- Two ways of saying "Good Morning" have been mentioned here before. This is how they are different:
- "bwakeye?" comes from the verb "guca" meaning "to become morning." It has a neutral pronoun, so literally means "did it become morning?"
- "mwaramutse?" comes from the verb "kuramuka" meaning "to wake up."
Sneezing:
- When someone sneezes, a Kirundi speaker will say:
- kira -- be healed (the imparative form of "gukira" meaning "to get well" or "to get rich")
- The polite reply is:
- twese -- all of us
What brings you here?
- ugenzwa namaki? -- what brings you here?
- "kugenzwa" comes from "kugenda" meaning "to go"
- "amaki" comes from "amakuru" meaning "news"
I have no money:
- nta amafaranga ndafise -- no money | I have
- ("ntamafaranga ndafise")
- faranga -- money ("amafaranga" is plural)
- nta -- negation ("nta'mafaranga" = "no money")
- ndafise -- I have
See you another day:
- tuzosabira uwundi musi -- see you later | another | day
- "uwundi" is one of many words meaning "other", whose usage depends upon the type of thing...
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