Kama ningekuwa na muda zaidi leo jioni, ningemsaidia baba kukaza bolti zote za meza.

Because the sentence is a hypothetical conditional:

• Kama ningekuwa na muda zaidi leo jioni = If I had more time this evening
• ningemsaidia baba... = I would help father...

In Swahili, nge is commonly used in this kind of would / if ... would situation.

A simple pattern is:

• kama + nge-form, nge-form
• If ..., would ...

So this sentence is talking about something not necessarily real, but imagined.

Ningekuwa can be broken down like this:

• ni- = I
• -nge- = hypothetical / conditional marker
• -kuwa = be

So ningekuwa means something like I would be.

In this sentence, it is followed by na muda zaidi, so the full idea becomes:

• ningekuwa na muda zaidi = I would be with more time
• natural English: I would have more time

That is why Swahili uses be with where English uses have.

Swahili usually expresses to have with kuwa na, literally to be with.

Examples:

• nina muda = I have time
• nilikuwa na muda = I had time
• ningekuwa na muda = I would have time

So in this sentence:

• ningekuwa na muda zaidi = I would have more time

This is a very normal Swahili structure.

Muda means time, and zaidi means more.

So:

• muda zaidi = more time

You can think of zaidi as a word that adds the idea of more / additional / further.

Examples:

• fedha zaidi = more money
• maji zaidi = more water
• muda zaidi = more time

Leo jioni means this evening or sometimes tonight, depending on context.

It is made of:

• leo = today
• jioni = evening

So literally it is today evening.

Its placement after muda zaidi is natural Swahili word order. The phrase modifies the time situation:

• ningekuwa na muda zaidi leo jioni = if I had more time this evening

Swahili often allows some flexibility, so you may also hear slightly different placements in other sentences, but this one is completely normal.

Ningemsaidia can be broken down like this:

• ni- = I
• -nge- = conditional / would
• -m- = him/her object marker
• -saidia = help

So:

• ningemsaidia = I would help him/her

Then the noun baba appears right after it, showing who that him is:

• ningemsaidia baba = I would help father

This is very common in Swahili.

The object marker -m- inside the verb already points to him, but the noun baba is still added for clarity or normal expression.

So:

• ningemsaidia = I would help him
• ningemsaidia baba = I would help father / I would help my father

Swahili often uses both:

1. the object marker inside the verb
2. the full noun after the verb

This is especially common with animate objects such as people.

Kukaza is the infinitive to tighten.

After -saidia (help), Swahili commonly uses another verb in the infinitive to say help someone do something.

So:

• ningemsaidia baba kukaza bolti...
• I would help father tighten the bolts...

This is similar to English help someone do something.

A literal sense is:

• I would help father to tighten...

Here is the breakdown:

• bolti = bolts
• zote = all
• za meza = of the table

So:

• bolti zote za meza = all the bolts of the table
• natural English: all the table’s bolts or all the bolts on the table

In this sentence, the most natural translation is usually something like:

• all the bolts of the table
• or all the table bolts, depending on context

That is because they agree with bolti.

In Swahili, words like all, my, of, and many others often change form to match the noun class of the noun they describe.

Here:

• bolti is treated as a noun that takes z- agreement in the plural
• so you get:
  • zote = all for that noun class
  • za meza = of the table with the same agreement

So the agreement is not random; it matches bolti.

Because the connector meaning of must agree with the noun being possessed, not with the possessor.

Here, the thing being described is bolti:

• bolti ... za meza = bolts of the table

Since bolti takes z- agreement here, the possessive connector is za.

Compare the idea:

• kitabu cha mtoto = the child’s book
• vitabu vya mtoto = the child’s books

The connector changes to match book/books, not child.

Yes. It is a borrowed word, ultimately from bolt.

Swahili uses many borrowed words, especially for modern or technical objects. Borrowed nouns are very common and completely normal.

So bolti in a sentence like this does not sound strange. It is ordinary Swahili usage.

Yes, that is possible depending on context, but there is one thing to watch carefully.

The phrase za meza most naturally means of the table or belonging to the table, so the intended meaning is probably:

• the bolts of the table
• in smoother English: the table’s bolts
• even more natural: the bolts on the table if the context is about assembling or fixing a table

Also, baba can mean father, my father, or dad, depending on context. Swahili often leaves possessives understood when they are obvious.

So a natural full translation could be:

• If I had more time this evening, I would help my father tighten all the bolts on the table.

A rough gloss is:

• Kama = if
• ningekuwa = I would be
• na = with
• muda zaidi = more time
• leo jioni = this evening
• ningemsaidia = I would help him
• baba = father / dad
• kukaza = to tighten
• bolti zote = all the bolts
• za meza = of the table

So very literally:

• If I would be with more time this evening, I would help him, father, to tighten all the bolts of the table.

Natural English:

• If I had more time this evening, I would help my father tighten all the table’s bolts.
• or more idiomatically:
• If I had more time this evening, I would help my father tighten all the bolts on the table.