Mtoto amevaa sandaali na fulana nyepesi, lakini mama anasema kaptula yake ni fupi sana.

Amevaa is the perfect form of kuvaa (to wear / put on). With clothing, this often describes the result of putting something on, so it is commonly translated as is wearing.

So:

• amevaa = has put on / is wearing
• anavaa = wears / is putting on / puts on

In this sentence, the child is already dressed, so amevaa is the natural choice.

Swahili does not use articles like a, an, or the. The noun by itself can mean either, depending on context.

So:

• mtoto can mean a child or the child
• mama can mean a mother or the mother

You figure it out from the situation, not from a separate word.

It can mean either. Mtoto is gender-neutral.

The same is true for the verb agreement and possessive here:

• a- in amevaa and anasema does not tell you he vs she
• yake can mean his, her, or its

So Swahili often leaves gender unspecified unless the context makes it clear.

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

So:

• fulana nyepesi = a light/lightweight T-shirt
• not nyepesi fulana

This is one of the big word-order differences from English.

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

Fulana is treated as a class 9/10 noun, and the adjective -epesi takes the matching form nyepesi here.

So fulana nyepesi shows normal noun-class agreement.

Normally nyepesi means light in weight, not heavy, or thin/lightweight.

So in clothing, fulana nyepesi usually means a lightweight T-shirt, not specifically a pale-colored one.

If you want to say light-colored, Swahili usually makes that clearer in another way, for example with a color expression.

These two forms are related but different:

• anasema = says / is saying
• amesema = has said / said

In this sentence, mama anasema presents the mother's comment as what she is saying now. If you said mama amesema, it would sound more like reporting something she already said.

After kusema (to say), Swahili often leaves out kwamba (that), just like English sometimes leaves out that.

So both are possible:

• mama anasema kaptula yake ni fupi sana
• mama anasema kwamba kaptula yake ni fupi sana

Both mean the same thing. The version without kwamba is very normal.

In context, yake most naturally refers to the child, so it means the child's shorts.

The key grammar point is that the possessive agrees with the thing possessed, not with the owner.

Here, the possessed noun is kaptula, which is treated as a class 9/10 noun, so you get:

• ya-
  • -ake = yake

That is why it is kaptula yake.

Compare:

• mtoto wake = his/her child

There it is wake because mtoto belongs to a different noun class.

Because English and Swahili do not always package clothing items the same way.

English uses a plural-looking word, shorts, but Swahili kaptula is treated as one clothing item. So kaptula yake can naturally mean his/her shorts.

This kind of mismatch is very common across languages.

Literally:

• ni = is/are
• fupi = short
• sana = very / very much

So the most literal meaning is is very short or are very short.

In context, especially if the mother is criticizing the clothing, English may naturally say too short. But grammatically, sana itself is closer to very than to too.

Yes. Ni is the basic copula in Swahili, and it does not change the way English is/are/am do.

So:

• ni fupi can mean is short
• and in the right context it can also be understood as are short

Swahili does not need different forms like is and are here.

Here na means and, linking two things the child is wearing:

• sandaali na fulana nyepesi

But na is a very flexible word in Swahili. In other sentences it can also mean with. Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Because in Swahili, a full noun object can simply come after the verb.

So amevaa sandaali na fulana nyepesi is perfectly normal: the verb is followed directly by the things worn.

Object markers are more likely when the object is already known from context or has been mentioned before. So this sentence is using the simpler, very common pattern.

Yes. Sandaali is a borrowed word, and borrowed words can show some spelling and plural variation in Swahili.

That means learners may see slightly different forms in different materials. In this sentence, just treat it as the footwear item the child is wearing. The important grammar point here is the sentence structure, not the exact spelling pattern of that loanword.