Learn Swahili while on a Kenya safari holiday
Learn Swahili for Kenya Safari Holidays
Ever though of how to learn Swahili? While traveling in Kenya on a safari holiday, you can learn this exciting language spoken widely across East Africa. Swahili is one of the easiest languages to learn while on Kenya safari holidays. Here are a few basic things to know about Swahili:
Swahili verbs always carry with them the subject (and sometimes the object) and the tense. For example, Ninakula, is a complete sentence which means “I am eating”. Ni- prefix stands for the subject “I”, the -na- affix stands for “am” showing the tense i.e. the “present continuous” tense, and -kula is the root of the verb “eat”.
Leave aside the Swahili verbs and prefixes for now, below are a few general Swahili words or sentences that you can easily grasp while on safari as you will hear them used more often. They are in English form translated into Swahili form.
Kenya Swahili Words
- Hello – Jambo!
- How are you? – Habari / Habari gani?
- Good, fine/very well – Nzuri
- Bad – Mbaya
- Thank you (very much) – Asante (sana)
- Please – Tafadhali
- Good bye/Good night – Kwaheri / Lala salama
- Welcome – Karibu
- Danger – Hatari
- Friend – Rafiki
- Sorry – Samahani, Pole
- Excuse me please – Nisamehe, Samahani
- Hakuna matata – no worries, no problem