Daktari alisema kuwa pumu ya mtoto si kali, lakini kuhara na kutapika vinahitaji maji mengi.

Alisema is made of three parts:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -sema = say

So alisema means he/she said.

A useful thing to notice: Swahili verbs often include the subject and the tense inside the same word.

Also, a- does not tell you whether the doctor is male or female. It can mean he or she.

Here kuwa works like English that in reported speech.

So after Daktari alisema, kuwa introduces what the doctor said:

• Daktari alisema kuwa ...
• The doctor said that ...

In many cases, kuwa can be left out, especially in everyday speech:

• Daktari alisema pumu ya mtoto si kali ...

Both are understandable, but kuwa makes the sentence structure especially clear.

Because the connector -a agrees with the thing possessed, not the possessor.

Here:

• pumu = the thing being talked about
• mtoto = the possessor

Pumu belongs to noun class 9, and class 9 uses ya in this construction, so:

• pumu ya mtoto = the child’s asthma / the asthma of the child

This is a very common Swahili pattern:

• kitabu cha mtoto = the child’s book
• gari la daktari = the doctor’s car
• watoto wa mwalimu = the teacher’s children

So the form changes according to the first noun, not the second one.

Swahili normally expresses possession with a structure like:

• noun + connector + possessor

So instead of an English-style apostrophe construction, Swahili usually says something more like asthma of the child:

• pumu ya mtoto

This is the standard and natural way to show possession in Swahili.

Swahili often does not use a separate word for is/are in the present tense the way English does.

In negative statements like this, si functions as is not / are not:

• si kali = is not severe

So:

• pumu ya mtoto si kali = the child’s asthma is not severe

This is very normal in Swahili. English needs is, but Swahili often does not.

Yes. Kali is a flexible word. Its meaning depends a lot on context.

It can mean things like:

• strong
• severe
• harsh
• intense
• fierce
• sometimes hot/spicy

In a medical sentence like this, kali means severe or serious, not temperature.

So si kali here means not severe.

Because ku- is the infinitive marker, similar to English to in to vomit.

• kuhara = to have diarrhea
• kutapika = to vomit

But in Swahili, infinitives can also behave like nouns. So they can mean something like:

• diarrhea / having diarrhea
• vomiting / to vomit

In this sentence, they are being used in a noun-like way as the subject of the verb vinahitaji.

Because the subject is a pair of non-human things:

• kuhara na kutapika

When Swahili has multiple non-human items joined by na, it commonly uses class 8 plural agreement, which has the subject prefix vi-.

So:

• vi- = they
• -na- = present tense
• -hitaji = need / require

Therefore:

• vinahitaji = they need / they require

So the sentence treats diarrhea and vomiting as two things together, and the verb agrees with that plural non-human subject.

Because maji belongs to noun class 6, and adjectives must agree with that class.

The adjective -engi becomes:

• mengi with class 6 nouns

So:

• maji mengi = a lot of water / much water

This is one of those forms you simply get used to through noun-class agreement.

Also, maji is a mass noun, so even though it often looks plural in form, it is commonly translated as water, not waters.

Lakini means but.

It links two clauses:

• pumu ya mtoto si kali
• lakini
• kuhara na kutapika vinahitaji maji mengi

So it works very much like English but.

Its position here is natural because it connects the first statement with the contrasting second statement.

Because Swahili does not normally use articles like English a/an/the.

So words such as:

• daktari
• mtoto
• maji

do not automatically include a separate word for the or a. The exact meaning depends on context.

For example:

• daktari can mean a doctor or the doctor
• mtoto can mean a child or the child

That is completely normal in Swahili.