Kiswahili, is a Bantu language and the native language of the Swahili people.
It is the official language in Tanzania and Kenya. It is a lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region and other parts of East and Southern Africa, including
- Tanzania
- Uganda
- Rwanda
- Burundi
- Kenya,
Also spoken in some parts of:
- Malawi
- Somalia
- Zambia
- Mozambique
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
KiSwahili is spoken by an estimated 80 million people in East and Central Africa.
The vast majority of speakers of KiSwahili are native speakers of other African languages and use KiSwahili as a lingua franca.
After Arabic, KiSwahili is the most widely understood language in Africa.
Some useful words / phrases:
| ENGLISH | KISWAHILI | ENGLISH | KISWAHILI |
| Hello | jambo! / hujambo! | Wildebeest | nyumbu |
| How are you? | habari? / mambo vipi? (conf.) | Cheetah | duma |
| I’m fine (reply) | salama / nzuri / poa (conf.) | Hippopotamus | kiboko |
| What about you | na wewe? | Buffalo | mbogo |
| Good | salama / nzuri / sawa / safi | Rhinoceros | kifaru |
| Thanks | Asante | Giraffe | twiga |
| You’re welcome | Karibu | Antelope / gazelle | swala |
| Yes | ndiyo | Zebra | punda milia |
| No | hapana | Warthog | ngiri |
| Please | tafadhali | Crocodile | mamba |
| Goodbye | kwa heri | Serpent | nyoka |
| I’d like (when ordering in shops) | naomba | Baboon | nyani |
| How much/how many? | ngapi? | House | nyumba |
| How much does it cost? | shillingapi? / bei? | Room | chumba |
| Where? | wapi? | Hut | kibanda |
| When? | lini? | Bed | kitanda |
| Here | hapa | Mountain | mlima |
| There | kule | Sea | bahari |
| One | moja | Food | chakula |
TO LEARN MORE KISWAHILI LANGUAGE JUST DOWNLOAD A PDF FILE BELOW
Introduction to the KiSwahili Language
Lesson 1: Classroom Instructions
Lesson 2: Greetings
Lesson 3: Classroom Vocabulary
Lesson 4: Personal Pronouns
Lesson 5: Possessive Pronouns
Lesson 6: School Subjects
Lesson 7: Languages, Countries and Nationality
Lesson 8: Locations
Lesson 9: Noun Classes
Lesson 10: Family
TO LEARN MORE KISWAHILI LANGUAGE JUST DOWNLOAD A PDF FILE BELOW
Lesson 11: The Verb -NA
Lesson 12: Various Personalities and Professions
Lesson 13: Tenses
Lesson 14: Numbers and Counting
Lesson 15: Days of the Week
Lesson 16: Months of the Year
Lesson 17: Time
Lesson 18: Courses, Schedules, Routines
Lesson 19: Household Chores and Daily Activities
Lesson 20: Foods
Lesson 21: Fruits
Lesson 22: Drinks
Lesson 23: Buying and Selling
Lesson 24: Adjectives
Lesson 25: Clothes
TO LEARN MORE KISWAHILI LANGUAGE JUST DOWNLOAD A PDF FILE BELOW
Lesson 26: Colors
Lesson 27: Decorations and Accessories
Lesson 28: Proverbs
Lesson 29: External Body Parts
Lesson 30: Diseases
Lesson 31: Subject and Object Prefixes
Lesson 32: Interrogatives and Question Formation
Lesson 33: Weather
Lesson 34: Environment
Lesson 35: Seasons
Lesson 36: Housing and Accommodation
Lesson 37: Places
Lesson 38: Transport Mechanisms
Lesson 39: The Conditional Markers -NGE- and -NGALI-
Lesson 40: Locatives
Lesson 41: Compass
Lesson 42: Demonstratives
Lesson 43: Imperatives
Lesson 44: Prepositions
Lesson 45: Possessive Pronouns
Lesson 46: Reversives / Opposites
Lesson 47: Sports
TO LEARN MORE KISWAHILI LANGUAGE JUST DOWNLOAD A PDF FILE BELOW
Lesson 48: Tenses
Lesson 49: Negation
Lesson 50: Domestic Animals, Wild Animals & Tourist Attractions
Lesson 51: Connective -A of Association
Lesson 52: States of Being
Lesson 53: Terms of Endearment
Lesson 54: Reduplication
Lesson 55: Subjunctive
Lesson 56: Business: Shopping, Buying and Selling
Lesson 57: Comparatives
Lesson 58: Passive Verbs
TO LEARN MORE KISWAHILI LANGUAGE JUST DOWNLOAD A PDF FILE BELOW
Lesson 59: Relative Marker AMBA- and -O- of Reference
Lesson 60: Quantifiers -OTE and -O-OTE
Lesson 61: Conjunctions
Lesson 62: Letter Writing
Lesson 63: Modifiers -INGI and -INGINE
Lesson 64: Relative Marker -PO-
Lesson 65: Musical Instruments
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