Dada yangu alisikiliza mdahalo huo kwenye simu, halafu akamwambia baba mgombea gani alimvutia.

In Swahili, possessives usually come after the noun, not before it.

• dada = sister
• yangu = my / mine

So dada yangu literally follows the pattern sister my.

This is the normal Swahili word order:

• rafiki yangu = my friend
• kitabu changu = my book
• baba yangu = my father

Also notice that the possessive changes form depending on the noun class:

• yangu
• changu
• wangu etc.

alisikiliza can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• sikiliza = listen

So alisikiliza means he/she listened.

Because Swahili verbs often pack subject and tense into one word, you do not need a separate word for she or listened.

Here, the subject is dada yangu, so a- means she.

In Swahili, demonstratives like this and that usually come after the noun.

• mdahalo = debate
• huo = that

So:

• mdahalo huo = that debate

This noun-first order is very common in Swahili:

• mtu huyo = that person
• kitabu hicho = that book
• mji huo = that town

Also, huo agrees with the noun class of mdahalo.

Yes, in this sentence kwenye simu means something like on the phone or via the phone.

• kwenye = in/on/at, depending on context
• simu = phone

So alisikiliza mdahalo huo kwenye simu means she listened to that debate on the phone, probably using a phone as the device or medium.

kwenye is very flexible and often covers meanings that English separates into in, on, and at.

halafu means then, after that, or and then.

It links actions in sequence:

• first she listened to the debate
• halafu = then
• she told father which candidate impressed her

It is a very common conversational connector in Swahili.

akamwambia uses the ka- narrative/sequential marker, which is very common when telling a series of events.

It can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -ka- = then / and then / next
• -mw- = him/her
• ambia = tell / say to

So akamwambia means then she told him/her.

In stories and event sequences, Swahili often uses:

• first verb with a tense marker, such as -li- for past
• following verb with -ka- to continue the sequence

So:

• alisikiliza ... halafu akamwambia ... = she listened ... then told ...

The -mw- is an object marker meaning him/her.

So:

• akamwambia baba ... = then she told father ...
• literally, it is something like then she told him, father ...

In Swahili, object markers are often included in the verb even when the noun is also stated afterward.

Here:

• a- = she
• -ka- = then
• -mw- = him
• ambia = tell

Because the next word is baba, we understand that -mw- refers to father.

Swahili can sometimes leave possession understood from context, especially with family words.

So baba here can naturally be understood as father/dad, and from the wider sentence it may be interpreted as her father or their father, depending on context.

If you wanted to be fully explicit, you could say:

• baba yake = her father
• baba yangu = my father

But in natural usage, bare family terms like baba, mama, dada, and kaka are often used when the relationship is already clear.

In Swahili, question words like gani often come after the noun they modify.

• mgombea = candidate
• gani = which

So:

• mgombea gani = which candidate

This is the normal pattern:

• kitabu gani = which book
• mtu gani = which person
• njia gani = which way

So Swahili keeps the noun first and puts gani after it.

This is an embedded question meaning which candidate impressed her.

Break it up like this:

• mgombea gani = which candidate
• alimvutia = impressed her / appealed to her

So the whole part means:

• which candidate impressed her

It functions as the thing she told father:

• she told father which candidate impressed her

In English, we also do something similar:

• She told Dad which candidate impressed her.

So this is not a separate direct question. It is part of the larger sentence.

alimvutia can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -m- = him/her
• vutia = attract, impress, draw, appeal to

So alimvutia literally means he/she attracted/impressed him/her.

In this sentence, the subject is mgombea (candidate), and the object marker -m- refers to the sister.

So:

• mgombea gani alimvutia = which candidate impressed her or = which candidate appealed to her

Because of the structure of the clause.

The phrase begins with:

• mgombea gani = which candidate

That noun phrase is the subject of the following verb:

• alimvutia = impressed her

So the meaning is:

• which candidate impressed her

The -m- object marker inside the verb refers back to the person being impressed, which in context is the sister.

Swahili does not mark he versus she in the subject marker a-, so context tells you who is meant.

Because standard Swahili third-person singular subject marking does not distinguish male and female.

• a- can mean he or she
• -mw- / -m- can mean him or her

So Swahili relies much more on context than English does for gender.

In this sentence:

• dada yangu tells you the earlier subject is female
• mgombea could be male or female unless context tells you otherwise
• alimvutia itself does not tell you gender

That is completely normal in Swahili.

With sikiliza, Swahili often uses it directly with the thing listened to, without needing a separate word for to.

So:

• alisikiliza mdahalo huo = she listened to that debate

That is a normal pattern.

Sometimes learners expect a structure closer to English, but Swahili often does not need an extra word corresponding to English to after listen.

The sentence has two main parts:

1. Dada yangu alisikiliza mdahalo huo kwenye simu

   • My sister listened to that debate on the phone.

2. halafu akamwambia baba mgombea gani alimvutia

   • then she told father which candidate impressed her.

So the pattern is:

• subject
• first action
• connector
• next action
• embedded clause

This kind of chained event structure is very common in Swahili narrative style.