Learn how to talk about age
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Louise: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1 Lesson 17 - Talking About Ages in Swahili. Louise here. |
| Medina: Jambo. I'm Medina. |
| Louise: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask about ages in Swahili. The conversation takes place in a house. |
| Medina: It’s between two friends. Mary is seeing Imani’s child for the very first time. |
| Louise: The speakers are good friends, so they’ll be using informal language. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| Mary: Wow, mtoto wako ni mkumbwa. Ako na miaka ngapi? |
| Imani: Ako na miaka mitatu na miezi kumi. |
| Mary: Anakaa kama ako na miaka tano. |
| Imani: La, ana tu mwili mkubwa. |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Mary: Wow, mtoto wako ni mkumbwa. Ako na miaka ngapi? |
| Imani: Ako na miaka mitatu na miezi kumi. |
| Mary: Anakaa kama ako na miaka tano. |
| Imani: La, ana tu mwili mkubwa. |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Mary: Wow, your kid looks big. How old is she? |
| Imani: She’s three years and ten months old. |
| Mary: She looks like she’s five years old! |
| Mary: No, it’s just because she has a big body. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Louise: Medina, is it true that children are regarded with a lot of admiration in Kenya? |
| Medina: Definitely. Also, as a way of showing interest, most people will inquire about the child’s exact age because they admire the way a baby or child can develop so quickly. |
| Louise: Speaking of how numbers are used in daily conversation, it seems like Kenyans like to use numbers to emphasize things. |
| Medina: That’s right. We use numbers to say exactly how much time it took to accomplish a task so we can show our skill. |
| Louise: Can you give us an example? |
| Medina: For example, someone may say “I drove to Maasai Mara in 3 hours.” |
| Louise: I’ve heard people say “I drank over ten bottles of beer and was still sober.” |
| Medina: In some other cultures, they might just say “I drank a lot.” But in Kenya people often use numbers to emphasize what they mean, as you can see. |
| Louise: That’s why it’s important to learn numbers in Swahili - they may come up a lot in conversation! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Louise: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: mtoto [natural native speed] |
| Louise: baby |
| Medina: mtoto[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mtoto [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: wako [natural native speed] |
| Louise: your |
| Medina: wako[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: wako [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: miaka [natural native speed] |
| Louise: years |
| Medina: miaka[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: miaka [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: mitatu [natural native speed] |
| Louise: three |
| Medina: mitatu[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mitatu [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: mingapi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: how many |
| Medina: mingapi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mingapi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: miezi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: months |
| Medina: miezi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: miezi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: tano [natural native speed] |
| Louise: five |
| Medina: tano[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: tano [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: mwili mkubwa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: big, as in body size |
| Medina: mwili mkubwa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mwili mkubwa [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Louise: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: Mtoto wako |
| Louise: meaning "your baby". It’s a phrase that is used to refer to another person’s baby or child. Medina, can you break down this word? |
| Medina: Sure. Mtoto means “baby” or “child” and wako means “your.” |
| Louise: This phrase is in its singular form. How would you say it in plural form? |
| Medina: In plural form, you can say watoto wako. The noun changes from mtoto to watoto, but the pronoun stays the same. |
| Louise: Okay, what’s the next phrase? |
| Medina: Miaka mingapi |
| Louise: This means “how many years” or “how old?” It’s a phrase you use to literally ask the number of years, as in age. Can you break down this phrase? |
| Medina: Sure. Miaka translates to “years” while mingapi translates to “how many.” You could also ask ako na umri gani? |
| Louise: meaning, “How old is she?” |
| Medina: Umri means “age.” |
| Louise: Note that this sentence doesn’t specify the number of years or months, but also asks about age. So how would you answer the question? |
| Medina: To answer the question about age, you can use the word miaka |
| Louise: meaning “years,” |
| Medina: or miezi |
| Louise: “months,” |
| Medina: And for babies, wiki |
| Louise: meaning “weeks,” |
| Medina: or siku |
| Louise: meaning “days.” The counting numbers are placed after these noun words when constructing a sentence. For example.. |
| Medina: miaka mitatu |
| Louise: “three years” |
| Medina: miaka means “years,” and mitatu means “three.” |
| Louise: So literally, “years three.” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Louise: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about age in Swahili. |
| Medina: In the dialogue, when Mary meets Imani the first thing she notices is her “child,” mtoto, and how “big,” mkubwa, she has become. This prompts her to ask about the child’s age. |
| Louise: How can we ask someone’s age in Swahili? |
| Medina: You can say Una miaka mingapi? Or you can say Una umri gani? using the word umri meaning “age.” |
| Louise: And how would you answer the question? |
| Medina: First, you can say “Nina umri wa” meaning “My age is,” then how old you are. As we covered in the previous section, age in Swahili is umri and it’s counted in miaka, miezi, wiki, or even siku. |
| Louise: Those are “years,” “months,” “weeks,” and “days” respectively. Now let’s talk about some ages in Swahili. How would you say, for example, “I’m thirty years old.” |
| Medina: That’s Nina umri wa miaka thelathini. At the end of the sentence, I used miaka thelathini. As you know, miaka means “years” and thelathini means “thirty.” |
| Louise: Okay. What would “I’m twenty years old” be? |
| Medina: ishirini is the word meaning “twenty” so the answer will be Nina umri wa miaka ishirini. |
| Louise: And if you’re twenty-five? |
| Medina: ishirini na mitano is the word meaning “twenty-five” so the answer will be Nina umri wa miaka ishirini na mitano. |
Outro |
| Louise: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Medina: Mpaka wakati mwingine, Kwaheri ya kuonana! |
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