I’ve been here for months and my Kinyarwanda skills don’t extend beyond ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’ (which I always get mixed up anyways) and a mangled version of ‘good night’. Throw in ‘thank you’ and the vastly different ‘thank you very much’ and I can say a pitiful five things. Lame.
I have a feeling a lot of new arrivals are in the same boat as me, having heard that the language is difficult and not knowing whether its worth the effort to learn anything beyond the basics. So we’ve enlisted the help of Jacques, a Kigali-based Kinyarwanda teacher extraordinaire to help give new arrivals and old Kigali expats alike a start in the language. We’re going to start with some basics and then branch out a bit in future posts.
| English | Kinyarwanda | Phonetic |
|---|---|---|
| hello | muraho | mor-AH-ho |
| good morning | mwaramutse | MWA-ra-MOO-tsay |
| good afternoon | mwiriwe | MEE-ree-way |
| good night | muramuke | |
| goodbye | murabeho | |
| thank you | murakoze | moo-RAH-coh-zay |
| yes | yego | YAY-go |
| no | oya | OY-a |
| who | nde/indue | |
| what | iki | |
| where | hehe | |
| why | kuki/kuberiki | |
| when | ryari | |
| how | gute | |
| How are you? | Amakuru? | |
| I’m fine. | nimeza | |
| What’s your name? | Witwa nde? | |
| My name is… | Nitwa… | |
| Where are you from? | Uvuka he? | |
| I am from… | Mvuka… | |
| Where do you live? | Utuye he? | |
| I live… | Ntuye… | |
| Do you understand? | Urumva? | |
| I don’t understand. | Sinumva. | |
| Help me. | Mfasha. | |
| Do you have… ? | Unite… ? |
