Key Swahili sounds, stress patterns, and minimal pairs to sharpen listening and pronunciation skills. Front: the sound, word, or pattern. Back: explanation with a plain-English pronunciation note.
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- ng'
- A single nasal velar sound (like "ng" in "singer"), written with an apostrophe; distinct from a plain "ng"
- ng'ombe
- Cow. Pronounced with the soft "ng" sound at the start, not a hard "ng-g"
- ny
- Pronounced like the "ny" in "canyon", a single palatal nasal sound
- nyumba
- House. Starts with the palatal "ny" sound, said as one smooth sound, not "n" plus "y"
- dh
- Pronounced like the "th" in "this" (voiced th sound)
- dhambi
- Sin. The "dh" is a soft voiced "th" sound, not a hard "d"
- th
- Pronounced like the "th" in "think" (unvoiced th sound)
- thelathini
- Thirty. The "th" is unvoiced, like English "think", not like "t"
- gh
- A soft, breathy sound similar to a gargled "g", made further back in the throat than English "g"
- ghali
- Expensive. The "gh" is a soft back-of-throat sound, distinct from a plain "g"
- kh
- A raspy sound from the back of the throat, similar to the "ch" in the Scottish "loch"
- khamsini
- Fifty (Arabic-origin word). The "kh" is a throaty rasp, not a plain "k"
- Stress pattern
- Swahili word stress almost always falls on the second-to-last syllable, unlike English's varied stress
- hoTELi
- Hotel. Stress falls on "TE", the second-to-last syllable, following the regular Swahili pattern
- kiTAbu
- Book. Stress falls on "TA", the second-to-last syllable
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