Binti ambaye baba yake ni mwalimu alitumia kiwakilishi sahihi katika sentensi zote.

Ambaye is the relative pronoun used for a singular person in noun class 1. It refers back to binti and introduces the descriptive clause about her.

So:

• binti = singular human noun
• ambaye = who/that for that kind of noun

That is why the sentence says Binti ambaye... and not a different relative form such as ambacho or ambazo.

Swahili usually does not use one separate word exactly equal to English whose in this kind of sentence. Instead, it builds the idea with:

• a relative pronoun: ambaye
• the possessed noun: baba
• a possessive: yake

So:

• ambaye baba yake ni mwalimu

literally looks more like:

• who, her father is a teacher

But the natural English meaning is:

• whose father is a teacher

This is a very common Swahili way to express possession inside a relative clause.

Because the possessive form agrees with the thing possessed, not with the owner.

In baba yake:

• the possessed noun is baba
• baba takes the possessive form -ake as yake

So baba yake means his father or her father, depending on context.

A useful comparison:

• baba yake = his/her father
• mwalimu wake = his/her teacher

The difference comes from noun-class agreement. Even though baba refers to a person, it commonly behaves differently from nouns like mwalimu in possessive agreement.

Because noun class in Swahili is not determined only by the first letter or first syllable.

Binti is a human singular noun, so it takes class 1 agreement. That is why you get:

• ambaye = class 1 singular relative pronoun
• a- in alitumia = class 1 singular subject marker

So even though binti does not look like a typical m-/wa- noun, it still behaves grammatically like a singular human noun.

Alitumia can be broken into parts:

• a- = subject marker for he/she or any class 1 singular noun
• -li- = past tense marker
• -tumia = verb stem meaning use

So alitumia means he/she used.

In this sentence, it refers back to binti, so the sense is she used.

Ni is the normal copula used to link two noun phrases in the present tense.

So:

• baba yake ni mwalimu = her father is a teacher

Here, ni works like English is.

This kind of pattern is extremely common:

• Yeye ni mwanafunzi = He/She is a student
• Baba yake ni mwalimu = His/Her father is a teacher

Because Swahili does not work like English in terms of grammatical gender.

Mwalimu can mean:

• male teacher
• female teacher

The word itself does not change. Context tells you the sex of the person if it matters.

The same is true for many other words in the sentence:

• yake can mean his or her
• alitumia can mean he used or she used

Swahili usually leaves that to context rather than marking it directly in the word.

In Swahili, adjectives and many descriptive modifiers usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• kiwakilishi sahihi = correct pronoun

not:

• sahihi kiwakilishi

That word order is normal in Swahili.

Some Swahili adjectives change form to agree with the noun class, but sahihi usually does not. It is commonly treated as an invariable adjective.

So you get:

• kiwakilishi sahihi
• viwakilishi sahihi
• sentensi sahihi

The word sahihi stays the same.

This is different from adjectives that do agree, such as:

• kikubwa = big, class 7 singular
• vikubwa = big, class 8 plural

Kiwakilishi is a class 7 noun.

Its plural is:

• viwakilishi

So:

• kiwakilishi = pronoun
• viwakilishi = pronouns

The ki- / vi- pattern is very common in Swahili noun classes.

Because many borrowed nouns in Swahili have the same form in singular and plural.

So sentensi can mean:

• sentence
• sentences

What tells you the number is the agreement word around it. Here the clue is:

• zote = all for a plural noun of this class

So:

• sentensi zote = all the sentences

Compare:

• sentensi yote = the whole sentence / the entire sentence
• sentensi zote = all the sentences

Zote is the form of all that agrees with a class 10 plural noun.

Since sentensi here is plural, the agreement word is plural too:

• sentensi zote = all the sentences

This is a good example of how Swahili often shows number through agreement rather than by changing the noun itself.

Swahili generally does not use articles like English a, an, or the.

So a noun like binti may be translated as:

• a girl
• the girl

depending on context.

The same is true for:

• mwalimu = a teacher / the teacher
• kiwakilishi = a pronoun / the pronoun

English requires articles, but Swahili usually does not.