Mtoto mtiifu husikiliza maelekezo ya mama yake.

A helpful breakdown is:

• mtoto = child
• mtiifu = obedient
• husikiliza = usually listens / listens habitually
• maelekezo = instructions, directions
• ya = of
• mama yake = his/her mother

So the structure is roughly:

child obedient usually-listens instructions of mother his/her

Natural English rearranges that as something like An obedient child listens to his/her mother's instructions.

In Swahili, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So:

• mtoto mtiifu = obedient child
• not mtiifu mtoto

This is very normal Swahili word order. English usually puts adjectives before the noun, but Swahili usually puts them after it.

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

Mtoto belongs to the singular human class, so the adjective takes the matching prefix m-:

• mtoto mtiifu = obedient child

If it were plural, you would get:

• watoto watiifu = obedient children

So the m- in mtiifu shows agreement with the noun mtoto.

The prefix hu- usually gives a habitual or general-truth meaning.

So husikiliza is not just is listening right now. It means something more like:

• usually listens
• habitually listens
• listens, as a general rule

That is why this sentence sounds like a general statement about a well-behaved child, not a description of one single moment.

Because anasikiliza and husikiliza are not exactly the same.

• anasikiliza often means he/she is listening or he/she listens, depending on context
• husikiliza more clearly gives the idea of usually listens or tends to listen

So in this sentence, husikiliza fits well because it describes a regular habit or expected behavior of an obedient child.

In this habitual form with hu-, Swahili normally does not use the usual subject marker such as ni-, u-, a-, tu-, m-, or wa-.

So you get:

• mtoto husikiliza = the child usually listens
• mimi husikiliza = I usually listen
• wao husikiliza = they usually listen

The subject is shown by the noun or pronoun outside the verb, and hu- marks the habitual meaning.

Not exactly. Kusikiliza literally means to listen.

So husikiliza maelekezo literally means listens to instructions.

In many contexts, though, listening to instructions implies obedience, so in natural English the whole sentence may sound close to An obedient child obeys his/her mother’s instructions. But the verb itself is still basically listen.

Maelekezo is the plural form and usually means instructions or directions.

The singular is:

• elekezo = one instruction / one direction

But in real usage, people very often use maelekezo because instructions usually come as more than one point or step.

So:

• maelekezo ya mama yake = his/her mother’s instructions

Ya is a linking word meaning something like of.

It connects maelekezo with mama yake:

• maelekezo ya mama yake = instructions of his/her mother

The form ya is not random. It agrees with the noun maelekezo, which belongs to a noun class that takes ya in this kind of possessive/genitive construction.

Compare:

• kitabu cha mama yake = his/her mother’s book
• watoto wa mama yake = his/her mother’s children
• maelekezo ya mama yake = his/her mother’s instructions

So the linking word changes depending on the noun class.

Yake means his/her.

So:

• mama yake = his/her mother

Swahili does not mark gender in this form, so yake can mean either his or her. The sentence could refer to a boy or a girl.

With kinship nouns like mama and baba, forms like yake are normal:

• mama yake = his/her mother
• baba yake = his/her father

This can feel confusing if you have also learned forms like:

• mtoto wake = his/her child

So the short answer is: mama is one of those common family words that behaves a little differently, and mama yake is the standard expression.

No. Swahili does not use articles like English a, an, and the.

So mtoto mtiifu can mean:

• an obedient child
• the obedient child

The exact English choice depends on context. In a general statement like this, English often uses an obedient child.

Yes. In fact, that is often the best way to show the meaning of hu-.

So good translations include:

• An obedient child listens to his/her mother’s instructions.
• An obedient child usually listens to his/her mother’s instructions.

The version with usually makes the habitual meaning more explicit.