Mfungwa amekiri kosa la jinai.

A natural word-by-word breakdown is:

• Mfungwa = prisoner
• amekiri = has confessed / has admitted
• kosa = fault, offense, wrongdoing, mistake
• la = of / a linking word that agrees with kosa
• jinai = crime, criminal matter

So kosa la jinai means something like a criminal offense or an offense of a criminal nature.

amekiri can be broken down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -me- = perfect marker, often giving the idea of has/have
• -kiri = verb root meaning admit or confess

So amekiri literally works like he/she has confessed or he/she has admitted.

The infinitive is kukiri = to confess / to admit.

The tense marker -me- is the key part. In Swahili, -me- usually expresses a completed action with present relevance, so it often translates as English has/have + past participle.

Compare:

• anakiri = he/she confesses, is confessing
• alikiri = he/she confessed
• amekiri = he/she has confessed

So in this sentence, amekiri is best understood as has confessed or has admitted.

Because Swahili usually puts subject and tense information inside the verb itself.

In amekiri:

• a- already tells you the subject is he/she
• -me- tells you the tense/aspect
• -kiri gives the main meaning

So instead of using separate helper words like English does, Swahili often builds everything into one verb form.

It can mean either. The subject marker a- in this form does not distinguish between he and she.

So amekiri can mean:

• he has confessed
• she has confessed

In this sentence, mfungwa also does not specify gender, so the prisoner could be male or female unless context tells you more.

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

So mfungwa can mean:

• a prisoner
• the prisoner

And kosa can mean:

• an offense
• the offense

Context decides which one sounds best in translation. That is why the full sentence could be translated as either:

• The prisoner has confessed to a criminal offense
• A prisoner has confessed to a criminal offense

depending on the situation.

Because la has to agree with kosa, and kosa belongs to noun class 5.

In Swahili, words like of often change form to match the noun they relate to. Here:

• kosa is class 5 singular
• the matching associative/linking form is la

So:

• kosa la jinai = criminal offense

If it were plural, it would change:

• makosa ya jinai = criminal offenses

So la is not random; it is showing noun-class agreement.

The main ones are:

• mfungwa: class 1 singular (human noun)
  • plural: wafungwa
• kosa: class 5 singular
  • plural: makosa
• jinai: commonly treated as a class 9-type noun in this kind of phrase

This matters because Swahili grammar uses noun classes for agreement. That is why kosa takes la, not some other linker.

Yes. kosa has a range of meanings, including:

• mistake
• fault
• offense
• wrongdoing

In legal or formal contexts, it can mean offense or charge. In this sentence, because it is followed by la jinai, the meaning is clearly legal: criminal offense.

So the phrase narrows the meaning from a general mistake/fault to a legal offense.

Because verbs do not always match across languages.

In English, we say:

• confess to a crime

In Swahili, kukiri can take its object more directly, so:

• amekiri kosa la jinai

is normal and means has confessed/admitted a criminal offense.

So you should not expect English preposition patterns to carry over exactly into Swahili.

The basic order is:

Subject + Verb + Object

• Mfungwa = subject
• amekiri = verb
• kosa la jinai = object

Inside the object phrase, the modifier comes after the noun:

• kosa = offense
• la jinai = of crime / criminal

So Swahili word order here is quite straightforward for an English speaker, even though the internal grammar of the words is different.

A natural plural version is:

Wafungwa wamekiri makosa ya jinai.

Breakdown:

• Wafungwa = prisoners
• wamekiri = they have confessed
• makosa = offenses
• ya jinai = of crime / criminal

Notice the agreement changes:

• mfungwa → wafungwa
• amekiri → wamekiri
• kosa la → makosa ya

Yes. kukiri often covers both ideas:

• to admit
• to confess
• sometimes to acknowledge

Which English word sounds best depends on context. In a legal sentence like this one, has confessed and has admitted are both possible, though has confessed may sound slightly more natural if the person is admitting guilt.