LESSON NOTES

Survival Phrases #6 Where Is the Bathroom? in Swahili

CONTENTS
2 2 2 3 3 5 Swahili English Vocabulary Sample Sentences Grammar Cultural Insight

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SWAHILI
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Msala uko wapi? Bafu liko wapi? Msala wa wanawake uko wapi? Msala wa wanaume uko wapi? Wanawake Wake Wanaume

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ENGLISH
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Where is the toilet? (informal) Where is the bathroom? (formal) Where is the women's room? Where is the men's room? Women Women Men

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VOCABULARY
SWAHILIPOD101.COM SURVIVAL PHRASES #6 - WHERE IS THE BATHROOM? IN SWAHILI

Swahili msala bafu wapi wanawake wanaume

English toilet bathroom where women men

Class noun noun adverb noun noun

SAMPLE SENTENCES
Ningelipenda kwenda msalani. Baf u lililoko karibu liko wapi?

"I would like t o go t o t he t oilet ."

"Where is t he nearest bat hroom around here?"

Baf u lililoko karibu liko wapi?

Benki liko wapi?

"Where is t he bank?"

"Where is t he nearest bat hroom around here?"

Huu ni msala wa wanawake.

Huu ni msala wa wanawake.

"This is t he women's t oilet ."

"This is t he women's t oilet ."

GRAMMAR
In this lesson, we'll cover an extremely important phrase: "Where is the toilet?" In Swahili, "Where is the toilet?" is Msala uko wapi? Let's look at the components. The rst word, msala, means "toilet." This is followed by uko, which acts as the place indicator, roughly translated as "there." After that is wapi, which means "where." Therefore, together with uko, it means "where is."

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SURVIVAL PHRASES #6 - WHERE IS THE BATHROOM? IN SWAHILI

A formal way to ask "Where can I nd the bathroom?" is: Bafu liko wapi? The rst word bafu , means "bathroom." After that is liko, acting as a place indicator, which when followed with wapi means "where is" liko wapi? If you are looking for the ladies' room, the phrase is: Msala wa wanawake uko wapi? msala means "toilet." Next is wa, a preposition connecting msala and wanawake. Wanawake literally means "women." Then we have uko, which again is the place indicator. It is followed by the word wapi, which means "where." If you are looking for the men's room, the question for that is: Msala wa wanaume uko wapi? Wanaume means "men." To ask for the men's room, just swap out the word wanawake ("women") with wanaume ("men"). When you nally get to the bathroom, there may be one last hurdle. At some bathrooms, only Swahili words are written on the doors! What do you do? As we've heard before, the word for "men" is: wanaume. And for "women" you'll see either: wanawake or wake. There may not be many public bathrooms for tourists to use. This means your best option is to stop at either a caf or a restaurant, and use the bathroom there. Understandably, caf owners aren't always too keen on having people stop in, just to use their bathroom. Since you'll be a tourist, they will welcome you, and let you use the toilet. So to be polite, you might want to buy a bottle of water, or order a

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SURVIVAL PHRASES #6 - WHERE IS THE BATHROOM? IN SWAHILI

co ee before asking msala uko wapi?

CULTURAL INSIGHT
Quick T ip 1

It may not always be very easy to nd a public toilet in Kenya, but you can try. If you are on the street, you'll probably want to say "Where can I nd the nearest toilet?" as opposed to "Where is THE toilet?" This rst sentence in Swahili would be: Naweza pata wapi msala ulio karibu? Here it is broken down: Na - we - za pa - ta wa - pi m - sa - la u - li - o ka - ri - bu? Naweza pata indicates the "ability to nd." Wapi literally means "where" and msala as mentioned earlier means "toilet." Ulio karibu refers to the "most closest." It is very similar to our previous sentencewe changed only a bit, but it is more appropriate on the street. Quick T ip 2

Let's learn the word for "Excuse me" here. In Swahili it is samahani. Just pop this in front of any of the sentences we've learned in this lesson and you're being very polite.

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SURVIVAL PHRASES #6 - WHERE IS THE BATHROOM? IN SWAHILI