Kila mmoja wetu atapewa nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza kabla mkutano haujafungwa.

Each one of us will be given a short chance to speak before the meeting is closed.

Breakdown of Kila mmoja wetu atapewa nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza kabla mkutano haujafungwa.

• kila: every
• ya: of
• wetu: our
• fupi: short
• mkutano: the meeting
• kabla: before
• kuzungumza: to speak
• kupewa: to be given
• mmoja: one
• kufungwa: to be closed
• nafasi: the opportunity

Questions & Answers about Kila mmoja wetu atapewa nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza kabla mkutano haujafungwa.

How would you translate this sentence very literally, word by word, into English?

A very literal breakdown would be:

• Kila – every / each
• mmoja – one (person)
• wetu – of us / our
• atapewa – he/she will-be-given
• nafasi fupi – short opportunity / brief chance
• ya kuzungumza – of to-speak / to talk
• kabla – before
• mkutano – meeting
• haujafungwa – it-has-not-yet-been-closed

Putting that together very literally:

“Each one of-us will-be-given a short opportunity of to-speak before the-meeting has-not-yet-been-closed.”

Of course, natural English smooths this to something like:

“Each of us will be given a brief chance to speak before the meeting is closed.”

Why is it kila mmoja wetu and not something like kila mtu wetu?

• Kila means each / every.
• Mmoja literally means one, but when used with kila, kila mmoja means each one (person).
• Wetu means our / of us.

So kila mmoja wetu literally is “each one of us”.

You would not normally say kila mtu wetu; that sounds wrong in Swahili. The idiomatic pattern is:

• kila mmoja wetu – each one of us
• kila mmoja wenu – each one of you (plural)
• kila mmoja wao – each one of them

You can say kila mtu = every person / everyone, but if you want to add “of us / of you / of them”, you switch to mmoja plus the possessive (wetu / wenu / wao).

Why is the verb atapewa in the singular, when we are talking about all of us?

Grammatically, the subject here is kila mmoja (each one), which is singular, even though logically it refers to several people.

So Swahili uses a third person singular verb:

• a- – third person singular subject prefix (he / she / it)
• -ta- – future tense
• -pewa – passive of pa (to give) → be given

So atapewa = “he/she will be given”.

Because kila mmoja wetu is “each one of us”, the verb agrees with mmoja (one person), not with wetu (us). That’s why it is atapewa, not watapewa or tutapewa.

Can you break down the form atapewa morphologically? What is the base verb?

Yes:

• Base verb: ku-pa – to give
• Passive form: ku-pewa – to be given

Then we add subject and tense markers:

• a- – third person singular subject (he/she/it)
• -ta- – future tense
• -pewa – passive stem (be given)

So:

• atapewa = a-ta-pewa = he/she will be given

In context, he/she refers back to kila mmoja wetu → each one of us will be given.

Why use the passive atapewa (will be given) instead of an active form like atapewa nafasi / atapewa sisi or watatupa nafasi?

The passive atapewa keeps the focus on the people receiving the chance, and leaves the giver either unknown or unimportant:

• Kila mmoja wetu atapewa nafasi…
  → Each of us will be given a chance…
  (By whom? Presumably the meeting chair or organizer, but that’s not the focus.)

An active version would explicitly name the giver:

• Mwenyekiti atatupa kila mmoja wetu nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza…
  → The chairperson will give each of us a brief chance to speak…

Both are grammatically fine, but in announcements or formal instructions, Swahili often prefers this kind of impersonal passive when the agent isn’t important:

• Watoto wataletewa chakula. – The children will be brought food.
• Mgeni atakaribishwa. – The guest will be welcomed.

So atapewa is natural and polite, and matches the English preference for the passive in this type of sentence.

What exactly does nafasi fupi mean here? Is it “short time” or “small chance”?

Nafasi is a flexible word. Common meanings:

• space (physical space)
• chance / opportunity
• position / post / role

In this sentence, nafasi clearly means opportunity / chance.

Fupi means short / brief (for length, duration, or time).

So nafasi fupi here means:

• “a brief opportunity”
• “a small/short chance”, i.e. not very long

In English you might translate it as:

• “a short time to speak”,
  even though literally it’s “a brief opportunity to speak”.

If you wanted to emphasize time explicitly, you could also say:

• muda mfupi wa kuzungumza – a short time to speak

But nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza is very idiomatic and natural.

