Mvuke wa chai moto ulimfanya bibi afungue dirisha kidogo.

Ulimfanya can be broken down like this:

• u- = subject marker for mvuke
• -li- = past tense
• m- = object marker meaning him/her
• -fanya = do / make

So ulimfanya bibi... means it made grandmother/her...

The important thing for learners is that the subject marker is not based on English ideas like it alone. It has to agree with the noun class of mvuke. Since mvuke is in the m-/mi- class, the singular subject marker is u-.

Because after -fanya meaning make/cause someone to do something, Swahili commonly uses the subjunctive form for the following verb.

So:

• alimfanya bibi afungue dirisha = he/she/it made grandmother open the window
• afungue is the subjunctive form of kufungua

The subjunctive here does not necessarily mean uncertainty. It is just the normal grammar after a verb like make/cause.

If you used alifungua, that would be a normal past-tense main verb: she opened, not to open / open as a caused action.

Wa is a connector often translated as of.

So:

• mvuke wa chai = steam of tea / steam from tea

This connector changes depending on the noun class of the first noun. Here the first noun is mvuke, so the connector is wa.

This pattern is very common in Swahili:

• kitabu cha mtoto = the child’s book / book of the child
• mlango wa nyumba = the door of the house
• mvuke wa chai = steam of tea

In this sentence, moto most naturally describes chai:

• chai moto = hot tea
• mvuke wa chai moto = steam from hot tea

That is the most likely reading.

If you wanted to say hot steam, you would more naturally say:

• mvuke moto

So the structure here is understood as:

• mvuke = steam
• wa chai moto = of hot tea

Bibi most often means:

• grandmother
• sometimes old woman
• sometimes a respectful lady / madam, depending on context

In a sentence like this, grandmother is a very natural translation, but the exact meaning depends on the wider context.

So a learner should remember that bibi is not always strictly biological grandmother. It can also be a respectful way to refer to an older woman.

Swahili does not usually use articles like English the or a/an.

So:

• mvuke can mean steam, the steam, or some steam
• bibi can mean grandmother, the grandmother, or a grandmother
• dirisha can mean window, the window, or a window

The exact meaning comes from context.

That is why one Swahili sentence can often be translated into English in more than one natural way.

Kidogo means a little, slightly, or a bit.

In this sentence it modifies the action afungue dirisha:

• afungue dirisha kidogo = open the window a little

So it is working adverbially here, even though kidogo is also a noun/adjective form in other contexts.

Compare:

• maji kidogo = a little water
• fungua dirisha kidogo = open the window a little

Because Swahili does not have to mark the object twice.

In afungue dirisha:

• afungue already means that she open / open
• dirisha is stated openly right after the verb as the object

You could sometimes add an object marker if the object is already known, emphasized, or referred back to, but it is not required here.

So afungue dirisha is perfectly normal and natural.

Because the structure is:

• ulimfanya bibi afungue dirisha
• literally: it made grandmother open the window

So:

• bibi is the person being caused to do the action
• afungue dirisha is the action she is caused to do

This is a common pattern with -fanya:

• alimfanya mtoto acheke = he made the child laugh
• walimfanya asubiri = they made him wait
• ulimfanya bibi afungue dirisha = it made grandmother open the window

In normal Swahili, after -fanya in this kind of causative meaning, the following verb is usually in the subjunctive, not the infinitive.

So the natural pattern is:

• kumfanya mtu afanye jambo
• literally: to make a person do something

Not usually:

• kumfanya mtu kufanya jambo

So afungue is the expected form here.

That is one place where Swahili grammar differs from English: English often uses to + verb, but Swahili often uses a finite subjunctive verb instead.

Not necessarily forced in a strong sense. -fanya can mean:

• make
• cause
• lead to

So this sentence can suggest that the steam from the hot tea caused grandmother to open the window a little, perhaps because the room felt warm, stuffy, or steamy.

So the idea is causation, but not always harsh or physical force.