City words turn a car ride or a walk to the shops into a Somali lesson. "Baska waa kaas" (there is the bus), "suuqa ayaan tagaynaa" (we are going to the market), "nalka taraafikada waa guduud" (the traffic light is red): three sentences, three words practised.
Tap a card for the meaning, examples and a native recording.
Many city words are shared with Arabic, Italian or English because cities themselves were where those languages met Somali: bas (bus), baabuur (car, also gaari), isbitaal (hospital). Others are old Somali: waddo (road), geed (tree), beer (garden or park, and also farm).
The ten words in this topic each have a picture and native audio, and they feed into the app's Heritage Hunt and Baadiyo Journey story games.
10 entries in the City topic, each with a picture, native-speaker audio and a quiz in the app.
Yes. Every entry on this page plays a recording by a Somali speaker; nothing is synthesized.
Tap each word to hear it, say it back together, then take the City quiz in the Luuqad app and play Baadiyo Journey.
Waddo, Dhismo, Geed, Baabuur, Bas, Nalka Taraafikada and more. Then take the quiz in the app.
