Baba yetu ni mgonjwa leo.

to be

Breakdown of Baba yetu ni mgonjwa leo.

• leo: today
• baba: the father
• mgonjwa: sick
• yetu: our

Questions & Answers about Baba yetu ni mgonjwa leo.

What does baba mean in this sentence?

It specifically refers to father, so baba is simply the Swahili word for father.

Why do we use yetu here instead of another term?

Yetu is the possessive pronoun for our. In Swahili, it matches the noun class of baba, so baba yetu means our father.

What does ni mgonjwa express?

Ni mgonjwa conveys the idea of is sick. Ni is the linking verb (similar to is in English), while mgonjwa means sick person or simply sick in an adjectival sense.

Is there any special nuance to using leo here?

Leo means today. Using it emphasizes that his sickness is specifically on this day, not necessarily a permanent or ongoing condition.

How do I pronounce mgonjwa?

It’s pronounced roughly as m-gon-jwa, with a slight nasal m at the start, followed by a clear gon and then jwa. Each vowel is pronounced distinctly in Swahili.