Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the last lesson, we covered how to ask, “How do you say this in Swahili?” It was Unasemaje hii kwa Kiswahili. Do you remember? In this lesson, because we don’t want you to be caught off guard in any kind of situation in Kenya, we are going to introduce a new phrase that’s very important to help you focus your skills – not on the sounds, but on the writing. So let’s start.
BODY
In Swahili, “Can you write it down, please?” is
Unaweza kukiandika chini tafadhali?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Unaweza kukiandika chini tafadhali?
Once more:
Unaweza kukiandika chini tafadhali?
The first word, Unaweza, means “can you?”
(slow) Unaweza
Unaweza
Next we have kukiandika, which means “to write it.”
(slow) kukiandika
kukiandika
chini literally means “down” but in this case it implies “on”
chini
(slow) chini
chini
tafadhali is “please“, as you may remember from previous lessons.
All together:
Unaweza kukiandika chini tafadhali?
Literally, this means, "Can you write it down, please?”
Next, we have another way to express the same meaning.
Unaweza kukiandika hapa chini tafadhali?
“Could you write it down here please?’
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Unaweza kukiandika hapa chini tafadhali?
Once more:
Unaweza kukiandika hapa chini tafadhali?
The only extra thing in this sentence is the word hapa, which is “in here” in English.
(slow) hapa
hapa
(slow) Unaweza kukiandika hapa chini tafadhali?
Unaweza kukiandika hapa chini tafadhali?
Once you have the written words, you may find that you have no idea how to pronounce them. In Swahili, “How do you pronounce this?” is
Unatamkaje hii?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Unatamkaje hii?
Once more:
Unatamkaje hii?
The first word, Unatamkaje, means “how do you pronounce”
Unatamkaje,
(slow) Unatamkaje,
Unatamkaje,
Next we have hii, which means “this” as we have seen before. You should all be familiar with this by now.
The entire sentence again:
(slow) Unatamkaje hii?
Unatamkaje hii?
It might happen that people are not carrying a piece of paper or a pen. So before asking
Unaweza kukiandika chini tafadhali?
try asking
Je, una karatasi na kalamu?
“Do you have paper and pen?”
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Je, una karatasi na kalamu?
Once more:
Je, una karatasi na kalamu?
The first word, je, is used to make the sentence a question.
(slow) Je
je
When we use je with the word that follows, una, for “you have,” it becomes je una “do you have?”
je una
(slow) je una
je una
Then comes the word karatasi, which means “paper”
(slow) karatasi
karatasi
Then you have na, which in English is “and.”
(slow) na
na
The last word is kalamu which means “pen”.
(slow) kalamu
kalamu
Here’s the whole sentence:
Je, una karatasi na kalamu?
(slow) Je, una karatasi na kalamu?
Je, una karatasi na kalamu?
As usual, before asking about someone else’s stationery supplies, it’s a good idea to say “excuse me”, kunradhi, at the beginning of the sentence. When you use kunradhi, you can eliminate the question word je.

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