How does the phrase ya kuzungumza work grammatically after nafasi fupi?

The pattern is:

• [Noun] + ya + ku-verb

This is a common way in Swahili to say “opportunity / time / place to do X”, “way of doing X”, etc.

Here:

• nafasi – opportunity
• fupi – short
• ya – of (agreeing with nafasi, which is class 9/10, where the linking particle is usually ya)
• kuzungumza – to speak / to talk

So nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza literally is:

• “a short opportunity of to-speak”, i.e. “a brief chance to speak”

Other similar patterns:

• muda wa kusubiri – time to wait
• nje ya kula – place to eat
• njia ya kutatua tatizo – a way to solve the problem

Why is it kabla mkutano haujafungwa and not something like kabla mkutano umefungwa or just kabla mkutano kufungwa?

Kabla (before) usually combines with one of two structures:

1. Kabla + clause with a negative “-ja-” tense

   • kabla mkutano haujafungwa
     literally: “before the meeting has not yet been closed”, which idiomatically means
     “before the meeting is closed” / “before the meeting has been closed”.

2. Kabla ya + verbal noun (infinitive-like form)

   • kabla ya mkutano kufungwa – before the meeting being closed
   • kabla ya kuondoka – before leaving

In the given sentence, we have structure (1).

The negative “-ja-” tense in Swahili expresses “has not yet VERBed”, but when it appears in a “before …” clause, it corresponds in English to “before X VERBs / is VERBed”. So:

• kabla mkutano haujafungwa
  → literally: before the meeting has not yet been closed
  → naturally: before the meeting is closed

Using umefungwa (has been closed) after kabla would not be idiomatic; Swahili instead prefers the negative -ja- construction to express the “not yet happened” idea in “before” clauses.

What exactly is going on inside haujafungwa? How does it agree with mkutano?

Breakdown of haujafungwa:

• ha- – negative marker
• u- – subject marker for noun class 3/11 (here, mkutano, class 3)
• -ja- – perfect aspect, “not yet” in the negative
• fungw- – passive stem of fungua (to open), fungwa (to be closed / be locked / be tied)
• -a – final vowel

So haujafungwa literally means:

• “it has not yet been closed”

Since mkutano is a class 3 noun, its present/ perfect subject marker is u- (or hu- in negative, where ha- + u- -> hau-). That’s why you have:

• mkutano umefungwa – the meeting has been closed
• mkutano haujafungwa – the meeting has not yet been closed

In our sentence, using kabla … haujafungwa gives the sense “before the meeting is closed”.

Why is there no ya after kabla here? I often see kabla ya….

Kabla behaves slightly differently depending on what follows it:

1. Before a noun / noun phrase, you usually use kabla ya:

   • kabla ya mkutano – before the meeting
   • kabla ya chakula – before the food
   • kabla ya kazi – before work

2. Before a full clause with a verb, ya is usually omitted:

   • kabla uje – before you come
   • kabla mvua haijaanza – before the rain starts
   • kabla mkutano haujafungwa – before the meeting is closed

So in your sentence, kabla is followed by a full clause (mkutano haujafungwa), not just a noun phrase, so ya is dropped. That’s why it’s kabla mkutano haujafungwa, not kabla ya mkutano haujafungwa.

Could this sentence be reordered, or said in a simpler / more colloquial way, without changing the meaning?

Yes, there is some flexibility, though the original order is the most natural:

Original:

• Kila mmoja wetu atapewa nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza kabla mkutano haujafungwa.

Possible variants (still natural):

1. Move the kabla-clause earlier:

   • Kabla mkutano haujafungwa, kila mmoja wetu atapewa nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza.
     → Before the meeting is closed, each of us will be given a brief chance to speak.

2. Slightly simpler vocabulary:

   • Kila mmoja wetu atapata muda mfupi wa kuzungumza kabla mkutano haujafungwa.
     (atapata – will get, muda mfupi – short time)
     → The meaning is almost the same, but atapata is active (will get) rather than passive (will be given), and muda emphasizes time more directly.

What you cannot do is separate kila mmoja wetu from its verb in an unnatural way, e.g.:

• ✗ Kila mmoja wetu kabla mkutano haujafungwa atapewa nafasi fupi ya kuzungumza.
  This is grammatically awkward and not idiomatic.

The safest patterns are:

• [Main clause] … kabla mkutano haujafungwa.
• Kabla mkutano haujafungwa, [main clause]…