Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Louise: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 21 - What’s Your Favorite Kenyan Food? I’m Louise.
Medina: Hello, and I'm Medina.
Louise: In this lesson, you’ll learn words and phrases about foods, and how to talk about actions in Swahili. The conversation takes place at a restaurant.
Medina: It's between Amina and Juma.
Louise: The speakers are close friends, so they’ll be using informal Swahili. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Amina: Juma, ungependa kukula nini? Je, utakula wali?
Juma: Bila shaka. Nitakula wali, ni chakula nikipendacho zaidi.
Amina: Ukweli? Nami pia!
Louise: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Amina: Juma, ungependa kukula nini? Je, utakula wali?
Juma: Bila shaka. Nitakula wali, ni chakula nikipendacho zaidi.
Amina: Ukweli? Nami pia!
Louise: Listen to the conversation with the English translation
Amina: Juma, what would you like to eat? Will you eat rice?
Juma: Yes, of course. I will eat rice. It's my favorite food.
Amina: Really? Me too!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Louise: Medina, it seems that Kenyans really like to cook rice, especially those who live in coastal areas.
Medina: That’s right. It’s easier to grow rice around there because there are more rivers. The method of cooking rice also varies depending on the region.
Louise: What’s your favorite rice dish, Medina?
Medina: Well. My favorite is coconut rice, vegetable rice and pilau.
Louise: Pilau is the most common way to make rice, right?
Medina: That’s right. Pilau is rice cooked in a seasoned broth. It’s very spicy and delicious, so Kenyan people love it.
Louise: And pilau with chicken is popular too.
Medina: Definitely. If you ever go to a party hosted by someone from Kenya, you’ll almost certainly get a chance to taste Pilau. It’s just not a party without Pilau in Kenya!
Louise: (laughs) Sounds delicious! Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Louise: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Medina: Ungependa [natural native speed]
Louise: would you like
Medina: Ungependa[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: Ungependa [natural native speed]
Louise: Next we have..
Medina: kukula [natural native speed]
Louise: to eat
Medina: kukula [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: kukula [natural native speed]
Louise: Next we have..
Medina: chakula [natural native speed]
Louise: food
Medina: chakula[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: chakula [natural native speed]
Louise: Next we have..
Medina: wali [natural native speed]
Louise: rice
Medina: wali[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: wali [natural native speed]
Louise: Next we have..
Medina: ukweli [natural native speed]
Louise: really
Medina: ukweli [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: ukweli [natural native speed]
Louise: Next we have..
Medina: bila shaka [natural native speed]
Louise: of course
Medina: bila shaka [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: bila shaka [natural native speed]
Louise: Next we have..
Medina: nikipendacho [natural native speed]
Louise: my favorite
Medina: nikipendacho [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: nikipendacho [natural native speed]
Louise: Next we have..
Medina: nami [natural native speed]
Louise: me
Medina: nami [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Medina: nami [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: Ungependa
Louise: And it means “would you like” as a question. You can use this phrase when you’re offering someone something. It’s a question you can use in order to ask someone if they like to do something or not.
Medina: The word unge is rooted in the Swahili word penda which means “like”.
Louise: Okay, what’s the next word?
Medina: Kukula
Louise: And it means “to eat” What’s the Swahili word for “food”?
Medina: That would be chakula. All together, you can say kukula chakula to mean “to eat food.”
Louise: Of course, you can also substitute the name of any food here too.
Medina: For example, for “to eat pilau”, you can say kukula pilau.
Louise: Can you give us a sentence using the phrase?
Medina: Sure. For example, Watu wale wanataka kukula pilau.
Louise: This means...“Those people want to eat pilau.” Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Louise: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe actions in Swahili. Verbs in Swahili are actually very similar to English. You just use the verb first, followed by the object.
Medina: For example, when you describe the action of eating, you can use the verb kukula meaning “to eat”, then the object name, such as pilau.
Louise: And this verb can be used for both first and second person singular.
Medina: Right. kukula means “to eat”.
Louise: Let’s say you want to ask if someone wants to do an action - how can you ask the question?
Medina: For example, if you want to ask “What would you like to eat?” you can use the word Ungependa, which we learned in the previous section.
Louise: In English that means “Would you like to..”
Medina: That’s right. Since it can only be used as a question tag, you can put it at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the verb. For example, Ungependa kukula.
Louise: Which means “Would you like to eat?”
Medina: At the end you can add nini, which means “what.” Altogether it would be Ungependa kukula nini?
Louise: Meaning “What would you like to eat?”
Medina: You can put any verb into this form, to ask if someone would like to do something.
Louise: Can you use the same question word for the plural too?
Medina: No. For the plural form, you need to use the word mngependa instead of ungependa. Unge is for the singular, and mnge is for the plural.
Louise: So how do you ask, “What would you guys like to eat?”
Medina: That would be Mngependa kukula chakula gani? Note that kukula and chakula stay the same, although the subject becomes plural.
Louise: In this lesson, we only presented the verb “to eat”, but you could also use the same structure with other verbs, so keep practicing.
Medina: For example, if you want to say “What would you like to read?” you can use the verb kusoma meaning “to read,” as in Ungependa kusoma nini?
Louise: Or in English, “What would you like to read?”

Outro

Louise: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Medina: Bye.

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