Jaji mwanamke alimsikiliza wakili kwa makini kabla ya kutoa hukumu.

In this sentence, jaji is the main noun, and mwanamke is added to specify that the judge is female.

So jaji mwanamke means female judge.

This is a common Swahili pattern with professions and roles: you name the role first, then add a noun that identifies gender or type. Here mwanamke is literally woman, not a regular adjective.

You may also hear jaji wa kike, which also means female judge.

No. Swahili verbs usually do not mark natural gender.

In alimsikiliza, the subject prefix a- simply means he/she (third person singular). By itself, it does not tell you whether the person is male or female.

You know the subject is female because the sentence says jaji mwanamke.

alimsikiliza can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -m- = him/her or a singular human object marker
• -sikiliza = listen to

So the structure is roughly:

a-li-m-sikiliza
= she/he + past + him/her + listened to

In smoother English, it becomes she listened to the lawyer.

That -m- is an object marker. It agrees with the object wakili, which is a singular human being.

In Swahili, it is very common to include an object marker even when the full object noun is also stated, especially when the object is:

• human
• specific
• already identifiable in the context

So alimsikiliza wakili is natural Swahili. The -m- does not mean the noun after it is unnecessary; it just adds agreement and often a sense of specificity.

Because Swahili uses -sikiliza as a verb that takes a direct object.

English says:

• listen to the lawyer

But Swahili says:

• sikiliza wakili

So there is no need for a separate word equivalent to English to here.

This is a very common thing for English speakers to notice: Swahili verbs and English verbs do not always match in what prepositions they need.

kwa makini is an adverbial phrase meaning carefully or attentively.

• kwa often introduces phrases of manner, like with / in a ... way
• makini relates to care, attention, attentiveness

So kwa makini is literally something like with care/attention, but in natural English it is usually carefully or attentively.

kabla ya means before.

After kabla ya, Swahili often uses:

• a noun, or
• an infinitive verb

Here, kutoa is an infinitive:

• ku-toa = to give / to issue

So:

• kabla ya kutoa hukumu
  means
• before giving / issuing the judgment

This is a very common structure:

• kabla ya kuondoka = before leaving
• kabla ya kula = before eating

Because kutoa hukumu is a normal Swahili legal expression.

• kutoa literally means to give, to issue, or to deliver
• hukumu means judgment, verdict, or sometimes sentence, depending on context

So kutoa hukumu means to deliver/pass/render judgment.

Many languages use this kind of light verb + noun expression, and Swahili does it often.

Swahili does not have articles like English the and a/an.

That means nouns like jaji, wakili, and hukumu do not need separate article words.

Whether you translate them as:

• the female judge
• a female judge
• the lawyer
• a lawyer

depends on context.

So article meaning is usually understood from the situation, not from a separate word.

Even though jaji and wakili do not look like typical m-/wa- human nouns, they refer to people, so they take normal human singular agreement in the verb.

That is why you get:

• a- for the singular subject
• -m- for the singular human object

So in practice, both nouns behave like singular human nouns for agreement purposes.

This is common with many profession words and loanwords in Swahili.

Yes. In alimsikiliza, the tense marker -li- is the standard simple past marker.

So:

• anasikiliza = he/she is listening
• alisikiliza = he/she listened
• alimsikiliza = he/she listened to him/her

It is one of the most important tense markers in Swahili, so this sentence is a good example of it.

Yes. You could say:

Jaji alimsikiliza wakili kwa makini kabla ya kutoa hukumu.

That would mean The judge listened to the lawyer carefully before delivering judgment.

But then you would no longer know from the noun phrase alone that the judge is female. Since the verb itself does not show gender, mwanamke is what gives that information here.