Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the last lesson, we covered how to get to the outskirts of Nairobi. In Kenya, a convenient way to travel over long distances is to take a train, in Swahili treni or gari la moshi. Trains are punctual and convenient, and often cheaper than buses. They’ll also let you see a bit of the countryside, between cities, and not just the other side of a motorway.
BODY
You’ll ask for train tickets at a ticket office. The phrase for this is
Tiketi ya kwenda [destination].
Your destination goes at the end of the sentence.
As for that destination, let’s use the capital city of Nairobi for this lesson.
“One train ticket to Nairobi, please” in Swahili is
Tiketi moja ya kwenda Nairobi, tafadhali.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Ti - ke - ti mo - ja ya kwe - nda Na - i - ro - bi, ta - fa - dha - li.
Once more:
Tiketi moja ya kwenda Nairobi, tafadhali.
You should remember this pattern from our lesson on long-distance buses.
Imagine you are traveling with someone else, so you need to ask for two or more tickets.
“Two train tickets to Nairobi, please,” is
Tiketi mbili ya kwenda Nairobi, tafadhali.
(3 sec) Tiketi mbili ya kwenda Nairobi, tafadhali
(slow) Ti - ke - ti mbi - li ya kwe - nda Na - i - ro - bi, ta - fa - dha - li. .
Tiketi mbili ya kwenda Nairobi, tafadhali.
As you can see, it’s very easy to understand. Because it’s two tickets instead of one, you just replace moja meaning “one”, with mbili which means “two”.
Sometimes the train attendant will ask whether you will also want a return ticket. In this case, the question you may be asked is
Je, ungelipenda tiketi ya kurudi pia?
“Would you like to have a return ticket too?
Let’s break that sentence down:
(slow) Je, ungelipenda tiketi ya kurudi pia?
Once more: Je, ungelipenda tiketi ya kurudi pia?
The first word, je, is used to form the question.
je
(slow) je
je
The word that follows is ungelipenda, which means “would you like.”
ungelipenda
(slow) ungelipenda
ungelipenda
It is followed by tiketi, which means “ticket”
tiketi
(slow) tiketi
tiketi
ya is the preposition “of”, while kurudi means “return.” When combined, they become ya kurudi
to mean “of returning” or “return ticket”
ya kurudi
(slow) ya kurudi
ya kurudi
The last word pia means “also.”
pia
(slow) pia
pia
Altogether, we have
Je, ungelipenda tiketi ya kurudi pia?
(slow) Je, ungelipenda tiketi ya kurudi pia?
Je, ungelipenda tiketi ya kurudi pia?
The word ungelipenda is used here in a polite way, to ask a customer whether they would like to have a return ticket.
If you don’t plan on coming back, you can answer
La, ya kwenda pekee.
La means “no”
la
(slow) la
la
Ya kwenda literally means “of going” and in this case it implies “one way.”
Ya kwenda
(slow) Ya kwenda
Ya kwenda
pekee means “only.”
pekee
(slow) pekee
pekee
Altogether, we have
La, ya kwenda pekee.
(slow) La, ya kwenda pekee.
La, ya kwenda pekee.
If you want a return ticket, you can say “Yes, I’m going and coming back.”
Ndio, naenda na kurudi.
The first word, ndio, as you may know, means “yes”
ndio
(slow) ndio
ndio
The next word, naenda, means “I am going”
naenda
(slow) naenda
naenda
na is the conjunction “and”
na
(slow ) na
na
It is followed by the last word kurudi, which means “coming back.”
kurudi
(slow) kurudi
kurudi
Altogether, we have,
Ndio, naenda na kurudi.
(slow) Ndi - o, na - e - nda na ku - ru - di.
Ndio, naenda na kurudi.

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