What does Bonġu mean? Meet the island's paper in Malta Living

What does Bonġu mean? It's good morning in Maltese, and in Malta Living, the free life sim set in real Malta, it's also the name of the island's newspaper. Bonġu! is the first app on your in-game phone, and it's where you find out what's on today, what happened last night and what's new on the island. If you only open one app when you come back, make it this one. New to the game? Our guide to the Malta life simulator covers the basics.

What does Bonġu mean in Maltese?

Bonġu means good morning, and Maltese also has a longer way to say it, l-għodwa t-tajba. In the evening it becomes Bonswa, good evening. Both sound Italian for a reason: about half of Maltese vocabulary comes from Italian and Sicilian, in a language that has been official in Malta alongside English since 1934.

The game uses both. When you meet someone, their card offers Say Bonġu until 18:00 and Say Bonswa from then until 05:00, Malta time. For more Maltese greetings to try, see our Maltese phrases for beginners.

What's on the front page

Bonġu! opens with its masthead, the date and a line saying what it's for: what's new on the island. Under it is a row of slides that turn by themselves every five seconds. Swipe them, tap a dot to jump to one, or touch them and they stop. If your phone is set to reduce motion, they stay still.

Every slide is something you can do right now, with a button that takes you there. Which ones you see depends on you and on the island that day:

• Get the app, if you haven't added Malta Living to your home screen yet.
• Get a job, if you don't have one: the newest job you can take, where it is, your first title and what a shift pays.
• A power cut in your area, when there is one.
• New in Malta: anything that arrived in the last 72 hours, five at most.
• Your tax letter, until you've read it.
• Games: two at most, new games first, then the week's most played ones you haven't tried.
• The island: tonight's Bet, the lottery's numbers, who got the keys to a new home, inviting a friend, starting a club.

The last slide is always the billboard, for businesses. A loop holds eight slides at most.

Last night's results

Below the slides sits a results card with the numbers from the Lottery House in Paola and Bet's results. Both are played with game euros only, with no real-money prizes, and, like the whole game, they're for over-18s. Draws are at 21:00: before then the card says "Last night's results" and "next at 21:00", and after the draw it switches to tonight's. If one of your slips won, it says so. More in the Casino and the Lottery House.

New in Malta: the stories

Next comes New in Malta, the paper's stories. Each one is a new thing to do in the game: a new place, a new game, a new way to spend an evening. Most end with a button that takes you to the thing itself, and many stories about a game open it directly: the one about Ludo opens Ludo. Our guide to Maltese card games and more in the Games app covers what's there.

Further down, one card names players who got the keys to a home this week, by first name and area, and another holds a sponsored story from a real business, always marked Sponsored. See all lists every story ever written, then every update, and a fold called Fixed this week lists what we've fixed in the last seven days.

When something big arrives, the top of your phone shows a "See what's new" notice. It goes once you open Bonġu!, or by itself after two looks, and never shows on a new player's first day.

Read the Malta Living news online

Bonġu! isn't only inside the game. Anyone can read it at maltaliving.world/new, with no account and no login: the same stories, then every update. Every story has a Share button that sends its own link, so a friend lands right on it. To see it on the phone itself, play Malta Living free in your browser.

Questions people ask

What does Bonswa mean?

Bonswa means good evening in Maltese, the evening partner of Bonġu. In Malta Living, a person's card offers Say Bonswa from 18:00 until 05:00.

Can I read Malta Living's news without an account?

Yes. Bonġu! is public at maltaliving.world/new, with no account and no login, and each story has its own link you can share.

How do I clear the red number on Bonġu!?

The red number counts this week's stories you haven't read on that device. Tap ✓ Mark all read beside New in Malta and it clears in one go.

What time are the lottery numbers drawn in Malta Living?

The Lottery House draws at 21:00 every evening, and Bonġu! shows the numbers straight after. It's played with game euros only, with nothing to cash out.