Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the last few lessons, we covered how to ask where things are. In this lesson, we’ll introduce you to another useful phrase for finding a place you need. This lesson’s phrase is “Is there a [place] near here?”
・
First, we need a place. Let’s use the word duka la dawa, which means “pharmacy."
(slow) duka la dawa
duka la dawa
In Swahili, “Is there a pharmacy near here?” is
Kuna duka la dawa hapa karibu?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Kuna duka la dawa hapa karibu?
Once again:
Kuna duka la dawa hapa karibu?
The first word, kuna, means “is there.”
(slow) ku - na
ku - na
Next comes duka la dawa, meaning “a pharmacy”.
this can further be broken down into:
duka, which is “shop”
duka
(slow) duka
duka
la dawa means “of medicine”
(slow) la dawa
la dawa
Then we have hapa, which in this sentence means “here.”
(slow) ha - pa
ha - pa
The last word, karibu, means “nearby”
karibu
(slow) karibu
karibu
All together, it’s
Kuna duka la dawa hapa karibu?
(slow) Kuna duka la dawa hapa karibu?
Kuna duka la dawa hapa karibu?
・
To ask for a different place, we can replace the word duka la dawa with any other word, and the phrase works just fine.
Imagine that you need to withdraw some money from your bank account.
In Swahili, “Is there an ATM near here?” is
Kuna benki ya ATM hapa karibu?
The only thing that changes is the thing you are looking for, in this case benki ya ATM. The first part of the word, benki, means “bank,” and ya ATM means “automatic machine.”
(slow) benki ya ATM.
benki ya ATM.
(slow) Kuna benki ya ATM hapa karibu?
Kuna benki ya ATM hapa karibu?

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