Learn how to say "no" in Swahili
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Intro |
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| Antoni: How do I say "no" in Swahili? |
| Gertrude: And how do I make negative sentences? |
| Antoni: At SwahiliPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee talks to her friend Terry Njoroge about a party happening tonight. She asks her friend, |
| "Are you going to the party tonight?" |
| Sasha Lee: Je, unaenda sherehe leo usiku? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Je, unaenda sherehe leo usiku? |
| Terry Njoroge: Hapana, mimi siendi sherehe leo usiku. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Je, unaenda sherehe leo usiku? |
| Antoni: "Are you going to the party tonight?" |
| Terry Njoroge: Hapana, mimi siendi sherehe leo usiku. |
| Antoni: "No, I'm not going to the party tonight." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say "no" and make negative sentences in Swahili. First, let’s review how to make a simple negative sentence. In Swahili, negation is done by modifying the subject prefix depending on the pronoun and the tense. Let’s use an example to understand this better. |
| Gertrude: Ninasoma - I am reading |
| Tunacheza- we are playing |
| Unasema - you are saying |
| Mnasema - you (plural) are saying |
| Ameimba- she has sung |
| Wameimba - They have sung |
| Antoni: "I am reading." Here, we have the affirmative subject prefix "I," or, |
| Gertrude: ni- |
| Antoni: the tense marker for "am," or |
| Gertrude: -na- |
| Antoni: and the verb "to read," or |
| Gertrude: soma |
| Antoni: To turn this into a negative sentence, we change the affirmative subject prefix to |
| Gertrude: si- |
| Antoni: and change the final letter of the verb from "a" to "i," so that we have |
| Gertrude: sisomi |
| Antoni: "I am not reading." Notice that the tense marker has been dropped too. The subject prefix changes depending on the pronoun, but the rule remains, that is, we change the final "a" to "i" and drop the infix or tense marker. For second person singular, we replace the subject prefix, |
| Gertrude: u- with hu- |
| Antoni: For example, |
| Gertrude: Unasoma |
| Antoni: or "You are reading" becomes |
| Gertrude: Husomi |
| Antoni: or "You are not reading." For third person singular, we replace the subject prefix, |
| Gertrude: a- with ha |
| Antoni: For example, |
| Gertrude: Anasoma |
| Antoni: or "He is reading" becomes |
| Gertrude: Hasomi |
| Antoni: or "He is not reading." For first person plural, we replace the subject prefix |
| Gertrude: tu- |
| Antoni: to |
| Gertrude: hatu- |
| Antoni: so that "We are reading," or, |
| Gertrude: Tunasoma, |
| Antoni: becomes |
| Gertrude: Hatusomi |
| Antoni: or "We are not reading." For second person plural, we replace the subject prefix, |
| Gertrude: m- |
| Antoni: to |
| Gertrude: ham- |
| Antoni: so that "You all are reading," or, |
| Gertrude: Mnasoma, |
| Antoni: becomes |
| Gertrude: Hamsomi |
| Antoni: or "You all are not reading." And, finally, for the third person plural, we replace the subject prefix: |
| Gertrude: wa- |
| Antoni: to |
| Gertrude: hawa- |
| Antoni: so that "They are reading" or, |
| Gertrude: Wanasoma, |
| Antoni: becomes |
| Gertrude: Hawasomi |
| Antoni: or "They are not reading." Keep in mind that, when the verb ends in "i," "u," "and "e," the spelling of the verb is retained. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: This time, let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Are you going to the party tonight?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Gertrude as Sasha Lee: Je, unaenda sherehe leo usiku? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Terry Njoroge says "No, I'm not going to the party tonight?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Gertrude as Terry Njoroge: Hapana, mimi siendi sherehe leo usiku. |
| Antoni: Here, we encounter the most common way to say "no" in Swahili, which is by saying |
| Gertrude: hapana |
| Antoni: You use this word when giving a negative answer to a question or when showing disagreement. For instance, if someone asks you if you’d like to have a cup of coffee and you want to say no, you can say, |
| Gertrude: Hapana, asante. |
| Antoni: or "No, thank you." Another thing you will see in this sample sentence is the word, |
| Gertrude: siendi, |
| Antoni: which means "I am not going." Here, we can apply what we have learned earlier. First, let’s revert this to its affirmative form, which is "I am going," or |
| Gertrude: ninakwenda |
| Antoni: To negate this sentence, we replace the affirmative subject prefix with |
| Gertrude: si- |
| Antoni: and drop the tense marker, |
| Gertrude: -na- |
| Antoni: We then replace the final "a" of the verb to "i." Another thing we did here was drop the first syllable of the infinite verb "to go," or |
| Gertrude: kwenda, |
| Antoni: leaving us with |
| Gertrude: -enda |
| Antoni: And that’s how we negate in the simple present tense. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we learned some basic rules in negating sentences in Swahili. We do that by modifying subject prefixes depending on the pronoun and the tense. We also learned that the simplest way to say "no" in Swahili is with the use of the word |
| Gertrude: hapana |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: Another way to say "no" in Swahili is by saying |
| Gertrude: la |
| Antoni: It’s an interjection that means "no" and is often used as a quick negative response to a question. For instance, if someone asks you "Are you hungry," or, |
| Gertrude: Una njaa? |
| Antoni: you can reply with a simple "No," or |
| Gertrude: La. |
| Antoni: A similar expression would be |
| Gertrude: siyo |
| Antoni: which could both mean "no" and "not," such as when you say, |
| Gertrude: Siyo leo! |
| Antoni: "Not today!" |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Gertrude: Nitakuona hivi karibuni! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Gertrude (Swahili, Kenya), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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