Learn how to ask how far it is to a certain destination
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In the last lesson, we covered how to get bus tickets in cities. But you may also want to move between cities, and Kenya has good companies whose bus services are very reliable and convenient, and relatively punctual. These companies include - easy coach, Akamba, and coast bus. Normally, the companies have branches in small towns where they stop, before heading to the final destination. There is also a question you can ask in case you are headed for an unfamiliar place, for example, if the bus is destined for Mombasa, but you are going to Nakuru. You can ask “Is the bus going through Nakuru?” |
| BODY |
| The phrase you can use for that will be: |
| Basi inapitia Nakuru? |
| basi means “bus” |
| inapitia mean “going through.” |
| Nakuru is your destination. |
| Basi inapitia Nakuru? |
| (slow) Ba - si i - na - pi - ti - a Na - ku - ru? |
| Basi inapitia Nakuru? |
| Again, that’s, “Is the bus going through Nakuru?” |
| Again let us repeat, |
| Basi inapitia Nakuru? |
| (slow) Ba - si i - na - pi - ti - a Na - ku - ru? |
| Basi inapitia Nakuru? |
| Let’s imagine now that you are in Nakuru and you want to go to Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. Before you commit yourself to a ticket, you will want to know how much it costs. What would you ask the bus driver? |
| Tiketi ya hadi Nairobi ni pesa ngapi? |
| “How much is a ticket to Nairobi?” |
| Tiketi as we have learned before, means “ticket.” |
| (slow) tiketi |
| tiketi |
| The phrase ya hadi Nairobi means “up to Nairobi” |
| (slow) ya hadi Nairobi |
| ya hadi Nairobi |
| This is followed by ni pesa ngapi? which as we learned before means “how much money” or simply “how much?” |
| (slow) ni pesa ngapi? |
| ni pesa ngapi? |
| Together we have, |
| (slow) Ti - ke - ti ya ha - di Na - i- ro - bi ni pe - sa nga - pi? |
| Tiketi ya hadi Nairobi ni pesa ngapi? |
| Imagine that you are visiting for the first time, with no idea how far apart your favorite destinations are, so you want to ask the bus driver how long the ride will be. |
| “How long does it take from here to Nairobi?” is |
| Ni masaa mangapi kutoka hapa hadi Nairobi? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Ni ma - sa - a ma- nga - pi ku - to - ka ha - pa ha - di Na - i - ro - bi? |
| And again at natural speed: |
| Ni masaa mangapi kutoka hapa hadi Nairobi? |
| ni masaa literally means “is hours” |
| but when joined to mangapi meaning “how many”, it becomes ni masaa mangapi, to mean “how many hours” |
| (slow) ni ma - sa - a ma - nga - pi |
| ni masaa ma - ngapi |
| The next two words, kutoka meaning “from” and hapa, “here”, when joined together become kutoka hapa, which means “from here.” |
| (slow) ku - to - ka ha - pa |
| kutoka hapa |
| Then we have hadi, which means “to/until” |
| (slow) hadi |
| hadi |
| It is followed by “Nairobi”, the capital city of Kenya. |
| These two become hadi Nairobi, which means “until or to Nairobi” |
| (slow) ha - di Na - i - ro - bi |
| hadi Nairobi |
| So the whole question is |
| (slow) Ni ma - sa - a ma- nga - pi ku - to - ka ha - pa ha - di Na - i - ro - bi? |
| Ni masaa ma - ngapi kutoka hapa hadi Nairobi? |
| ・ |
| One answer you could hear is masaa saba. Masaa here means “time” and saba means “seven.” Together they mean “seven hours” |
| masaa saba. |
| (slow) masaa saba. |
| masaa saba. |
| You might also hear itachukua masaa saba. which means “It will takes seven hours”. |
| (slow) itachukua masaa saba. |
| itachukua masaa saba. |
| If you want to say “approximately,” just add takriban before masaa, which you’ll remember means “hour”: |
| Itachukua takriban masaa saba. |
| (slow) Itachukua takriban masaa saba. |
| Itachukua takriban masaa saba. |
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