Muuguzi alinipa sharubati ya kikohozi na kidonge baada ya chakula.

Alinipa can be split into:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -ni- = me
• -pa = verb root meaning give

So alinipa literally means he/she gave me.

This is very typical Swahili verb structure:
subject + tense + object + verb root

For example:

• alinipa = he/she gave me
• alikupa = he/she gave you
• walinipa = they gave me

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

So muuguzi can mean:

• a nurse
• the nurse

You understand which one is meant from context. In this sentence, English usually translates it as the nurse because the speaker probably has a specific nurse in mind.

Yes, literally it is something like syrup of cough, but naturally it means cough syrup.

The word ya links the two nouns. It often works like:

• of
• for
• sometimes an adjective-like connection

So:

• sharubati ya kikohozi = cough syrup
• literally: syrup of/for cough

This structure is extremely common in Swahili.

It is the same form, but it is doing slightly different jobs.

1. In sharubati ya kikohozi, ya is a connector between nouns:

   • sharubati ya kikohozi = cough syrup

2. In baada ya chakula, ya is part of the expression baada ya:

   • baada ya chakula = after food / after a meal

So the word is the same, but the phrase around it determines the meaning.

Again, Swahili has no articles like a or the.

So kidonge can mean:

• a pill
• the pill
• sometimes just pill in a general sense

The context tells you which English translation sounds best.

Also, kidonge is singular. The plural is vidonge.

Baada ya chakula literally means after food or after a meal, and in natural English it usually means:

• after a meal
• after eating

In medical instructions, this is a very common way to say that medicine should be taken after food.

If you wanted to focus more on the action of eating, Swahili could also use forms based on kula (to eat), but baada ya chakula is very natural and common.

Na means and here.

So:

• sharubati ya kikohozi na kidonge = cough syrup and a pill

It simply joins the two things that were given.

Be aware that na can also mean with in other sentences, so you have to use context to decide.

The sentence follows a very common Swahili pattern:

• Muuguzi = subject
• alinipa = verb with object inside it
• sharubati ya kikohozi na kidonge = things given
• baada ya chakula = time/condition phrase

So the structure is roughly:

Subject + Verb + Object(s) + Time phrase

Very literally:

Nurse gave-me cough syrup and pill after food

Swahili often puts a lot of information inside the verb, especially object markers like -ni- for me.

That is a normal feature of Swahili grammar. Object pronouns are often inserted into the verb.

So instead of saying something like gave to me as separate words, Swahili commonly says it inside the verb:

• alinipa = he/she gave me
• alikusaidia = he/she helped you
• walimwona = they saw him/her

This is one reason Swahili verbs can look long: they pack a lot of meaning into one word.

Yes. Swahili nouns belong to classes, and those classes affect agreement words.

A few examples here:

• muuguzi begins with m-/mu-, a common singular human class
• kidonge begins with ki-, a different noun class
• chakula belongs to another class
• kikohozi also begins with ki-

This matters because connectors such as ya, cha, wa, and others can change depending on the noun class.

In this sentence, ya matches sharubati in sharubati ya kikohozi.

A simple pronunciation guide:

• Muuguzi ≈ moo-oo-GOO-zee
• sharubati ≈ sha-roo-BA-tee
• kikohozi ≈ kee-ko-ho-zee
• kidonge ≈ kee-DON-geh
• chakula ≈ cha-KOO-la

A few helpful points:

• Swahili vowels are usually pronounced clearly and consistently.
• u sounds like oo
• i sounds like ee
• g is usually a hard g, as in go

Swahili pronunciation is generally much more regular than English spelling.