Kiswahili. Updated November 2026. 6 min read.
Greet first, always. In Kenya a conversation that skips the greeting has already gone wrong, and a visitor who opens with Habari? before asking for the bathroom, the bill or the price of a kikoi gets a different welcome from one who does not. This first lesson gives you the greetings Kenyans actually use with each other, how to answer them, and the five small words that carry respect: please, thank you, welcome, excuse me and sorry.
If you learn one exchange, learn this one: Habari? (ha-BA-ri, literally 'news?'), answered Nzuri (n-ZU-ri, 'good'). It works with a lodge manager, a market seller, a grandmother and a child, at any hour of the day. Everything else in this lesson is a variation on it, a more casual version for friends, or a way to show extra respect to an elder.
What you will be able to do
- Greet anyone politely at any time of day, and answer when you are greeted
- Greet an elder with the respect Kenyans expect
- Switch to a casual greeting with people your own age or younger
- Say please, thank you, welcome, excuse me, sorry and goodbye
- Greet and thank a whole group correctly
How to read Kiswahili, in two minutes
Kiswahili is read exactly as it is written, which makes it one of the friendliest languages in the world for an English speaker. There are five vowels and they never change: a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in more, u as in rule. Every vowel is pronounced, so Shikamoo ends with a long oh and kwaheri is kwa-HE-ri. The stress falls on the second-last syllable almost every time: ha-BA-ri, a-SAN-te, ta-fa-DHA-li. In the tables in this course the stressed syllable is in capitals.
A few consonants to note: dh is the th in 'this', th is the th in 'think', ch is the ch in 'church', ny is the ny in 'canyon', and ng' with an apostrophe is the ng in 'singer'. The r is a light tap of the tongue, close to a Spanish r. That is the whole pronunciation system; there are no silent letters and no tones.
The words
| Kiswahili | Say it | Meaning | Use it with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Habari? | ha-BA-ri | How are things? (literally: news?) | Anyone, any time |
| Habari yako? | ha-BA-ri YA-ko | How are you? (your news?) | One person |
| Habari za asubuhi? | ha-BA-ri za a-su-BU-hi | Good morning (news of the morning?) | Anyone, until late morning |
| Habari za leo? | ha-BA-ri za LE-o | How is today going? | Anyone, afternoon and evening |
| Nzuri / Salama | n-ZU-ri / sa-LA-ma | Good / peaceful, fine | The reply to any habari |
| Mambo? | MAM-bo | What's up? (literally: things?) | Friends, your age or younger |
| Poa / Safi | PO-a / SA-fi | Cool / clean, meaning fine | The reply to mambo |
| Sasa? | SA-sa | Hey, how's it going? (literally: now?) | Casual, very Kenyan |
| Fiti | FI-ti | Fine (from the English 'fit') | The reply to sasa |
| Hujambo? | hu-JAM-bo | Are you well? (literally: you have no trouble?) | Older people, formal settings |
| Sijambo | si-JAM-bo | I am well | The reply to hujambo |
| Shikamoo | shi-ka-MO-o | My respects (to an elder) | Elders, especially on the coast |
| Marahaba | ma-ra-HA-ba | I accept your respect | What the elder replies |
| Asante (sana) | a-SAN-te (SA-na) | Thank you (very much) | Everyone |
| Karibu | ka-RI-bu | Welcome; you're welcome; come in | Hosts say it constantly |
| Tafadhali | ta-fa-DHA-li | Please | Any request |
| Samahani | sa-ma-HA-ni | Excuse me; I'm sorry | Getting attention, your own mistakes |
| Pole | PO-le | Sorry (sympathy) | Someone tired, ill, bereaved or unlucky |
| Kwaheri | kwa-HE-ri | Goodbye | Leaving |
| Tutaonana | tu-ta-o-NA-na | See you (we will see each other) | Leaving, when you will be back |
Dialogue: arriving at camp
Read it aloud twice, once slowly and once at speed. You arrive at a safari camp in the morning. A member of staff (mhudumu) meets you, and an elder (mzee) is sitting by the fire.
- Mhudumu: Habari za asubuhi! Karibu sana.
