Learn some phrases you can use to borrow things
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Louise: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 23 - Can I Ask You a Favor in Swahili? Louise Here. |
| Medina: Hello everyone. I'm Medina. |
| Louise: In this lesson, you’ll learn phrases you can use to ask favors in Swahili. The conversation takes place in a classroom. |
| Medina: It's between two friends, Musa and Juma. |
| Louise: The speakers are close friends, so they’ll be using informal Swahili. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Musa: Ah! |
| Juma: Kwanini? Nini mbaya? |
| Musa: Kalamu yangu imepotea, Juma. Naweza omba kalamu yako? |
| Juma: Sawa. Shika. Utanirudishia ukimalizia. |
| Musa: Asante sana Juma! |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Musa: Ah! |
| Juma: Kwanini? Nini mbaya? |
| Musa: Kalamu yangu imepotea Juma. Naweza omba kalamu yako? |
| Juma: Sawa. Shika. Utanirudishia ukimalizia. |
| Musa: Asante sana Juma! |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Musa: Ah! |
| Juma: Why? What’s wrong? |
| Musa: My pen is missing. Juma, can I borrow your pen? |
| Juma: Sure. Here it is. Just give it back when you’re finished. |
| Musa: Thank you very much Juma! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Louise: Medina, is it okay to ask Kenyan people to lend you something? |
| Medina: Yes, it’s fine, but you should be polite when you ask, of course! |
| Louise: And what are some words you can use to make your requests more polite? |
| Medina: Well, I can recommend.. tafadhali, naomba, nisaidie. |
| Louise: Can you explain what these mean? |
| Medina: Sure. The first word "tafadhali" means “please.” And the second one, "naomba" is “I am begging you” |
| Louise: What about the last one? |
| Medina: "Nisaidie" means “help me” |
| Louise: Those are some very useful words! |
| Medina: There are also some casual words like "nipatie" meaning “give me” or "leta" meaning “to bring,” but we usually don’t use these when we’re asking someone to lend us something, because they’re not polite enough. |
| Louise: So keep that in mind, listeners! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Louise: Now, let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: nini [natural native speed] |
| Louise: what |
| Medina: nini [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: nini [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: mbaya [natural native speed] |
| Louise: wrong |
| Medina: mbaya [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mbaya [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: kalamu [natural native speed] |
| Louise: pen |
| Medina: kalamu [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: kalamu [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: yangu [natural native speed] |
| Louise: mine |
| Medina: yangu [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: yangu [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: naweza omba [natural native speed] |
| Louise: can I borrow |
| Medina: naweza omba [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: naweza omba [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: shika [natural native speed] |
| Louise: here it is |
| Medina: shika [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: shika [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: rudisha [natural native speed] |
| Louise: to give [something] back |
| Medina: rudisha [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: rudisha [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: malizia [natural native speed] |
| Louise: to finish |
| Medina: malizia [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: malizia [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: asante [natural native speed] |
| Louise: thank you |
| Medina: asante [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: asante [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: sana [natural native speed] |
| Louise: very much |
| Medina: sana [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: sana [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Louise: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: Nini |
| Louise: And it means “what”. |
| Medina: Listeners, you may remember we've used this word several times already in this series. |
| Louise: That’s right. Can you give us an example? |
| Medina: Sure. For example, "Nini mbaya na wewe?". |
| Louise: meaning “What’s wrong with you?”. |
| Medina: Here, we used the word "nini" meaning “what” at the beginning of the sentence. Then mbaya meaning “wrong”, and "na wewe" meaning “with you.” |
| Louise: Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Medina: Next we have.. mbaya. |
| Louise: meaning “wrong”. We just used this word in the previous sample sentence, actually. |
| Medina: Well-spotted! If you notice someone doesn't look okay, you can ask, for example "Nini mbaya Fadhili?". |
| Louise: Meaning, “What’s wrong, Fadhili?” |
| Medina: And next, we have "kalamu" meaning “pen.” |
| Louise: Note that this word is the same in both the singular and plural forms. |
| Medina: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Louise: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask a favor from someone in Swahili. |
| Medina: Let’s use the situation we had in the dialogue - which is about borrowing something from another person. |
| Louise: When you want to make your request sound more polite, you can use one of these words... |
| Medina: ...tafadhali, naomba or nisaidie. As we discussed earlier, Tafadhali means “please,” Naomba means “I am begging,” and Nisaidie means “please help me”. |
| Louise: These are the magic words that will help you get a favor from someone very easily. Or you can use some phrases for specific situations. For example, if you want to borrow something, you can say.. |
| Medina: Naweza omba |
| Louise: Which means “Can I borrow..” |
| Medina: It’s the polite way to ask to borrow something. For the plural, you can say.. "tunaweza omba", meaning “can we borrow?”. Note that the prefix "na-" is for “I” and "tu-" is for “we” |
| Louise: Okay, but we still need an object. I believe that goes right after the verb, right? |
| Medina: That’s right. For example, if you want to borrow a pen, you can say "Naweza omba kalamu?". "Kalamu" is the word meaning “pen.” |
| Louise: Then, if you need to make your request sound more reasonable, you can put the reason why. |
| Medina: That’s right. For example, you might want to say.. "kalamu yangu imepotea", |
| Louise: meaning “My pen is lost.” |
| Medina: "kalamu yangu" means “my pen” and "imepotea" is the verb meaning “to be lost.” |
Outro |
| Louise: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Medina: Bye. |
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