Baada ya somo, niliandika dondoo chache za herufi ngumu na matamshi yake.

It means after the lesson or after class, depending on context.

• baada ya = after
• somo = lesson, class session, or sometimes subject

So Baada ya somo is a very natural way to say after the lesson.
A similar pattern is kabla ya somo = before the lesson.

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

That means a noun like somo can mean:

• a lesson
• the lesson

The exact meaning comes from context. In this sentence, English naturally uses the lesson, but Swahili does not need a separate word for that.

niliandika can be broken down like this:

• ni- = I
• -li- = past tense marker
• andika = write

So niliandika means I wrote.

This is a very common Swahili verb pattern:

• subject marker + tense marker + verb stem

For example:

• nilisoma = I studied / I read
• nilizungumza = I spoke

It is the simple past tense.

So niliandika means I wrote. Depending on context, English might also translate it as I wrote down or sometimes I made notes, but the core tense is straightforward past.

dondoo chache means a few notes or a few jottings.

In Swahili, adjectives and quantity words usually come after the noun, not before it. So:

• dondoo chache = notes few
• natural English = a few notes

This noun-first order is very normal in Swahili:

• mtoto mdogo = small child
• vitabu vingi = many books

Here, dondoo is plural because chache means a few.

But the word dondoo often stays the same in both singular and plural. Context tells you the number.

For example:

• dondoo moja = one note
• dondoo chache = a few notes

This happens with some Swahili nouns, especially in noun classes where the singular and plural form can look identical.

Here za is a linking word, often called the genitive connector or -a connector.

In this sentence, za connects dondoo chache with herufi ngumu. The idea is:

• dondoo za herufi ngumu = notes of difficult letters
• in more natural English: notes on difficult letters or notes about difficult letters

So za does not always translate as a literal English of. Depending on context, it can feel like of, about, or on.

The connector changes to agree with the noun before it. Here it agrees with dondoo.

Since dondoo belongs to a noun class that uses za in this pattern, you get:

• dondoo za ...

Other nouns would use other forms:

• kitabu cha mwanafunzi = the student’s book
• vitabu vya mwanafunzi = the student’s books

So the connector changes with noun class, not with English-style singular/plural logic alone.

In Swahili, adjectives normally come after the noun, so:

• herufi ngumu = difficult letters

As for the form ngumu, some adjective forms do not change much, or the agreement is not very obvious on the surface with certain noun classes. Also, herufi itself often looks the same in singular and plural, so the phrase can look simpler than an English learner expects.

The important pattern to remember is:

• noun first
• adjective after

It means their pronunciations in this sentence, referring to the letters.

So:

• matamshi = pronunciations / pronunciation
• yake = his/her/its/their, depending on context

Here the full idea is:

• herufi ngumu na matamshi yake = difficult letters and their pronunciations

This is a very common Swahili question.

In Swahili, the possessive form agrees with the thing possessed, not directly with the owner in the way English learners often expect.

Here the possessed noun is matamshi, and that noun takes the possessive form yake. The owner is understood from context to be herufi.

So yake can mean:

• his
• her
• its
• their

The exact English choice comes from context. In this sentence, their is the natural translation because the pronunciations belong to the letters.

Because Swahili often uses matamshi as a plural or collective noun where English may use either pronunciation or pronunciations.

In this sentence, pronunciations makes good sense because there are multiple difficult letters, and each one can have its own pronunciation. So matamshi yake naturally becomes their pronunciations.

A fairly literal breakdown is:

• Baada ya somo = After the lesson
• niliandika = I wrote
• dondoo chache = a few notes
• za herufi ngumu = about difficult letters
• na matamshi yake = and their pronunciations

So the full structure is very close to:

After the lesson, I wrote a few notes about difficult letters and their pronunciations.

The main differences from English are:

• no articles like the or a
• adjectives usually come after nouns
• possessive/linking forms depend on noun class