Learn Hardcore Swahili: Miji yote tuliyopita wakati wa safari ilikuwa yenye mandhari mazuri. - All the towns we passed during the journey had beautiful scenery.

miji – towns/cities (plural of mji)
yote – all (agreeing with miji)
tuliyopita – that we passed / which we passed
- tu- = we (subject marker)
- -li- = past tense
- -yo- = relative marker for class 4 noun (miji) meaning that/which
- -pita = to pass
wakati – time / period / when
wa – of (possessive agreeing with wakati)
safari – journey / trip
ilikuwa – was (past of kuwa, with subject marker i- agreeing with miji)
yenye – having / with (relative form of -enye, agreeing with miji)
mandhari – scenery / landscape / views
mazuri – good / beautiful (agreeing with mandhari as a ma- noun)

A very literal rendering is:

Towns all which-we-passed time of journey were having scenery beautiful.

Why is it miji yote and not yote miji for “all the towns”?

In Swahili, quantifiers like yote (all) usually come after the noun they describe:

miji yote – all the towns
vitabu vyote – all the books
watoto wote – all the children

Putting yote before the noun (yote miji) is not normal Swahili word order and sounds wrong.

So the pattern is:

[Noun] + [“all” word agreeing with that noun]
miji yote, chakula chote, siku zote, etc.

What exactly is tuliyopita, and why isn’t there a separate word for “that/which” like in English?

Swahili doesn’t usually use a separate word for that/which in relative clauses.
Instead, the “that/which” meaning is built inside the verb.

tuliyopita breaks down as:

tu- – we (subject)
-li- – past tense (did)
-yo- – relative marker for class 4 (referring back to miji)
pita – pass

So tuliyopita literally means something like:

we-past-which-pass → (which) we passed

The whole chunk miji yote tuliyopita = all the towns (which) we passed.

Other examples:

vitabu tulivyonunua – the books (that) we bought
mtu aliyeniona – the person (who) saw me
siku tulizofika – the days (when) we arrived

The relative “pronoun” (that/which/who) becomes a relative marker (-yo-, -cho-, -lo-, etc.) inside the verb rather than a separate word.

Could I say miji yote ambayo tulipita instead of miji yote tuliyopita?

Yes, you can. Both are correct, but there are small differences in style and structure.

miji yote tuliyopita
- Uses the relative marker inside the verb (-yo-).
- Very natural, everyday, and slightly more compact.
miji yote ambayo tulipita
- Uses ambayo as a separate relative pronoun for class 4.
- Literally “all the towns which we passed”.
- Also correct; sometimes heard more in careful/school-book style.

You may also hear tulipitia instead of tulipita:

tulipita miji – we passed the towns / went past them
tulipitia miji – we passed by/through the towns (emphasis on going via them)

All of these are acceptable; tuliyopita is just the most compact way to say “that we passed” here.

What does wakati wa safari mean, and why is it wa and not ya?

wakati wa safari literally means “time of the journey”, but it’s commonly understood as “during the journey / on the trip”.

Structure:

wakati – time/period (class 11/14 noun)
wa – “of”, agreeing with wakati (not with safari)
safari – journey/trip

So wa is chosen because it must agree with “wakati”, whose possessive form is wa.

Compare:

wakati wa kazi – time of work / during work
wakati wa mvua – rainy season / during the rain

You could also express “during the journey” in other ways, e.g.:

tuliyopita kwenye safari
tuliyopita wakati wa safari yetu – during our journey
tulipokuwa safarini – when we were on the journey

But wakati wa safari is a very natural and common phrase.

Why is it ilikuwa and not something like walikuwa even though “towns” is plural?

Swahili verb agreement is based on noun class, not on singular/plural in the same way as English.

mji (town) is class 3 → subject marker u-
- mji ulikuwa… – the town was…
miji (towns) is class 4 → subject marker i-
- miji ilikuwa… – the towns were…

So ilikuwa = i- (class 4 subject marker) + -li- (past) + -kuwa (to be).

walikuwa is used for class 2 (people, plural of mtu):

mtu alikuwa mgonjwa – the person was sick
watu walikuwa wagonjwa – the people were sick

Because miji is not a person-word, it does not take wa-; it takes i-.

What does yenye mandhari mazuri mean, and how does yenye work?

yenye comes from the root -enye, which means “having” / “with”.

It always appears with a class prefix, and that prefix must agree with the noun being described.

Here, the noun is miji (class 4), so we use the class 4 form yenye:

miji ilikuwa yenye mandhari mazuri
→ the towns were ones that had beautiful scenery
→ the towns had beautiful scenery

Other examples with -enye:

mtu mwenye pesa – a person with money
watu wenye nguvu – strong people (people with strength)
kikapu chenye matunda – a basket with fruit
nyumba yenye madirisha makubwa – a house with big windows

Here, yenye mandhari mazuri is basically functioning like “having beautiful scenery” or “with beautiful scenery”.

Could I say ilikuwa na mandhari mazuri instead of ilikuwa yenye mandhari mazuri?

Yes, you can, and it’s very common:

miji yote … ilikuwa na mandhari mazuri
– all the towns … had beautiful scenery

Difference in feel:

ilikuwa na mandhari mazuri – simple, very common, neutral: “had”.
ilikuwa yenye mandhari mazuri – slightly more descriptive/emphatic:
“were towns characterized by beautiful scenery”.

Both are correct; in everyday speech kuwa na (“to have”) is probably more frequent.
Your original sentence just uses the slightly more descriptive form with yenye.

Why is it mandhari mazuri and not mandhari nzuri?

This touches on a small complexity of Swahili noun classes and real-life usage.

Many grammars and dictionaries classify mandhari as a class 9/10 noun (like habari, nyumba). In that system, the agreeing adjective for -zuri would be:
- mandhari nzuri – beautiful scenery
However, in actual usage many native speakers treat mandhari as a ma- (class 6) noun, giving:
- mandhari mazuri – beautiful scenery

So you will see both:

mandhari mazuri ya Mlima Kilimanjaro
mandhari nzuri ya Mlima Kilimanjaro

Your sentence uses the ma- agreement (mazuri).
For a learner:

mandhari nzuri is perfectly correct and “by-the-book”.
mandhari mazuri is also widely used and understood in real speech.

You don’t need to worry too much: both forms will be understood as “beautiful scenery”.