Mpelelezi anamtafuta mhalifu anayetuogopesha.

It is made of several parts:

• a- = he/she (subject marker for a singular person)
• -na- = present / ongoing action
• -m- = him/her (object marker for a singular person)
• tafuta = look for, search for

So anamtafuta literally means he/she is looking for him/her.

In this sentence, that him/her refers to mhalifu.

That -m- is an object marker. Swahili often marks the object on the verb itself, especially when the object is a specific person.

So:

• anatafuta mhalifu = is looking for a criminal / is looking for the criminal
• anamtafuta mhalifu = is looking for him/her, the criminal

Using the object marker makes the object sound more specific and more clearly tied to the verb.

A useful breakdown is:

• a- = he/she
• -na- = present / ongoing
• -ye- = relative marker meaning who/that for a singular human noun
• -tu- = us
• ogopesha = frighten, scare

So anayetuogopesha means who is frightening us.

It is built into the verb as -ye-.

English uses a separate word:

• the criminal who is frightening us

Swahili often puts that idea inside the verb:

• mhalifu anayetuogopesha

So -ye- is the part that gives the meaning who/that here.

Because the noun and the verb do not use the same agreement form.

• The noun itself is mhalifu
• But the verb agrees with a singular human noun using a-

So:

• mhalifu anaye... = criminal who...
• mhalifu anatuogopesha = the criminal is frightening us

The m- belongs to the noun form, while a- is the subject marker used on the verb for singular human nouns.

They are both singular human nouns in the m-/wa- noun class.

Common pattern:

• singular: mpelelezi, mhalifu
• plural: wapelelezi, wahalifu

This is one of the main noun classes for people in Swahili. Verbs agreeing with this class usually use:

• a- for singular
• wa- for plural

-na- marks present-time or ongoing action.

So:

• anamtafuta = is looking for / looks for
• anayetuogopesha = is frightening us / frightens us

Depending on context, English may use either simple present or present continuous, but the Swahili form is the same.

They are related, but not the same:

• kuogopa = to fear, to be afraid
• kuogopesha = to frighten, to scare

So ogopesha is causative: it means cause someone to feel fear.

That is why anayetuogopesha means who is scaring us, not who is fearing us.

Swahili is highly agglutinative, which means many grammatical pieces attach directly to the verb.

A single verb can include:

• the subject
• the tense
• a relative marker
• the object
• the verb root

So instead of several separate words, Swahili often builds one long verb form, such as:

• anamtafuta
• anayetuogopesha

This is very normal in Swahili grammar.

Swahili does not have articles like a and the.

So the sentence itself does not explicitly tell you that. Context decides.

Depending on the situation, it could be translated as:

• the criminal who is frightening us
• a criminal who is frightening us

In many real contexts, English would use the, because the criminal sounds like a specific person.

Because it is a relative clause describing mhalifu.

The structure is:

• Mpelelezi = subject
• anamtafuta = verb
• mhalifu anayetuogopesha = object noun + description of that noun

So just like in English, the noun comes first and the who... clause comes after it:

• the criminal who is frightening us

Yes. By themselves, these words do not specify male or female.

So:

• mpelelezi can mean a male detective or a female detective
• mhalifu can mean a male criminal or a female criminal

Gender would usually come from context, added words, or prior information.