What's the Swahili alphabet like?

Here's the alphabet and how to pronounce it.

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• Letter
  Pronunciation
• Aa
  a as in far
• Bb
  be as in best
• Cc
  ch as in church
• Dd
  de as in desk
• Ee
  e as in bed
• Ff
  ef as in far
• Gg
  ge as in get
• Hh
  h as in hint
• Ii
  ee as in feel
• Jj
  je as in jelly
• Kk
  ka as in cup
• Ll
  le as in let
• Mm
  em as in men
• Nn
  en as in net
• Oo
  o as in ox
• Pp
  pe as in pen
• Rr
  re as in rep
• Ss
  se as in set
• Tt
  te as in take
• Uu
  oo as in cool
• Vv
  ve as in vet
• Ww
  we as in went
• Yy
  ye as in yet
• Zz
  ze as in zoo

• Consonant combination

  There are other letters in the language but they are not considered as separate letters of the alphabet:
  
  

   CH as in the word  chai, tea
  

   DH as in the word  dhahabu, gold, and similar to the 'th' sound in 'this', but not in 'think'
  

   GH as in the word  ghala, warehouse
  

   KH is mostly used in Arabic words, for example  kheri, luck, and is similar to the 'ch' sound in the Scottish word 'loch'
  

   NG' as in the word  ng’ombe, cow
  

   NG as in  ngapi, meaning how much
  

   NY as in  Kenya
  

   SH as in  shamba, farm
  

   TH as in  thamani, worth, similar to the 'th' sound in 'think'.

   

• Vowels and vowel combinations:

  Standard Swahili has five vowels:   a, e, i, o and u. These vowels are always pronounced the same, regardless of stress (see the examples above).

   

• Missing letters

  Even though Swahili uses the same alphabet as English, the letters Q and X are not used in Swahili.

   

• Email and website conventions

  When giving an email or website address the conventions are:
   @ kwa, at
   . nukta, dot
   / mkwaju, slash
   / kuunga, hyphen