Learn how to talk about time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Louise: Hi everyone, and welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 19 - What Time is Your Swahili Lesson? Louise here. |
| Medina: Jambo. I'm Medina. |
| Louise: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about time in Swahili. |
| Medina: This conversation takes place at home. |
| Louise: It’s between Katy and Mary. |
| Medina: The speakers are mother and daughter, so they’ll be using informal Swahili. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Mary: Katy, darasa lako li saa ngapi? |
| Katy: Saa tisa za mchana. |
| Mary: Na sasa ni saa ngapi? |
| Katy: Ni saa nane za mchana. |
| Mary: Fanya haraka usije ukachelewa kuingia darasani. |
| Katy: Ndio nitafanya hivyo. |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Mary: Katy, darasa lako li saa ngapi? |
| Katy: Saa tisa za mchana. |
| Mary: Na sasa ni saa ngapi? |
| Katy: Ni saa nane za mchana. |
| Mary: Fanya haraka usije ukachelewa kuingia darasani. |
| Katy: Ndio nitafanya hivyo. |
| Louise: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Mary: Katy, what time is your class again? |
| Katy: It's at three in the afternoon. |
| Mary: What time is it now? |
| Katy: Now? It's two in the afternoon |
| Mary: Hurry up so you won't be late for class. |
| Katy: Okay, I will. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Louise: Medina, speaking of classes, let’s talk about the public education system in Kenya. It seems like it’s different from western countries. |
| Medina: That’s true. Government and some private schools in Kenya teach the 8-4-4 system of education. |
| Louise: So the first eight years are for primary education? |
| Medina: That’s right, followed by four years of secondary education and four years of university education. Kenyan public schools began using the 8-4-4 system in 1985. |
| Louise: And now primary education is free and compulsory, right? |
| Medina: That’s right. It’s been that way since 2003. |
| Louise: Good to know. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Louise: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Medina: darasa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: class |
| Medina: darasa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: darasa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: saa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: time |
| Medina: saa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: saa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: ngapi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: what time |
| Medina: ngapi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: ngapi [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: tisa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: three |
| Medina: tisa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: tisa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: mchana [natural native speed] |
| Louise: afternoon |
| Medina: mchana[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: mchana [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: fanya [natural native speed] |
| Louise: to do |
| Medina: fanya[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: fanya [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: haraka [natural native speed] |
| Louise: to hurry |
| Medina: haraka[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: haraka [natural native speed] |
| Louise: Next we have.. |
| Medina: ukachelewa [natural native speed] |
| Louise: to be late, to become late |
| Medina: ukachelewa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Medina: ukachelewa [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 phrase we have for this lesson is.. |
| Medina: Saa ngapi? |
| Louise: meaning ”What time is it?” This phrase can be used when asking time in Swahili. |
| Medina: In this sentence we have a very special word, which is Saa. It means something like “at,” and “hours.” Then we have ngapi, which means “how much.” |
| Louise: Altogether, this literally means “how much time?” If you already know the numbers in Swahili, you’ll be able to answer the questions very easily. You just need to know the nouns meaning “seconds” and “minutes.” Medina, can we go over them one by one? |
| Medina: Sure. First we have sekunde. [slowly] sekunde. |
| Louise: which means “seconds.” How can you say “thirty seconds” using this word? |
| Medina: sekunde thelathini. thelathini means “thirty” and you can say the word sekunde right before the number. |
| Louise: Okay, what about “minutes”? |
| Medina: dakika [slowly] dakika. |
| Louise: And what about “hours”? |
| Medina: masaa. [slowly] masaa. Using these words, you’ll be able to answer what time it is. We’ll cover more details in the grammar. |
| Louise: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Louise: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about time in Swahili. |
| Medina: When talking about time in Swahili, you should first learn the word saa. This can be used to mean “at ... o’clock,” “moment,” or “time” itself. |
| Louise: In the previous section, we learned how to simply ask the time. |
| Medina: Right. To say “What time is it?” you can say Ni saa ngapi? |
| Louise: You can use the same expression when you want to ask what time something will happen. You just need to say the noun, such as ... |
| Medina: darasa lako |
| Louise: meaning “class,” and add the phrase.. |
| Medina: ni saa ngapi? |
| Louise: meaning “what time?” or literally “at time of how many?” Using this pattern, how can you say “What time is your class again?” |
| Medina: Darasa lako ni saa ngapi? First I said Darasa lako, meaning “class,” then ni saa ngapi? |
| Louise: Okay. Then how can you say “What time is it now?” |
| Medina: Na sasa is the word meaning “now,” so you can say Na sasa ni saa ngapi? |
| Louise: Okay. Now let’s learn how to answer with the time. |
| Medina: When someone simply asks you what time it is now, you can just say the word saa, meaning “at,” and the number. For example, you can say saa mbili to mean “eight o’clock.” |
| Louise: But when you answer what time something starts, you need to use a slightly different pattern. First, say the word.. |
| Medina: Saa |
| Louise: Then add the number. After that, you can add additional information such as “in the afternoon,” or “in the morning.” Medina, using this pattern, how would you say “It will be at three o’clock”? |
| Medina: Saa tisa za mchana. Saa tisa means “three o’clock” and za mchana means “in the afternoon.” |
| Louise: It literally means “It’s three o’clock in the afternoon” but you can use it when you’re talking about an event happening in the future. What about “in the morning” and “in the evening”? |
| Medina: We have za asubuhi meaning “in the morning” and za usiku meaning “in the evening.” You can use these when you’re talking about the timing of future events. |
Outro |
| Louise: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Medina: Mpaka wakati mwingine, Kwaheri ya kuonana! |
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