Time in Swahili

How to tell the time in Swahili (Kiswahili), a Bantu language spoken in much of east Africa.

Telling the time | Days of the week | Months of the year | Seasons

Note: in the Swahili-speaking world, daytime runs from sunrise (6am) to sunset (6pm), so saa moja asubuhi ("the first hour of the morning") is equivalent to 7am elsewhere.

365-14: Swahili Time

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English Swahili
What time is it? Ni saa ngapi?
06:00 Saa Kumi na mbili asubuhi (12:00 in the morning)
07:00 Saa moja asubuhi (1:00 in the morning)
08:00 Saa mbili asubuhi (2:00 in the morning)
09:00 Saa tatu asubuhi (3:00 in the morning)
10:00 Saa nne asubuhi (4:00 in the morning)
11:00 Saa tano asubuhi (5:00 in the morning)
12:00 Saa sita mchana (6:00 in the afternoon)
13:00 Saa saba mchana (7:00 in the afternoon)
14:00 Saa nana mchana (8:00 in the afternoon)
15:00 Saa tisa mchana (9:00 in the afternoon)
16:00 Saa kumi jioni (10:00 in the evening
17:00 Saa kumi na moja jioni (11:00 in the evening)
18:00 Saa kumi na mbili jioni (12:00 in the evening)
19:00 Saa moja usiku (1:00 in the night)
20:00 Saa mbili usiku (2:00 in the night)
21:00 Saa tatu usiku (3:00 in the night)
22:00 Saa nne usiku (4:00 in the night)
23:00 Saa tano usiku (5:00 in the night)
00:00 (midnight) Saa sita usiku (6:00 in the night)
01:00 Saa saba usiku (7:00 in the night)
02:00 Saa nane usiku (8:00 in the night)
03:00 Saa tisa usiku (9:00 in the night)
04:00 Saa kumi asubuhi (10:00 in the morning)
05:00 Saa kumi na moja asubuhi (11:00 in the morning)
09:45 Saa nne kasorobo
11:30 Saa tano unusu, Sano tano na nusu
10:15 Saa nne na robo
12:15 Saa sita na dakika kumi na tano
in the morning (06:00-11:59) asubuhi
in the afternoon (12:00-16:59) mchana
in the evening (17:00-18:59) jioni
at night (19:00-05:59) usiku

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Hear how to tell the time in Swahili:

Days of the week

Monday jumatatu
Tuesday jumanne
Wednesday jumatano
Thursday alhamisi
Friday ijumaa
Saturday jumamosi
Sunday jumapili

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Months of the year

January januari
February februari
March machi
April aprili
May mei
June juni
July julai
August agosti
September septemba
October oktoba
November novemba
December desemba

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Seasons

Spring bamvua
Summer kiangazi
Autumn/Fall demani
Winter majira ya baridi

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If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.

Information about telling the time in Swahili

https://www.swahilipod101.com/blog/2020/07/31/telling-time-in-swahili/
https://www.spokenswahili.com/blog/telling-the-time-in-swahili/

Information about Swahili | Phrases | Numbers | Time | Tower of Babel | Books about Swahili on: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk [affilate links]

Time expressions

Days of the week | Months of the year | Seasons | Telling the Time | Dates

Multilingual pages

Useful phrases | Silly phrases | Numbers | Numerals | Colours | Telling the time | Dates | Weather words | Family words | Terms of endearment | Language names | Country names | Idioms | Proverbs | Tongue twisters | Signs | Compass directions | UDHR | Tower of Babel | Songs | Omniglot | Seven dwarfs | Zodiac signs | Computer parts | Compass directions | Animal sounds

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