- Wewe (you): Nzuri sana, asante. Habari yako?
- Mhudumu: Nzuri. Pole na safari.
- Wewe: Asante. Shikamoo, mzee.
- Mzee: Marahaba. Hujambo?
- Wewe: Sijambo, asante.
- Mhudumu: Karibu, karibu. Chai iko tayari.
- Wewe: Asante sana!
Pole na safari, literally 'sorry for the journey', is the phrase you will hear most on arrival in Kenya: a kind way of saying 'you have come a long way, you must be tired'. The answer is simply asante. Chai iko tayari means the tea is ready, and it nearly always is. Mzee means elder or old man and is a title of respect, never an insult; for an older woman, mama does the same job.
Grammar point: one person or many
Kiswahili greetings change when you speak to a group, and two patterns cover almost all of them. First, many greetings and courtesy words add -ni at the end for the plural. Karibu (welcome, to one person) becomes karibuni (to several), asante becomes asanteni (thank you, all of you) and kwaheri becomes kwaherini. When you thank a whole team of camp staff at the end of your stay, asanteni sana is the right phrase, and people notice that you got it right.
Second, hujambo carries a person marker in its first syllable, so it changes with who you are asking about. Habari works the same way: habari yako? to one person, habari zenu? to a group. Shikamoo stays the same whether you greet one elder or a room full of them.
| Question | Answer | When |
|---|---|---|
| Hujambo? | Sijambo | Asking one person; they answer for themselves |
| Hamjambo? | Hatujambo | Asking a group; they answer as 'we' |
| Hajambo? | Hajambo | Asking about someone else: is he or she well? |
| Habari yako? | Nzuri | Asking one person |
| Habari zenu? | Nzuri | Asking a group |
Practice
Cover the answers, say each one out loud, then check.
- 1. A cook greets you at 7am: Habari za asubuhi? What do you answer? Answer: Nzuri, or Nzuri sana, asante.
- 2. You greet your host's grandmother with Shikamoo. What will she say? Answer: Marahaba.
- 3. Your guide says he slept badly because his baby was sick. Answer: Pole sana.
- 4. You step on someone's foot in a queue. Answer: Samahani.
- 5. Thank all the camp staff at once. Answer: Asanteni sana.
- 6. A teenager in the street says Mambo? Answer: Poa, or Safi.
- 7. Welcome three friends into your room. Answer: Karibuni.
- 8. Ask a family how they all are, formally. Answer: Hamjambo? They reply: Hatujambo.
Cultural note: the greeting is the point
In the United States a greeting is a doorway: you say hi and get to business. In Kenya the greeting is part of the business. A full exchange often runs through habari, then habari za nyumbani? (how is home?), habari za kazi? (how is work?) and the family before anyone mentions why they came. Shake hands with everyone in the room, elders first, and do not rush it; a handshake can last the whole exchange, and many Kenyans touch their right forearm with the left hand when shaking an older person's hand, as a mark of respect.
Two points that trip visitors up. Jambo is what hotel staff say to tourists and what the famous hotel song sings (Lesson 10 tells its story). It is a shortened hujambo and not wrong, but Kenyans greet each other with habari, mambo or sasa, so using those marks you as someone who has made an effort. And pole is not 'sorry, my fault'. It means 'I feel for you', and Kenyans say it when you are tired, caught in the rain or have just dropped your phone. Use samahani for your own mistakes and pole for someone else's bad luck.
Shikamoo is strongest on the coast and in Tanzania. In Nairobi and upcountry many people greet elders with Habari yako, mzee or Hujambo, mama, or in their mother tongue. Our page on how to say hello in Kenya has greetings in more than 20 Kenyan languages, the natural next step if your family is Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya or Kalenjin.
Say it on your trip
Make your first word in Kenya a greeting: to the immigration officer at the airport, to your driver, to the person who brings your tea. Then thank people in Kiswahili and by name. By day three you will hear Unajua Kiswahili! (you know Kiswahili!), and from then on people will teach you more than any lesson can.
Next lesson
Lesson 2 builds on this one: you will say your name, where you come from and where you live, and meet the six personal pronouns that hold the language together.
