Dialogue

Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the last lesson, we learned how to make a reservation in a restaurant. Now that you know how to get a table, you have another big issue to tackle. If you want to enjoy your meal, the smoking issue is very important. If you are a smoker in a non-smoking establishment, or a non-smoker in a smoking establishment, this can ruin your meal.
In this lesson, we'll cover how to ask for a smoking or non-smoking table.
BODY
Let’s imagine first that you are a smoker. Before entering a restaurant, you need to ask, “Excuse me, is smoking allowed here?”:
Samahani, uvutaji sigara unaruhusiwa hapa?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Sa -ma - ha - ni, u - vu - ta-ji si - ga - ra u - na - ru - hu - si - wa ha - pa?
Once more:
Samahani, uvutaji sigara unaruhusiwa hapa?
Samahani, as we have seen, means “Excuse me.”
(slow) Sa -ma - ha - ni
We follow this with uvutaji, which means “smoking.”
(slow) u - vu - ta - ji
uvutaji
And then with sigara, which means “cigarette.”
(slow) si - ga - ra
sigara
Next we have unaruhusiwa to mean “permitted”
(slow) u - na - ru - hu - si - wa
unaruhusiwa
Last is hapa, which means “here.”
(slow) ha - pa.
hapa
Here’s the whole sentence:
Samahani, uvutaji sigara unaruhusiwa hapa?
(slow) Sa -ma - ha - ni, u - vu - ta-ji si - ga - ra u - na - ru - hu - si - wa ha - pa?
The answer to this question is very simple: Ndio, unaruhusiwa, “Yes, you can smoke”, or La, hauruhusiwi, “No, no smoking”.
Let’s break those down:
(slow) Ndio, unaruhusiwa.
(slow) La, hauruhusiwi.
If the answer is “You are not allowed to smoke here,” the expression “I’m sorry” often comes before the negative answer:
samahani.
Another way of asking is
Samahani, uvutaji sigara hauruhusiwi humu?
This literally means “Excuse me, is smoking prohibited in here?”.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Sa -ma - ha - ni, u - vu - ta-ji si - ga - ra ha - u -ru - hu - si - wi hu - mu?
Once more at natural speed:
Samahani, uvutaji sigara hauruhusiwi humu?
Samahani, you’ll remember, means “Excuse me.”
uvutaji sigara means “to smoke a cigarette.”
(slow) u - vu - ta - ji
uvutaji
hauruhusiwi means “forbidden.”
(slow) ha - u - ru - hu - si - wi
hauruhusiwi
that humu means “in here.”
The whole question is:
Samahani, uvutaji sigara hauruhusiwi humu?
(slow) Sa -ma - ha - ni, u - vu - ta-ji si - ga - ra ha - u -ru - hu - si - wi hu - mu?
Once more:
Samahani, uvutaji sigara hauruhusiwi humu?
On some signs, you will see the phrase Sigara limeharamishwa .This means “Smoking cigarettes is prohibited,” and you’ll see it next to the familiar image of a cigarette inside a cancel sign.
Now let’s go over the possible answers to the question, “Is smoking prohibited in here?” If it’s a positive answer, you might hear
Ndio hauruhusiwi.
All we did was add the Swahili word for “yes,” ndio, in front of the sentence. Because the question has a negative meaning—we’re asking whether smoking is prohibited—a “yes” answer will mean “Yes, it is prohibited”:
Ndio hauruhusiwi.
If what you’re pointing at is a smoking table, you’ll hear
La, unaruhusiwa.
Let’s break that down:
(slow) La, unaruhusiwa.
The first word, la, means “no.”
(slow)la
la
The second word unaruhusiwa
means “permitted.”
(slow) u - na - ru - hu - si - wa
unaruhusiwa
All together, it’s
(slow) La, unaruhusiwa.

Comments

Hide