one teacher
walimu wawili – two teachers
walimu watatu – three teachers
walimu wanne – four teachers

So walimu wawili is:

walimu (plural noun, class 2)
wawili (plural form of “two” agreeing with class 2)

The wa- on wawili agrees with the wa- in walimu.

Can I change the word order and say Mtihani wa leo umeandikwa na walimu wawili kwa uangalifu?

Yes, that order is also correct and natural:

Mtihani wa leo umeandikwa kwa uangalifu na walimu wawili.
Mtihani wa leo umeandikwa na walimu wawili kwa uangalifu.

Both mean essentially the same thing.

Subtle differences in focus:

…kwa uangalifu na walimu wawili: the adverbial “carefully” comes a bit earlier, so the manner may feel slightly more foregrounded.
…na walimu wawili kwa uangalifu: you hear “by two teachers” first, then how they did it.

In normal conversation, either is fine; context and intonation usually show what is being emphasized.

Why isn’t there an explicit word for “it” (like “it has been written”)?

Swahili usually doesn’t use separate subject pronouns like English does. Instead, the subject is built into the verb prefix.

English: It has been written.
Swahili: umeandikwa.
- u- already means “it” (referring to mtihani in class 3).

So you don’t say something like “yeye mtihani umeandikwa”; that would be wrong. The subject is understood through the class prefix u- and the context.

Is Mtihani wa leo more like “today’s exam” or “the exam today”? Does Swahili have articles like “the” and “a”?

Swahili has no articles equivalent to English “the / a / an”. Context usually tells you whether something is definite or indefinite.

Mtihani wa leo can be translated as:
- “today’s exam”
- or “the exam today”

Both are fine in English; the Swahili form is literally “exam of today”.
Because you’re specifying “of today”, it naturally feels definite, like “the” in English, not just “an exam”.