Learn how to use the phrase "Do you speak English?"
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| Hamjamboni. Mimi ni Medina. Hi everybody! I’m Medina. |
| Welcome to Swahilipod101.com's “Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu,” The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Swahili. |
| In the last lesson, we learned the most |
| common forms of greetings in Swahili. Do you remember habari, as an informal way of greeting someone; and shikamoo, the formal version? |
| In this lesson, you’re going to learn a very useful phrase: “Do you speak English?” |
| If you find yourself in a situation where you need assistance in English, this phrase can be a lifesaver. And because you’re asking it in Swahili, you can be sure that everyone will understand what you’re saying, even if their answer is no. |
| Here's the informal way to say it. |
| Unaongea Kiingereza? |
| [slowly] Unaongea Kiingereza? |
| In Swahili we sometimes use a one word phrase that combines the subject and its verb. Unaongea is a good example. Breaking this phrase down further, we have: |
| U which is a pronoun for the subject. |
| na shows the subject’s potential of doing an action. It makes the statement affirmative. |
| Ongea is the verb for “speak”. |
| Together we have Unaongea which literally means “you speak”. Saying it with a higher intonation makes it a question. So, Unaongea? means “do you speak?” |
| Adding Kiingereza, the word for “English”, will make it |
| Unaongea Kiingereza? This means “Do you speak English? |
| Altogether we have Unaongea Kiingereza? |
| [slowly] Unaongea Kiingereza? |
| To learn how to properly construct one word sentences, check out our Absolute Beginner series at SwahiliPod101.com. There, you’ll find several detailed grammar lessons! |
| We’re now going to make this sentence formal. It isn’t hard. First, add the word Je at the beginning of the sentence. Je is a word that prompts a question. |
| The sentence Unaongea will change to Je, unaweza ongea. Note the extra word weza which means “able.” |
| Je, unawezaongea therefore means, “are you able to“? |
| Let’s look at the full sentence - |
| Je, unawezaongea Kiingereza |
| “Do you speak English?” |
| [slowly] Je, unawezaongea Kiingereza? |
| Adding Samahani which means "excuse me", makes the sentence even more polite: |
| Samahani, unawezaongea Kiingereza? |
| The responses you will receive could be one of these three: |
| Ndio. "Yes." |
| [slowly] Ndio |
| Kidogo. "A little." |
| [slowly] Kidogo. |
| La, siongei Kiingereza. "No, I don’t speak English." |
| [slowly] La, siongei Kiingereza. |
| Since La, siongei Kiingereza is a negative statement, we need to say la first, followed by si before the verb, and an i at the end of the verb. Also note that the verb ongei is slightly different from ongea. This is because negating in Swahili depends on the pronoun and the tense. In this example, the first person prefix si- is used before the verb, and the suffix -i is used at the end of the verb. |
| As you can see, negation in Swahili follows a particular pattern. Some negations, though, require the word “no”. But we will talk about this in a later lesson. |
| Now it’s time for Medina’s Insights. |
| For those of you who speak languages other than English, this question still works. Just substitute Kiingereza with a different language. Here are some examples: |
| Kitallia is Italian, |
| Kirusi is Russian, |
| Kihispania is Spanish, and |
| Kijerumani is German. |
| In this lesson, we mentioned the expression Samahani. But did you know that this can also be used as an apology? We’ll be learning this in the next lesson, as well as other ways to apologize in Swahili. It’s never too late to show your good manners to Kenyans! |
| So I'll see you in our next Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu, |
| See you next time! |
| Kwaheri tuonane tena! |
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