Mwalimu alituonyesha herufi “t” kwenye ubao.

It breaks down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -tu- = us
• -onyesha = show

So alituonyesha means he/she showed us.

Because mwalimu is gender-neutral, the full sentence can be understood as The teacher showed us...

Swahili often puts object pronouns inside the verb as object markers.

So in alituonyesha, the -tu- means us. That is why Swahili does not need a separate word for us after the verb.

This is very common:

• alinionyesha = he/she showed me
• alituonyesha = he/she showed us
• aliwaonyesha = he/she showed them

The dictionary form is kuonyesha, which means to show.

In a conjugated verb, the ku- of the infinitive is replaced by other pieces such as:

• subject marker
• tense marker
• object marker

So:

• kuonyesha = to show
• a-li-tu-onyesha = he/she showed us

In natural English, it means showed us.

Swahili does not need a separate word like to here. The person receiving the action is already marked by -tu- inside the verb.

So alituonyesha herufi t is naturally showed us the letter t.

Herufi means letter or letters, depending on context.

It belongs to a noun class where the singular and plural often have the same form. So:

• herufi can mean a letter
• herufi can also mean letters

In this sentence, it is clearly singular because it refers to t, one letter.

Kwenye is a location word. Depending on context, it can mean:

• on
• in
• at

Here, with ubao, it most naturally means on the board.

So:

• kwenye ubao = on the board

Ubao means board. In a classroom sentence like this, it usually means a blackboard, chalkboard, or board in general.

So kwenye ubao means on the board.

Swahili does not have articles like a, an, and the.

So:

• mwalimu can mean a teacher or the teacher
• ubao can mean a board or the board

The exact meaning comes from context. In this sentence, English naturally uses the teacher and the board.

No. Mwalimu is gender-neutral.

Also, the subject marker a- can mean he or she. So the sentence does not tell us the teacher's gender.

Yes, fairly similar.

The sentence is:

• Mwalimu = subject
• alituonyesha = verb
• herufi t = thing shown
• kwenye ubao = location

A very literal gloss would be:

Teacher he/she-past-us-show letter t on board.

Natural English then becomes: The teacher showed us the letter t on the board.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Mwalimu = mwa-LEE-mu
• alituonyesha = a-li-tu-o-NYE-sha
• herufi = he-RU-fi
• kwenye = KWEN-ye
• ubao = u-BA-o

A few helpful notes:

• mw is said together.
• ny sounds like the ny in Spanish señor.
• Swahili vowels are usually pronounced clearly and consistently.

If you remove -tu-, the sentence no longer says showed us.

For example:

Mwalimu alionyesha herufi t kwenye ubao.

That means: The teacher showed the letter t on the board, or The teacher pointed out the letter t on the board.

The idea of us would be missing unless context made it clear.