Mfamasia alimwambia anywe maji mengi na arudi kama maumivu hayataisha.

Mfamasia means pharmacist.

Swahili usually does not need separate subject pronouns like he or she when the verb already shows the subject. In alimwambia, the prefix a- means he/she. So once you have Mfamasia, the verb can simply continue with the matching subject marker.

So the sentence does not need an extra pronoun such as yeye.

Alimwambia can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -mw- = him/her
• ambia = tell / say to

So alimwambia means he/she told him/her or he/she said to him/her.

This is very common in Swahili: a lot of information is packed into one verb.

After verbs like kuambia (to tell), Swahili often uses the subjunctive, not the infinitive.

So:

• alimwambia anywe = he told him/her to drink
• literally, something like he told him/her that he/she should drink

English uses to drink, but Swahili commonly uses a finite verb in the subjunctive instead.

That is why anywe appears here, not kunywa.

Anywe is the 3rd person singular subjunctive form of kunywa (to drink).

You can think of it like this:

• dictionary form: kunywa
• verb stem: nyw-
• subjunctive ending: -e
• subject marker a- = he/she

So:

• a- + nyw- + -e → anywe

In this sentence, it means that he/she should drink.

This comes from the structure and meaning of kuambia.

In a sentence like:

• alimwambia anywe maji mengi na arudi...

the normal interpretation is:

• he told him/her [that he/she should] drink a lot of water and return...

So the actions in the subjunctive usually belong to the person being told.

Grammatically, a- only means he/she, so context is what tells you which person is meant. Here, the logic of the sentence makes it clear: the pharmacist is giving instructions to the other person.

Because maji belongs to a noun class that takes the adjective agreement form mengi.

The adjective stem is -ingi (many / much / a lot), but it changes to match the noun class:

• maji mengi = a lot of water
• not maji mingi

This can feel strange to an English speaker because water is uncountable in English, but in Swahili maji has its own grammatical class and takes agreement accordingly.

Yes. Arudi is also a subjunctive-type form here, meaning that he/she should return / come back.

It follows the same pattern as anywe: the pharmacist is giving instructions.

So:

• anywe maji mengi = drink plenty of water
• na arudi = and come back / and return

With kurudi, the form arudi is the expected dependent/instructional form after na in this kind of sentence.

Yes, here na means and.

It links two instructions:

• anywe maji mengi
• arudi kama maumivu hayataisha

So the pharmacist told the person to do two things:

1. drink plenty of water
2. come back if the pain does not stop

Hayataisha means they will not end or they will not go away.

It is built like this:

• ha- = negative
• ya- = subject agreement for the noun class of maumivu
• -ta- = future
• isha = end / finish

So:

• maumivu hayataisha = the pain will not end / the pain will not go away

With kama, the whole phrase means:

• if the pain does not go away

Because Swahili treats maumivu grammatically as a noun that takes class 6 agreement, which often looks plural.

That is why you get:

• maumivu hayataisha
• not something singular like haitaisha

This is one of those places where Swahili grammar does not match English neatly. Even if English uses pain as a singular mass idea, Swahili uses the noun maumivu with its own agreement pattern.

So the best approach is to learn maumivu together with the agreement it normally takes.