Waziri alimwambia meya kwamba mkoa huu utapata fedha za kujenga maktaba mpya.

Swahili verbs often pack a lot of information into one word.

alimwambia can be broken down as:

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

So alimwambia means he/she told him/her.

In this sentence, Waziri alimwambia meya... means The minister told the mayor...

This is very normal in Swahili: subject, tense, object, and verb stem can all appear inside one verb form.

That is a very common pattern in Swahili.

The object marker -mw- already tells you there is an object, but the full noun meya is added to make it clear exactly who that object is.

So:

• Waziri alimwambia = The minister told him/her
• Waziri alimwambia meya = The minister told the mayor

Using both the object marker and the noun is especially common when the object is:

• a specific person
• already known in the conversation
• important to the message

So this is not redundant in a bad way; it is normal Swahili grammar.

It can mean either him or her.

Swahili object markers usually do not show natural gender the way English pronouns do. So alimwambia can mean:

• told him
• told her

In this sentence, the noun meya tells you who was told, but it still does not tell you whether the mayor is male or female. That would have to come from context.

Kwamba means that and introduces the reported statement.

So:

• Waziri alimwambia meya kwamba...
• The minister told the mayor that...

Everything after kwamba is the content of what the minister said.

In many Swahili sentences, especially after verbs of saying or knowing, kwamba works much like English that.

Because Swahili uses noun-class agreement.

Mkoa belongs to the m-/mi- noun class, and the demonstrative this has to match that class. For this class, the singular form is huu.

So:

• mkoa huu = this region

You cannot use just any form of this. It must agree with the noun class.

Compare:

• mtu huyu = this person
• mti huu = this tree
• kitabu hiki = this book

So huu is there because mkoa requires that agreement pattern.

U- is the subject prefix that agrees with mkoa.

Breakdown:

• u- = subject marker for this noun class
• -ta- = future tense
• pata = get / receive / obtain

So utapata means it will get / it will receive.

Here, the it refers to mkoa huu.

So the structure is:

• mkoa huu utapata...
• this region will receive...

The subject of utapata is mkoa huu, not meya.

The region will receive the money.

The key clue is the subject of the clause after kwamba:

• mkoa huu utapata fedha...

That means:

• this region will receive funds...

So the sentence is not saying the mayor will receive the money. The mayor is just the person being told.

Structure:

• Waziri alimwambia meya = the minister told the mayor
• kwamba mkoa huu utapata fedha... = that this region will receive funds...

Literally, fedha za kujenga is something like money/funds of building, but in natural English it means:

• funds to build
• money for building

Here:

• fedha = money / funds
• za = a linking word meaning something like of / for, agreeing with fedha
• kujenga = to build

So fedha za kujenga maktaba mpya means funds to build a new library.

The za is there because Swahili uses agreement in these linking constructions too. It matches fedha.

Yes. Kujenga is the infinitive form, meaning to build.

In Swahili, the infinitive often works in places where English uses:

• to build
• for building
• building

So in fedha za kujenga maktaba mpya, the infinitive functions very naturally after fedha za... to express purpose.

A very literal understanding would be:

• funds for building a new library

But in smoother English:

• funds to build a new library

In Swahili, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• maktaba mpya = new library

not

• mpya maktaba

Also, the adjective normally agrees with the noun class. Maktaba is treated as a class 9/10 noun, and mpya is the matching adjective form here.

This noun-plus-adjective order is very common in Swahili:

• mtu mzuri = good person
• kitabu kikubwa = big book
• maktaba mpya = new library

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

So words like:

• Waziri
• meya
• mkoa
• maktaba

do not automatically include an article. English translators choose the or a based on context.

For example:

• Waziri could mean the minister or a minister
• maktaba mpya could mean a new library or the new library

In this sentence, English usually uses the minister, the mayor, and a new library because that sounds most natural from the context.

Yes, it can.

You could say:

• Waziri alimwambia kwamba mkoa huu utapata fedha za kujenga maktaba mpya.

That would mean:

• The minister told him/her that this region would receive funds to build a new library.

But without meya, you lose the explicit noun, so the listener has to know from context who -mw- refers to.

Including meya makes the sentence clearer and more specific, which is why the full version is very natural.