Greetings: Being Polite

When you meet an older person, you should greet him or her with respect:

Shikamoo!

If you're talking to an old man, you can say

Shikamoo mzee

Or to an old woman

Shikamoo mama

They will reply 'marahaba' (this word is only used as the reply to 'shikamoo').

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You will hear the word karibu (welcome) very often.  You should reply 'asante' (thank you), or even asante sana (thank you very much).

If you are talking to more than one person, karibu becomes karibuni.
Similarly, if you are thanking more than one person, asante becomes asanteni.

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People call "hodi!" if they are going into someone else's house or room, to mean "can I come in?"
Someone inside will reply 'karibu', "welcome, come in."

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Apart from greetings with 'jambo?' and 'habari?', people may also greet you with

Mzima?

The reply is the same word, mzima.  It means 'whole' or 'complete'.

Or they may say

Salama?

And again you reply with the same word, salama. This means 'safe, secure'.

Both are simply greetings, to which the reply is always positive.

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Sorry                                    Samahani
Sorry, I don't understand     Samahani, sifahamu
Say that again please           Sema tena, tafadhali          
Speak slowly                       Sema polepole                    

To sympathise with someone, for example if they've had bad news or a bad experience, say pole. People say pole all the time, to express sympathy for everything. You're walking down the road in the sun?  Pole, someone will say, because you might be a bit hot and tired. You tripped over? Pole. You just found out you have a terminal illness? Pole. Maybe pole sana.

(Pole is not the same as polepole, which means 'slow' or 'slowly'.)

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When you're saying goodbye....

Tutaonana!    See you
Baadaye         Later
Kwaheri        Goodbye (if you're going away for longer). This becomes kwaherini, if you're
                       talking to more than one person.

Greetings: Habari

You can spend a lot of quality greeting time with the word 'habari', which literally means 'news'.

Any question beginning with 'habari' basically means 'How are you?', or "What's your news?"

Examples include:

Habari yako / Habari zako?        What's your news?
Habari gani?                                 What kind of news (do you have)?
Habari za asubuhi?                      News of the morning?   [Good morning]
Habari za mchana?                      News of the afternoon? [Good afternoon]
Habari za jioni?                            News of the evening? [Good evening]
Habari za leo?                               News of today?     [Good day, hello]
Habari za kazi?                             News of work?      [How's work?]
Habari za safari?                          News of your journey?     [Did you have a good trip?]

A good answer to any 'habari' question is nzuri, meaning good or fine.  Other responses include:

nzuri sana       very good
salama             safe (but here it just means 'fine')
safi                    clean (again, it just means 'fine' when it's the answer to 'habari')
njema               great

Greetings: Jambo

Jambo!

If you only know one word in Swahili, this is probably it.

Literally, 'jambo' means 'matter' or 'affair'.  Used alone, it is a greeting for foreigners who probably only know one word in Swahili. If you want to speak Kiswahili sanifu, or standard Swahili, you need to learn a few prefixes.  To greet someone, you should ask:

Hujambo?  

Hu- is a negative marker, so 'hujambo' means: "you have no matter?", or "there's nothing the matter with you?"

The correct reply is:

Sijambo.

Si- is the negative marker for the first person (I), so it means "I have no matter", or "there's nothing the matter with me."

The negative marker requires a different prefix for each person:

Si + jambo     =  sijambo     (I have no 'jambo')
Hu + jambo   =  hujambo    (You have no 'jambo')
Ha + jambo   =  hajambo    (He/She has no 'jambo')

Hatu + jambo  =  hatujambo  (We have no 'jambo')
Ham + jambo  =  hamjambo  (You [plural] have no 'jambo')
Hawa + jambo =  hawajambo (They have no 'jambo')

(Remember these negative prefixes. They will be useful).

So if you're talking to more than one person, you should greet them with

Hamjambo?

And they will reply

Hatujambo.

You can ask about other people as well.  If someone knows that you have children (or if they don't know you at all, but think that you should have children), they might ask

Watoto hawajambo?   (Are the children ok?  or 'The children have no 'jambo'?')

And you would reply

Hawajambo.        

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The plural of 'jambo' is 'mambo'.  Mambo is also used as a greeting, particularly in a less formal situation and if you're one of the cool young guys.

If someone greets you with "mambo?" or "mambo vipi?"  you can reply with something like:

poa         cool
safi         clean

(If you want to be clever, try "poa kichizi kama ndizi" - crazy cool like a banana.)