Greetings

From Setswana
Revision as of 10:34, 8 March 2007 by Jacob (Talk | contribs) (Informal Goodbye)

Jump to: navigation, search

This lesson teaches you to greet and understand greetings

Formal Greeting (singular)

A Dumela rra Hello Sir
B Dumela mma, o tsogile jang ? Hello madam, how are you ? [literally "how did you wake up"]
A Ke tsogile sentle, wena o tsogile jang ? I am fine, how are you ?
B Ke tsogile sentle I am fine

As an alternative to "tsogile" (woke up) in the afternoon "tlhotse" (spent the day), and in the early morning "robetse" (slept) can be used.

Less Formal Greeting (singular)

A Dumela rra Hello Sir
B Dumela mma, o kae? Hello madam, how are you ? [literally "where are you"]
A Ke teng, wena o kae ? I am fine, how are you ?
B Ke teng I am fine

Less Formal Greeting (plural)

A Dumelang, le kae? / lo kae? Hello, how are you ? (plural)
B Re teng We are fine

Informal Greeting (singular)

A Wa reng ? What's up ? [literally "what do you say"]
B Sharpu OK

Goodbye

A (Go siame rra) sala sentle (OK sir) Goodbye [literally "stay well"]
B (Go siame mma) tsamaya sentle (OK madam) Goodbye [literally "leave well"]

Informal Goodbye

A Boroko mma Goodnight madam
B Robala sentle rra Sleep well sir
- Re tlaa bonana We will see each other

Vocabulary

dumela dumelang Hello/Good Morning/Afternoon
tsoga tsile wake/woke up
tlhola tlhotse spend/spent the day
robala robetse sleep/slept
sala - stay
tsamaya - leave/go
bonana - see each other
botoka - better
go siame - its OK/fine
sharpu - OK (slang)
jang ? - how
kae ? - where
boroko - good night
koko - knock-knock
teng - there/around/available
sentle - well/good