Jana sikuwa na mafua, lakini leo nina kikohozi kidogo na ninapiga chafya mara kwa mara.

A natural breakdown is:

• Jana = yesterday
• sikuwa na = I did not have
• mafua = a cold / flu-like cold symptoms
• lakini = but
• leo = today
• nina = I have
• kikohozi kidogo = a slight cough / a little cough
• na = and
• ninapiga chafya = I am sneezing / I sneeze
• mara kwa mara = frequently / repeatedly / every now and then, depending on context

So the sentence is built from two time contrasts: yesterday versus today.

Swahili often expresses to have with the idea to be with.

So:

• kuwa = to be
• na = with

Together, kuwa na works like to have.

In the past negative:

• sikuwa na mafua = I did not have a cold

You can think of sikuwa as the negative past form of kuwa for I.

A useful comparison:

• nilikuwa na mafua = I had a cold
• sikuwa na mafua = I did not have a cold

In the present tense, Swahili has a short, very common possession pattern:

• nina = I have
• una = you have
• ana = he/she has
• tuna = we have
• mna = you all have
• wana = they have

So nina kikohozi simply means I have a cough.

This is why the sentence says:

• leo nina kikohozi kidogo

rather than using a longer form with kuwa.

In other tenses, Swahili goes back to forms with kuwa na:

• nilikuwa na = I had
• nitakuwa na = I will have

Yes, it is the same word in form, but it is doing different jobs.

• In sikuwa na mafua, na means with, which is part of the idea to have
• In kikohozi kidogo na ninapiga chafya, na means and

So Swahili uses na in more than one way, and context tells you which meaning is intended.

Mafua can cover a cold, flu, or more generally cold/flu-like symptoms, depending on context and region.

In everyday speech, it often refers to what an English speaker might simply call a cold. It does not always match medical English perfectly.

So in this sentence, Yesterday I didn’t have mafua is best understood as:

• Yesterday I didn’t have a cold
• or Yesterday I wasn’t coming down with flu-like symptoms

Because it belongs to a noun class that often has ma- in the singular-looking dictionary form learners see, even when the meaning is not really a normal countable plural.

With illnesses, Swahili often uses forms that do not map neatly onto English singular/plural logic. So mafua is treated as the normal word for the condition, not as many colds.

For a learner, the important thing is:

• just learn mafua as the usual word
• do not try to force an English-style singular form

There are two things happening here.

1. The adjective comes after the noun

In Swahili, adjectives usually follow the noun:

• kikohozi kidogo = a small/slight cough

not the other way around.

2. The adjective agrees with the noun class

Kikohozi is a noun in the ki-/vi- class.
The adjective root is -dogo = small/little.

Because the noun is class ki-, the adjective becomes:

• ki-
  • -dogo = kidogo

So:

• kikohozi kidogo = a slight cough

This agreement is a major feature of Swahili grammar.

Not usually. In this context, kidogo is better understood as slight or mild.

So:

• nina kikohozi kidogo = I have a slight cough

It sounds natural and idiomatic. It is describing the severity, not the physical size.

Because kupiga chafya is an idiomatic expression meaning to sneeze.

Literally, kupiga often means to hit or to strike, but in many everyday expressions it works more like to do, to make, or forms part of a fixed phrase.

So:

• kupiga chafya = to sneeze
• ninapiga chafya = I am sneezing / I sneeze

This is normal Swahili, not a strange mistake.

You will see the same pattern in other expressions too, such as:

• kupiga simu = to make a phone call
• kupiga picha = to take a picture

Mara kwa mara means something like:

• frequently
• repeatedly
• again and again
• every now and then

The exact English choice depends on context.

In this sentence, because it is talking about symptoms, the most natural sense is:

• frequently
• or repeatedly

So ninapiga chafya mara kwa mara means I keep sneezing or I sneeze frequently.

Because in Swahili, each verb normally carries its own subject marker.

So even though both verbs have the subject I, each verb still shows that:

• ni-na = I have
• ni-na-piga = I am doing / I am sneezing

English can often avoid repeating the subject in connected ideas, but Swahili verbs usually mark the subject every time.

The -na- tense in Swahili often covers both:

• simple present
• present progressive

So ninapiga chafya can mean:

• I sneeze
• I am sneezing

In this sentence, because it is contrasted with yesterday and today, and because of mara kwa mara, the meaning is most naturally:

• today I am sneezing frequently
• or today I keep sneezing

Yes. Swahili time words are fairly flexible.

This sentence begins with them because that makes the contrast very clear:

• Jana ... lakini leo ...

That is a very natural way to say Yesterday ..., but today ...

You could move them in some contexts, but sentence-initial position is common and useful when setting the time frame.

Swahili does not have articles like English a, an, and the.

So:

• mafua can mean a cold or the cold, depending on context
• kikohozi kidogo can mean a slight cough or the slight cough, depending on context

English requires an article, but Swahili usually does not. The listener understands it from context.