LEARN   SWAHILI LANGUAGE

Days of the week

In Swahili, a week is known as juma or wiki. The days of the week rotate around Friday, which is the most important day to Muslims. The day after Friday, Saturday- Jumamosi, is considered to be the first day of the week i.e Juma (week) and mosi (first). 

 The following are the days of the week:

Jumamosi                            Saturday

Jumapili                                Sunday

Jumatatu                             Monday

Jumanne                             Tuesday

Jumatano                            Wednesday

Alhamisi                               Thursday

Ijumaa                                  Friday

Jana                  yesterday

Leo                   today

Kesho                tomorrow

Kesho kutwa      the day after tomorrow

Mtondo              the day after kesho kutwa

Juzi                    the day before yesterday

Juzijuzi               the few days ago, (usually between 3 to 5 days)

Greetings and Salutations

There are different types of greetings in Swahili which are used at different times and between different people. The following are examples of common Swahili greetings:

Shikamoo is a type of greeting that is used to show respect, mostly used by young people to greet older people. The response is marahaba.

The greeting literally means May I touch your feet? While the reply means Welcome.

Pachika msichana anamshikamoo mzee

Habari, which means news, is widely used. It can be combined with different words to bring out different meanings. For example:

Asubuhi (morning)- Habari ya asubuhi- How is your morning? The response is nzuri, safi, njema, poa, barabara e.t.c (it is okay, good).

Mama (mother) - Habari ya mama? - How is mother? or how are you lady?

Other words that can be used include:

Mchana (afternoon)

Jioni (evening)

Nyumbani (home)

Baba (father)

Safari (journey)

Watoto (children).

In this case then one will come across greetings like Habari za mchana, habari za jioni, habari za nyumbani, habari ya baba, habari ya watoto? e.t.c. In all these instances, the reply to the greetings will be one of the above/ forementioned words.

Another commonly used greeting in Swahili is hujambo?( How are you?). The response is sijambo (I am fine). Hujambo literally means do you have a word? The reply Sijambo means I do not have a word. The same pattern that was observed for Habari can obtain for this greeting also as shown below:

Mama Hajambo? (How is mum?). The response is hajambo (She is fine)

Watoto hawajambo? (How are the kids?). The response is hawajambo (They are fine).

Other greetings include:

Umeamkaje? (How have you woken up?). The response is vizuri, sawa, safi, vyema, barabara e.t.c  (well).

Umeshindaje? (How has been your day?). The response is also vizuri, vyema, poa, safi, sawa e.t.c meaning fine.

U hali gani? (How are you?). The response is salama, sijambo, nzuri, sawa, poa e.t.c meaning peaceful, fine, ok e.t.c.

There are other Swahili greetings that may sound colloquial yet in common use in the Swahili world. One such greeting is Mambo! and the reply is poa, safi, sawa e.t.c.