Course

Bua Setswana Course

This course is aimed at beginners who want to learn to speak Setswana. The course aims to help students achieve a basic mastery of Setswana to allow them to communicate their basic needs and serve as a foundation on which to build their language skills.

The course is based on information from Nthati Phetlhu (Gaborone, Botswana)

Before starting, students should refer to the notes on Pronunciation

It is strongly recommended that the student learns by speaking with Batswana speakers at the earliest opportunity.

Lessons

greetings, useful phrases
introducing yourself
verbs - present tense including verbs "to have" and "to be"
location including nouns ending in –ng
simple sentences and linking words
noun classes
verbs - past tense
times of day
verb objects and conjunctives (joining words)
possessives
verbs - future tense
verbs - past continuous tense
numbers , days of the week
human body , tribes
adjectives
comparatives
shopping
adverbs
relative construct
kinship terms
demonstratives
imperatives
getting around
climate

Reference/Revision Material

External Teaching Material

Booklet "First Steps in Spoken Setswana" published by Pula Press 1978

"Understanding Everyday Setswana" A vocabulary & reference book - Pam Wilken Published 1994 Maskew Miller Longman [1] ISBN 0-636-01871-7 or ISBN 978-0-636-01871-6 Ninety four pages of vocabulary and phrases sorted in sections (eg animals, clothing, emergency situations etc). No grammar.

CD "Learn Setswana" from Eurotalk This is really just a lot of vocabulary much of which has little relevance to life in Botswana. However you can at least listen to Setswana speakers pronouncing the words.

"Tswana for Beginners" JW Snyman, JC le Roux, M le Roux ISBN 0-86981-699-3 Published UNISA University of South Africa Pretoria 1991. 315 pages, with useful help on grammar.

Dictionaries

Setswana-English-Setswana Dictionary (Macmillan Botswana) ISBN 99912-77-77-3 Compiled by Z I Matumo in 1993, based on previous dictionaries by Missionaires. The dictionary is 647 pages long and recommended for serious Setswana learners.

Thanodi ya Setswana - Longman ISBN 9991250549 or 9789991250540 - haven't seen this one but its listed here

Shuters Compact Setswana Dictionary (Shuter & Shooter) ISBN 0-7960-0639-3 Includes both singular and plural forms of nouns (eg "motho" and "batho") to assist learners. For "South African" Setswana rather than "Botswana" Setswana.

Jacob

Other References

The Sound System of Setswana - Dept of African Languages and Literature - University of Botswana Published 1999 by Lightbooks, Gaborone. ISBN 99912-71-21-X

Structure of a Setswana Sentence