Learn how to ask "Can you speak English?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In this lesson, we’ll cover another extremely important phrase: "Do you know English?" Using this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you’re speaking to doesn’t understand English, at least they’ll be able to understand what you’re asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect on your part, because you’ve made an effort to learn even just a little bit of the language. For these reasons and many more, we’re going to cover this very important phrase. |
| BODY |
| In Swahili, "Do you know English?" is |
| Je, unajua Kiingereza? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Je, u - na - ju - a Ki - i - nge - re - za? |
| Once more: |
| Je, unajua Kiingereza? |
| The first word, Je makes the sentence a question. |
| (slow) je |
| je |
| The second word, unajua, is a form of “to know”. |
| (slow) U - na - ju -a |
| unajua |
| The last word, Kiingereza, means “English”. |
| (slow) Ki - i - nge - re -za |
| Kiingereza. |
| All together, that’s |
| (slow) Je, u - na - ju - a Ki - i - nge - re - za? |
| Je, unajua Kiingereza? |
| The phrase we just learned is formal. This means you can use it in situations with older people, or with people you don’t know. |
| When you’re speaking to young people, it’s OK to use informal speech. In that case, you will say |
| Unajua Kiingereza? |
| Here we just dropped Je, the first word of the sentence. While the difference seems small, it completely changes the formality level, from formal to casual. |
| Let’s break the whole phrase down: |
| (slow) U - na - ju - a Ki - i - nge - re - za? |
| Once more: |
| Unajua Kiingereza? |
| Again, you can use the formal Je, unajua Kiingereza? with older people or those you don’t know. Unajua Kiingereza? is more direct. Don’t use it with people you don't know, or with elders. |
| Now for a change, let's try a different language: German. |
| “Do you know German?" is |
| Je, unajua Ujerumani? |
| The word for “German" is |
| Ujerumani. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) U - je - ru - ma - ni. |
| Ujerumani. |
| Here, just the word for the language changes; the rest is the same. |
| (slow) Je, u - na - ju - a U - je - ru - ma - ni? |
| Je, unajua Ujerumani? |
| When you ask whether someone speaks another language besides Swahili, you might get the answer in Swahili. Here are few ways they might answer this question. |
| “Yes, I know English” would be |
| Ndio, najua Kiingereza. |
| Let’s hear that slowly now: |
| (slow) Ndi - o na - ju - a Ki - i - nge - re - za. |
| And one more time at natural native speed: |
| Ndio, najua Kiingereza. |
| The first word, ndio, means “yes.” |
| (slow) ndio |
| ndio |
| After this we have najua, which comes from the word for “to know.” |
| (slow) na - ju - a |
| After this comes the word for “English,” Ki - i - nge - re - za, which we’ve seen before. |
| All together, that’s |
| (slow) Ndi - o na - ju - a Ki - i - nge - re - za. |
| Ndio, najua Kiingereza. |
| This phrase could be made shorter, just by saying “Yes”: |
| Ndio. |
| Or by taking out the word for “English” and just saying “Yes, I do know”: |
| Ndio najua. |
| (slow) Ndi - o na - ju -a. |
| Ndio, najua. |
| If the answer is negative, Swahili people might say “No, I don’t know English”: |
| La, sijui Kiingereza. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: |
| (slow) La, si - ju - i Ki - i - i -nge - re - za. |
| And again at natural native speed: |
| La, sijui Kiingereza. |
| The first word, la, means “no”. |
| (slow) la |
| la. |
| This time we have the word for the form “I don’t know,” |
| (Slow) si - ju - i |
| sijui. |
| Finally, we have the word for “English |
| (slow) Ki - i -nge - re - za |
| Kiingereza. |
| All together, that’s |
| (slow) La, si - ju - i Ki - i - i -nge - re |
| La, sijui Kiingereza. |
| Sometimes, people will leave out the word for “English” and just say “I don’t”: |
| La, sijui. |
| (slow) La, si - ju - i. |
| La, sijui. |
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