Mtoto alivaa kaptula fupi na sandaali mpya kabla ya kutoka nje.

Yes. Mtoto means child, and it is gender-neutral. In Swahili, nouns like this usually do not tell you whether the child is male or female.

If you want to be specific, you could use:

• mvulana = boy
• msichana = girl

So mtoto is a very normal, general word here.

Alivaa can be broken down like this:

• a- = subject marker for he/she or a singular noun in the same class as mtoto
• -li- = past tense marker
• -vaa = verb root meaning wear / put on

So alivaa means he/she wore or he/she put on.

It can mean either, depending on context.

With clothing, kuvaa is often used both for:

• to wear
• to put on

In this sentence, because the action happens before going outside, English may naturally translate it as put on. But wore is also a possible translation depending on how the sentence is being presented.

Because Swahili does not use articles like English does.

So mtoto can mean:

• a child
• the child

The context tells you which one sounds best in English.

The same idea applies to the other nouns too.

Here, na means and. It joins the two things the child wore:

• kaptula fupi
• sandaali mpya

So it works just like and in English.

In other sentences, na can also mean with, so learners often notice that it has more than one use.

Because that is the normal word order in Swahili.

Swahili usually has:

• noun + adjective

So:

• kaptula fupi = short shorts
• sandaali mpya = new sandals

This is different from English, where adjectives usually come before the noun.

Yes. Swahili adjectives usually agree with the noun class of the noun they describe.

Here, kaptula and sandaali are loanwords, and loanwords like these are often treated as class 9/10 nouns.

That affects adjective form:

• fupi stays fupi
• -pya becomes mpya with class 9/10 agreement

So:

• kaptula fupi
• sandaali mpya

This agreement system is one of the big grammar features of Swahili.

This is a very common question, especially for English speakers.

Words like kaptula and sandaali are often treated as class 9/10 nouns, and many nouns in that class look the same in both singular and plural.

A few useful points:

• kaptula often refers to a pair of shorts as one clothing item
• sandaali may also be interpreted from context rather than from a visible English-style plural ending
• the adjective form may not clearly show singular vs plural either

So in Swahili, you should not expect these words to behave exactly like English shorts and sandals.

This whole phrase means before going outside.

It breaks down like this:

• kabla = before
• ya = part of the fixed expression kabla ya
• kutoka = to go out / to leave
• nje = outside

So kabla ya is the normal way to say before when it is followed by a noun or an infinitive verb phrase.

Because after kabla ya, Swahili normally uses the infinitive form of the verb.

So:

• kutoka = to go out / going out

This works a lot like English going out in a phrase such as before going out.

A conjugated form like alitoka means he/she went out, which would make the structure different.

Nje makes the idea more specific.

Kutoka can mean things like:

• to leave
• to come out
• to go out
• to come from

Adding nje makes it clearly mean outside / outdoors.

So:

• kutoka nje = go outside

That is why nje is useful here.