Watoto huomba dua kabla ya kulala.

hu- marks a habitual action in Swahili. It means the action happens regularly, typically, or as a general custom.

So:

• Watoto huomba dua = Children pray / Children عادة pray / Children usually say a prayer
• Watoto wanaomba dua = The children are praying or The children do pray in a more immediate present sense

In this sentence, huomba shows that praying before sleep is a routine.

With the habitual marker hu-, Swahili normally does not use the usual subject prefix.

Compare:

• wanaomba = they are praying
• huomba = (someone/people) habitually pray

This habitual form is often the same regardless of the subject:

• Mimi huomba = I usually pray
• Wewe huomba = you usually pray
• Watoto huomba = children usually pray

So hu- itself carries the habitual meaning, and the subject is understood from the noun or pronoun before it.

The verb kuomba literally means to ask, to request, or to beg. Depending on context, it can also mean to pray.

In this sentence, the object is dua:

• kuomba dua = to say a prayer / to pray

So the religious meaning comes from the whole expression, not just from kuomba by itself.

Dua means prayer or supplication. It is a very common word in Swahili and comes historically from Arabic.

In this sentence:

• huomba dua = say a prayer / pray

So even though English often uses just the verb pray, Swahili can express it with the phrase kuomba dua.

Kabla ya means before.

It introduces something that happens earlier than another action:

• kabla ya kulala = before sleeping / before going to sleep

Literally, ya here works like a connector, similar to of in the structure before + noun/infinitive phrase.

Kulala is the infinitive, meaning to sleep.

After kabla ya, Swahili commonly uses a noun or an infinitive phrase:

• kabla ya chakula = before food / before the meal
• kabla ya kulala = before sleeping

So kulala is not the main verb of the sentence. It is part of the time expression before sleeping.

The sentence follows a very common Swahili order:

Subject + Verb + Object + Time expression

Breaking it down:

• Watoto = subject
• huomba = verb
• dua = object
• kabla ya kulala = time expression

So the structure is very close to English:

• Children pray a prayer before sleeping
• More natural English: Children say a prayer before going to bed

The singular is mtoto:

• mtoto = child
• watoto = children

This is part of a common noun class pairing in Swahili:

• singular m-
• plural wa-

Examples:

• mtu / watu = person / people
• mtoto / watoto = child / children

Yes, depending on context, that is possible. Swahili does not always mark the versus no article, because it has no articles like English a or the.

So watoto can mean:

• children
• the children

The context tells you which one is more natural.

It most naturally means before sleeping or before going to bed.

Because kulala means to sleep, the phrase can be understood slightly differently depending on context:

• before sleeping
• before going to sleep
• before bed

In this sentence, all of these are close in meaning, but before going to bed is often the most natural English translation.