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Lesson Transcript

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 how to count in Swahili. Can you remember the numbers from moja to mia moja? I hope so, because this time you will put them into use! We will be practicing how to go shopping in Kenya.
Before we start, you need to know how to say “How much is this?”
Hii ni pesa ngapi?
[slowly] Hii ni pesa ngapi?
Ok, are you ready? Let’s go!
Imagine you’re in a shop in Kenya. You find something you want to buy, and you want to ask how much it costs. Start by saying… samahani. Do you remember what this means? "Excuse me!"
Samahani, hii ni pesa ngapi?
[slowly] Samahani, hii ni pesa ngapi?
The clerk will tell you...
Ni shilingi …, “it costs”
or more simply, they’ll say the amount directly.
For example-
ishirini na tano.
What number is ishirini na tano? Can you work it out? [pause] It’s "twenty-five"! So this phrase means "It costs twenty-five shillings."
Let’s look at some more examples.
Say you see a bag that you want to buy. “A bag” in Swahili is begi. So how would you ask how much it costs?
Samahani, begi hii ni pesa ngapi?
Or a pair of shoes? This makes it slightly different, because you have to use the plural form. “A shoe” would be kiatu, but the plural for “shoes” is viatu.
So you would ask the following question: Samahani, viatu hivi ni pesa ngapi?
This simply means, “How much are these shoes?”
Now it’s time for Medina’s Insights.
Credit and debit cards are not commonly used in Kenya, but you can double-check by asking the following question - Naweza lipa kwa kadi ya kredit? “Can I pay by credit card?”
[slowly] Naweza lipa kwa kadi ya kredit?
Do you feel confident about counting shillings? If you don’t, don’t worry. We’ll learn all about it next time.
I’ll be waiting for you in our next Kiswahili kwa dakika tatu lesson!
Tuonane!

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