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Learn Yoruba

Hear the three tones, read the tone marks and greet people the respectful Yoruba way.

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

Yoruba is spoken across southwestern Nigeria and into Benin and Togo, and it is a tonal language with three level tones: high, mid and low. Written Yoruba uses the Latin alphabet with dotted letters like ẹ, ọ and ṣ, plus accent marks for tone, so ìgbà means time while igba means two hundred. Grammar is friendly, with no noun gender and no verb conjugation, but greetings and respect for elders run deep. Learnr builds a personalized Yoruba course from one prompt and teaches tone, vocabulary and culture in short, interactive lessons.

How to learn Yoruba, step by step

Learn the seven oral vowels and the special consonants. Yoruba separates e from open ẹ and o from open ọ, and adds nasal vowels like in and un. Practice gb and p, which are both made at the lips and back of the mouth at once, and ṣ, which sounds like English sh.
Make tone your first habit, not a later polish. An acute mark is high, a grave mark is low and no mark is mid. Clap or hum the tones of each new word, and learn minimal sets such as owó (money) and ọwọ́ (hand) so you hear how much tone carries.
Greet the Yoruba way from day one. Greetings change with time and situation: ẹ káàárọ̀ in the morning, ẹ kú iṣẹ́ to someone working. Use the respectful ẹ with elders and strangers and o with friends, because getting this wrong is noticed far more than a grammar slip.
Learn verbs with their aspect markers. Verbs never conjugate. Instead ń marks an ongoing action, ti a completed one and máa or yóò the future or habits, as in mo ń jẹun, "I am eating." Drill these short markers until they slot in automatically.
Get used to serial verbs. Yoruba often chains verbs where English uses one: ó mú ìwé wá, literally "he took book came," means he brought the book. Learning these chains as single units makes everyday speech much easier to follow.
Listen to Nollywood, music and proverbs daily. Yoruba films and songs let you hear tones in fast speech, and proverbs (òwe) appear often in conversation. A short daily Learnr lesson keeps tone marks and new vocabulary fresh between sessions.

What you'll learn

Hear and produce high, mid and low tones on every syllable
Read the Yoruba alphabet, including ẹ, ọ, ṣ, gb and nasal vowels
Use aspect markers like ń, ti and máa to show time
Greet elders and peers with the right respectful forms
Talk about family, market prices, food and daily life

What's inside your Yoruba course

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

1. The alphabet, dotted vowels and gb and p
2. Three tones and how tone marks work
3. Pronouns, respect and essential greetings
4. Verbs, aspect markers and serial verbs
5. Questions, negation and numbers
6. Everyday conversations, proverbs and culture

How long does it take to learn Yoruba?

Most learners can greet people and handle basic exchanges in 2 to 4 months of daily practice. Comfortable conversation usually takes 12 to 18 months at 30 to 60 minutes a day, with tone being the main hurdle. Regular contact with Yoruba speakers speeds it up considerably.

What you need before you start

Nothing is required. A good ear for pitch helps, and any experience with another tonal language such as Igbo or Mandarin makes Yoruba tone feel less foreign.

Common mistakes to avoid

Ignoring tone marks because many casual texts leave them out, then mispronouncing everything; learn every word with its full marks first.
Using the casual o with elders, which comes across as disrespectful; default to ẹ until someone invites you to be informal.
Translating English tenses directly instead of using ń, ti and máa, which leads to stiff sentences; think in terms of ongoing, completed and future actions.

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Yoruba questions, answered

Is Yoruba a tonal language?

Yes. It has three level tones, high, mid and low, and they change word meanings and grammar. Standard spelling marks tone with accents, though casual writing often drops them.

Is Yoruba hard to learn for English speakers?

Tone and the open vowels take real practice. Grammar is simpler than in many languages, though, with no gender, no verb conjugation and fairly fixed subject, verb, object order.

Is the Yoruba of Nigeria different from Benin?

Standard Yoruba is based on dialects from Nigeria, and that is what most courses teach. Dialects differ in sounds and vocabulary, and Benin varieties are sometimes called Nago, but standard Yoruba is widely understood.