Sampling Swahili

Although you do not need Swahili to visit Kenya, you may want to know a few phrases. Here are some of the more common Swahili words you may hear and want to use. If you click on the Swahili words you will be able to hear the pronunciations. The audio files are in wav format.

Greetings:

These are basically the equivalent of "Hi, how are you?" with the response being "good or well".

Greeting		Response
Jambo! Habari? Sasa?		Jambo sana! Mzuri Fiti

After "Jambo" you could add bwana (for a man), mama (for a woman), or mtoto (for a child) for "Jambo bwana".

Where is...

To ask where something is you would say "wapi?" along with whatever it is you want to find. For example to ask where the post office is you'd say "Wapi posta?" Here are some other places you may want to find...

Place	Swahili
Bathroom Hotel A form of transportation	Choo Hoteli Matatu

Even if you were to say "Wapi post office?" mixing Swahili and English that's alright. It's perfectly acceptable to mix the two languages in Kenya.

Other Useful Phrases:

Phrase	Swahili
Thank you Thank you very much How many shillings? How much money? No Yes Please Sorry Water Tea Coffee Beer Goodbye	Asante Asante sana Shilingi ngapi? Pesa ngapi? Hapana Ndiyo Tafadhali Pole Maji Chai Kahawa Pombe Kwaheri

Oh yes, if you hear someone talking about "mzungu" - that's you!