All Things Kenyan

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!

 

Interesting Swahili Notes
Did you know that the Swahili word for “Swahili” is Kiswahili?

The Swahili word nyanya means “tomato” – it also means “grandmother”.

In English you might say “That smells!” implying something smells bad. You could also say “That smells bad!”. To say something smelled good you’d say “That smells good!” With Swahili there are two words for the verb “to smell”. The first is kunuka which means “to smell bad”. The second is kunukia which means “to smell good”. You don’t need to stipulate if it’s good or bad – just be sure you use the right verb.

Chai is a common word in Kenya. It means ‘tea’. However, it is also used in reference to a bribe.