LESSON NOTES

Survival Phrases #9 Can You Say it Again in Swahili?

CONTENTS
2 2 2 3 3 4 Swahili English Vocabulary Sample Sentences Grammar Cultural Insight

#
COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

SWAHILI
1.

Rudia hiyo tafadhali? Waweza rudia hiyo tafadhali? Waweza rudia hiyo tafadhali? Tafadhali kiseme tena. Waweza kukisema tena tafadhali? Pole pole, tafadhali. Waweza rudia hiyo polepole tafadhali?

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

ENGLISH
1.

Repeat that, please? Repeat that, please? (formal) Can you repeat that, please? Please say that again. Can you say that again, please? More slowly, please. (informal) Can you repeat that slowly, please?

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

VOCABULARY
SWAHILIPOD101.COM SURVIVAL PHRASES #9 - CAN YOU SAY IT AGAIN IN SWAHILI?

Swahili waweza kiseme pole pole rudia tafadhali

English can you say it slower repeat please

Class phrase phrase phrase phrase phrase

SAMPLE SENTENCES
Waweza rudia hiyo polepole t af adhali? Taf adhali kiseme t ena?

"Can you repeat t hat slowly, please?"

Pole pole, t af adhali.

"Waweza kukisema t ena t afadhali?"

Waweza rudia hii t af adhali?

"More slowly, please"

Waweza kukisema t ena t af adhali?

Can you repeat t hat , please?"

Hii saa t af adhali.

"Can you say t hat again, please?"

"This one please."

GRAMMAR
There will be many times when the Swahili is coming at you fast and furious, and you may not catch all or any of it. When this happens, asking the speaker to say it again can make the dierence between understanding a crucial piece of information, and spending the rest of the day trying to gure out what it was. The following phrase will not only give you a better sense of the language, but will also help you tune your ear! In Swahili, "Repeat that, please?" is: Rudia hiyo tafadhali?

SWAHILIPOD101.COM

SURVIVAL PHRASES #9 - CAN YOU SAY IT AGAIN IN SWAHILI?

The rst word rudia means "to repeat" After this come hiyo, meaning "that." The last word tafadhali, as we have studied before, means "please." If you want to sound a little less direct, you can ask "Can you repeat that, please?" In Swahili this is Waweza rudia hiyo tafadhali? This is very similar to the rst sentence. Simply add waweza before the second word rudia, to mean "could you repeat." Waweza rudia hiyo tafadhali? You can also say the more casual "Please say that again.": Tafadhali kiseme tena. The rst word Tafadhali still means "please." Next we have kiseme, which means "say it." And last we have tena, meaning "again." When you are talking to strangers or elderly people, you may wish to express this in a formal way, like this: "Can you say that again, please?" Waweza kukisema tena tafadhali? At times, you may not understand the speaker even after a repeat. This is often due to how fast the person is speaking. In these cases, you can say "Slower, please": Pole pole, tafadhali. The rst word, polepole, means "slower." We can use all the phrases we've seen so far, altogether. "Can you repeat that slowly, please?" is Waweza rudia hiyo polepole tafadhali? Waweza makes this a polite question you can ask strangers.

CULTURAL INSIGHT

SWAHILIPOD101.COM

SURVIVAL PHRASES #9 - CAN YOU SAY IT AGAIN IN SWAHILI?

Quick T ip 1

Asking someone to repeat what they've just said is especially important when you're given directions to get you where you're going. If you happen to be lost, instead of stopping someone on the street for directions, it's always best to stop in a store or a caf and ask the people who work there. They are usually much more familiar with the neighborhood than the average passerby on the street is. If Swahili people assume you already speak the language well, they might speak fast. So if there's something you didn't understand, or if you missed part of the sentence, you can say Rudia hiyo tafadhali? As you've just learned, this means, "Repeat that, please?" If you want to be more polite, or if you're talking to more than one person, Waweza rudia hiyo tafadhali? is a useful phrase. Quick T ip 2

As you may have noticed, there is no rule about where to put "please" in Swahili sentence. You can put it at the beginning or the end; either is grammatically OK.

SWAHILIPOD101.COM

SURVIVAL PHRASES #9 - CAN YOU SAY IT AGAIN IN SWAHILI?