"Mwafrika mzuri"
Translation:A nice African
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I'll be glad when Swahili gets the audio files up, because as an English native speaker it's really hard to imagine what this phrase sounds like. All of these words that have 'm' followed by a consonant at the beginning of the word are hard to imagine.
My Zambian Tonga instructor (another Bantu language with similar consonant duos we don't see in English) suggested saying another word that ends with the first letter and then the root, practicing that awhile, and then dropping the beginning of the first word. For example: mzuri, say something like "mom zuri," blend it together "momzuri" and then drop the "mo." It takes some practice, but I found it helpful. Also, there are lots of places to listen to Swahili by native speakers. I particularly like Sauti Sol songs (found in all the usual music places), and Ubongo Kids tv episodes, which are available on YouTube.
It's actually exactly what you imagine they would sound like in English. You could search for "language transfer" in youtube, they have a swahili audio class where you would hear how some of the words are pronounced.
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Swahili has no distinction between a and the, does it? I was marked incorrect for writing "the good African." I did report it, but I just want to know whether I am right.
You're correct. Swahili has no articles and thus, both "the good African" and "a good African" are both acceptable answers.
