Learn how to buy a return ticket
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
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.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| 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. |
Comments
Hide