Leo nina mafua na kikohozi kidogo.

Nina means I have.

It is made from:

• ni- = I
• -na = have / be with

So nina mafua is literally something like I am with a cold / flu, which is how Swahili commonly expresses I have.

Leo means today, and putting it at the beginning sets the time right away.

So the sentence starts by telling you when this is true: Today, I have a cold/flu and a slight cough.

Swahili often puts time words like leo, jana (yesterday), or kesho (tomorrow) near the beginning, but they can sometimes move depending on emphasis.

Mafua is one of those nouns that often appears in a plural-looking form even when it refers to a single illness.

For English speakers, this can feel strange, because English says a cold or the flu as singular. In Swahili, mafua is the normal word, even though it begins with ma-, which often marks a plural noun class.

So you should learn mafua as a fixed vocabulary item meaning something like:

• a cold
• flu
• sometimes nasal congestion / runny nose, depending on context

It can mean either, depending on context.

In everyday use, mafua is often used broadly for cold-like or flu-like symptoms. So the exact English translation may change depending on the situation.

That means:

• sometimes I have a cold is a good translation
• sometimes I have the flu
• sometimes something closer to I have a runny nose / congestion

A learner should not expect a perfect one-to-one match with English.

They are the same form, but they are doing different jobs.

• In nina, -na is part of the verb phrase and means have / be with
• The separate na between mafua and kikohozi kidogo means and

So:

• nina = I have
• mafua na kikohozi kidogo = a cold/flu and a slight cough

This is very normal in Swahili.

Because in Swahili, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• kikohozi = cough
• kidogo = small / little / slight

Together:

• kikohozi kidogo = a slight cough or a little cough

This noun-then-adjective order is one of the basic word-order differences from English.

That is because the adjective agrees with the noun class of kikohozi.

• kikohozi belongs to the ki-/vi- noun class
• The adjective stem is -dogo = small / little
• With a ki- class singular noun, it becomes kidogo

So the ki- is not random. It shows agreement with kikohozi.

This kind of agreement is a major feature of Swahili grammar.

Here it means a little or slight.

With illnesses or symptoms, -dogo often describes degree rather than physical size. So kikohozi kidogo is not really a physically small cough. It means:

• a slight cough
• a little cough
• a mild cough

So it is more about intensity than size.

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

English requires them very often:

• a cold
• a cough
• the flu

Swahili usually just uses the noun by itself:

• mafua
• kikohozi

So learners need to get used to the fact that article words are often simply absent.

Yes. This sentence uses the noun kikohozi = cough, so it says you have a cough.

If you want to express the action to cough, you can use the verb -kohoa:

• Ninakohoa kidogo = I’m coughing a little

So there is a difference between:

• nina kikohozi kidogo = I have a slight cough
• ninakohoa kidogo = I’m coughing a little

Both are natural, but they focus on slightly different things.

Yes, often it can.

For example:

• Leo nina mafua na kikohozi kidogo
• Nina mafua na kikohozi kidogo leo

Both are understandable. Starting with leo is very common because it frames the whole statement from the start.

So the original sentence is natural, but Swahili does allow some flexibility.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• Leo → LE-o
• nina → NI-na
• mafua → ma-FU-a
• na → na
• kikohozi → ki-ko-HO-zi
• kidogo → ki-DO-go

A few useful pronunciation tips:

• Swahili vowels are usually pure and consistent: a, e, i, o, u
• Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable
• In mafua, the u and a are pronounced separately: fu-a, not merged into one English-style sound

So the whole sentence is roughly: LE-o NI-na ma-FU-a na ki-ko-HO-zi ki-DO-go