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Learn Swahili

Speak the shared language of East Africa, built one prefix at a time.

Free to start. Built from a single prompt. No credit card.

Swahili, or Kiswahili, is a Bantu language spoken across East Africa, widely used in Tanzania, Kenya and neighboring countries as a shared language between people with different mother tongues. It uses the Latin alphabet with phonetic spelling, five pure vowels and stress almost always on the second-to-last syllable, and it has no tones, unlike most Bantu languages. Its signature feature is the noun class system: nouns belong to classes that change the prefixes on adjectives and verbs, as in kitabu kikubwa (big book) and vitabu vikubwa (big books). Verbs are built in slots, such as ni-li-ku-ona, I saw you. Learnr builds a personalized Swahili course from a single prompt and teaches it in short lessons.

How to learn Swahili, step by step

Learn the sounds and greetings. Swahili spelling is phonetic, with five vowels like Spanish and stress on the second-to-last syllable. Learn the greeting exchanges early, such as Habari? Nzuri, and Shikamoo for elders, since greetings matter in East African culture.
Learn the subject prefixes and tense markers. Verbs start with a subject prefix (ni-, u-, a-, tu-, m-, wa-) followed by a tense marker: -na- for present, -li- for past, -ta- for future and -me- for completed actions. Ninasoma means I am reading.
Understand noun classes. Start with the m-wa class for people (mtoto, watoto) and the ki-vi class for many things (kiti, viti). Learn singular and plural pairs together, since each class has its own prefixes.
Practice agreement across the sentence. Adjectives, numbers and verbs take prefixes matching the noun class: kiti kimoja kimevunjika (one chair is broken). Practice sentences with nouns from different classes until agreement feels natural.
Add object markers to verbs. Object markers go between the tense and the root: ninakupenda (I love you) contains ni-na-ku-penda. Learning these slots lets you build and understand long verbs piece by piece.
Practice listening and speaking daily. Listen to Swahili radio, music or podcasts, and practice speaking aloud. Short daily Learnr lessons help you keep noun classes and verb slots fresh as your vocabulary grows.

What you'll learn

Pronounce Swahili clearly with correct vowels and stress
Use the main noun classes and their agreement prefixes
Build verbs from subject, tense and object markers
Talk about past, present and future actions
Handle greetings and everyday conversations in East Africa

What's inside your Swahili course

A sample path Learnr builds for Swahili. Your real course adapts to your goal and level.

1. Sounds, spelling and greetings
2. Pronouns and the present tense
3. Noun classes and agreement
4. Past, future and perfect tenses
5. Object markers and building longer verbs
6. Everyday conversations: market, travel and family

How long does it take to learn Swahili?

Pronunciation comes quickly for English speakers. Many learners hold basic conversations within 6 to 12 months of daily study, and comfortable fluency usually takes a couple of years. Noun class agreement is the part that needs the most practice.

What you need before you start

The Latin alphabet means no new script, and Swahili grammar is introduced from scratch, so no background in Bantu languages is needed.

Common mistakes to avoid

Learning nouns without their plural form, which hides their noun class and leads to agreement errors.
Skipping the long greeting exchanges, which are an important part of polite conversation in East Africa.
Treating verbs as single words to memorize instead of learning the subject, tense and object slots that build them.

How Learnr builds your course

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Swahili questions, answered

Is Swahili easy for English speakers?

Swahili is often considered one of the more accessible African languages for English speakers. Pronunciation is clear and there are no tones, while noun classes and verb prefixes take practice.

Why does Swahili have Arabic words?

Swahili developed along the East African coast through centuries of trade with Arabic-speaking merchants, so many words, such as kitabu (book) and saa (hour or clock), come from Arabic.