Ubaguzi ni mbaya.

Discrimination is bad.

Breakdown of Ubaguzi ni mbaya.

• kuwa: to be
• mbaya: bad
• ubaguzi: discrimination

Questions & Answers about Ubaguzi ni mbaya.

How do you pronounce Ubaguzi ni mbaya?

Roughly:

• Ubaguzi → oo-bah-GOO-zee
• ni → nee
• mbaya → m-BAH-yah

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• Swahili words are usually stressed on the second-to-last syllable. So the stress is on -gu- in ubaguzi and on mba- in mbaya.
• In mbaya, the mb is pronounced together. Do not insert a full vowel before it. It is closer to m-BAH-yah than mu-baya.

What does ni mean here?

Here ni is the copula, meaning is/are.

So the pattern is:

X ni Y = X is Y

In this sentence:

• Ubaguzi = the subject
• ni = is
• mbaya = bad

A useful thing to know is that this ni does not change for singular or plural in this kind of sentence.

Why is there no word for the or a?