Kiswahili Alphabet

The Kiswahili way of writing is not hard for an English speaker because it follows the same alphabet with only a few differences.  The Swahili alphabet is also simple because it is phonetic; you read what you see; what you write is what you read. Some sounds are not exactly identical to English ones, so we are going to look at how to pronounce each of these Swahili sounds and letters.

Kiswahili Vowels and their sounds

Swahili alphabet	Pronunciation in English	Swahili pronunciation examples
A	Father, car	Kama, baba
E	Bet, bed	Yeye, pete
I	See,	Kiti, viti
O	Go	Moto, joto
U	mood	Huru, nusu

 

Kiswahili Consonants

Letters Q and X do not exist in the Swahili alphabet, and letter C comes as a combination of CH.

Swahili alphabet	Pronunciation in English	Swahili pronunciation examples
B	Bake	Baba
D	Day	Dada
F	Far	Fanya
G	Go	Goti
H	Hat	Hata
J	Jar	Jana
K	Keep	Kiti
L	Lion	Lala
M	Moon	Mama
N	Not	Nono
P	Pull	Papa
R	Rake	Rangi
S	Sack	Sasa
T	Top	Tatu
V	Very	Vazi
W	Wake	Wewe
Y	Yes	Yeye
Z	Zoo	Zuri

 

 

 

Swahili consonant letters combinations

Swahili alphabet	Pronunciation in English	Swahili pronunciation examples
Ch	Choice	Chote
Dh	Either	Fedha
Gh	French r	Ghali
Kh	German ch in Bach	Khadija
Sh	Ship	Shika
Th (soft sound)	Think	Thelathini
Ny	Canyon	Nyanya
Ng	Finger	Nguo
Ng’	Sing	Ng’ombe