Mwalimu alivutiwa na insha niliyoandika jana.

Mwalimu means teacher.

Swahili does not have articles like a, an, or the. So mwalimu can mean:

• a teacher
• the teacher

You understand which one is meant from context. In this sentence, English will usually translate it as the teacher.

Alivutiwa can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• vutiwa = be attracted / be impressed / be moved

So alivutiwa means he/she was impressed or he/she was attracted/interested depending on context.

In this sentence, was impressed is the natural meaning.

Also notice that this is not the active verb -vutia (to attract / impress), but the passive-like form -vutiwa, meaning to be impressed/attracted.

Here na means by, in the sense of what caused the feeling.

So:

• alivutiwa na insha = was impressed by the essay

In many other contexts, na can also mean:

• and
• with
• by
• having

Its exact meaning depends on the sentence. Here it is best understood as by.

Insha means essay.

It belongs to the N-class (often called 9/10 class), where many nouns have the same form in singular and plural.

So:

• insha = essay
• insha = essays

The number is understood from context.

This matters for agreement, because nouns in this class often use agreement markers like i- in singular and zi- in plural, depending on the structure.

Niliyoandika means that I wrote.

It can be broken down as:

• ni- = I
• -li- = past tense
• -yo- = relative marker agreeing with insha
• andika = write

So the whole form means which/that I wrote.

This is a relative verb form, so instead of using a separate word like English that or which, Swahili often builds the relative meaning into the verb itself.

The -yo- is used because the noun being described is insha, which belongs to the N-class.

In relative constructions, the marker inside the verb must agree with the noun being referred to. Since insha is in this class, the relative marker is -yo-.

So:

• insha niliyoandika = the essay that I wrote

If the noun belonged to a different class, the relative marker would change.

Because niliandika only means I wrote.

It does not include the idea of that/which.
To say the essay that I wrote, Swahili needs a relative form, so it becomes niliyoandika.

Compare:

• niliandika insha = I wrote an essay
• insha niliyoandika = the essay that I wrote

So -yo- is what turns the verb into part of a relative clause.

In the sentence as written, jana most naturally goes with niliyoandika:

• insha niliyoandika jana = the essay that I wrote yesterday

So the most natural reading is:

• The teacher was impressed by the essay that I wrote yesterday.

Because jana comes right after the relative clause verb, it most easily attaches to wrote rather than was impressed.

That said, in some contexts, listeners could potentially interpret it differently, but the default reading is that you wrote the essay yesterday.

The main verb is effectively passive/stative in meaning.

• Active idea: The essay impressed the teacher
• Swahili sentence: Mwalimu alivutiwa na insha... = The teacher was impressed by the essay...

So instead of making essay the subject, Swahili here makes teacher the subject and uses alivutiwa (was impressed / became interested).

This is a very natural way to express this idea in Swahili.

Technically, -vutiwa can mean be attracted, be drawn to, be interested in, or be impressed by.

But with insha (essay), the most natural English translation is usually:

• was impressed by
• or sometimes was struck by

Was attracted to the essay sounds odd in English unless the context is unusual, so was impressed by the essay is the best interpretation here.

Because Swahili often expresses that/which/who inside the verb through a relative marker.

In English, you say:

• the essay that I wrote

In Swahili, the relative idea is built into niliyoandika.

So instead of using a separate relative pronoun, Swahili often uses:

• subject marker
• tense marker
• relative marker
• verb stem

That is one reason Swahili verbs can look long: they pack a lot of grammatical information into one word.

The basic order is:

• Mwalimu = subject
• alivutiwa = verb
• na insha niliyoandika jana = prepositional phrase plus noun phrase

So literally, it is something like:

• Teacher was-impressed by essay that-I-wrote yesterday

A natural English translation is:

• The teacher was impressed by the essay that I wrote yesterday.

Swahili word order here is fairly close to English, but the relative clause is handled differently because it is built into the verb niliyoandika.