"habari ya usiku"

Translation: News of the night

[finndj]

Why are all of the words for "of" different?

[Dalaryn]

It changes depending on the noun class.

[Jillianimal]

Do you know if there are any hints at decoding what the noun class of a word is?

[Dalaryn]

If you go to the wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language and go to section 5.3- Agreement. You can see how the -a preposition (of) changes depending on the noun class.

It's one of the more advanced things so if you get it wrong, native speakers will still understand what you're saying.

[Jillianimal]

Cool thanks

[AnnaGuaGua]

is this an idiom? meaning "good night"???

[Luscinda]

Or how is your evening. This is a greeting, isn't it. How's your morning/day/evening going = Good morning/day/evening.

http://en.bab.la/dictionary/swahili-english/habari-za-asubuhi

The proper sense is missing from the dropdown glossary.

[leakielsholm]

If you read the note section, you will understand :-)

[AnnaGuaGua]

I did, it makes sense, but I just don't know if its considered an idiom

[runhaags]

It is an idiom. An idiom is just something that has a meaning other than the literal interpretation.

[Dalaryn]

good night would be 'usiku mwema', this literally is asking how the night is. Good evening would be 'habari za jioni'

[iainsona]

I tried "Tonight's news" ... how far off is that?

[Theo_Bromin]

It's the literal translation, so technically you are correct. However, I thin kit is more natural to translate it as something like "how are you tonight?"