Essential Expressions

Basic Bambara chapters are primarily focused on grammar. This chapter is slightly different because its point of departure is vocabulary.

This is because there are a few words and expressions though that are essential if you want to start to be functional in the most basic way.

You need to know equivalents of the following English words and expressions so that you can at least muster a response in any situation:

• Yes
• No
• Ok
• Come again?—in case you need someone to repeat what they said
• I don't understand—for when you aren't sure how to answer
• Excuse me—so you can apologize for not understanding

After that, I'll introduce a few additional expressions that you'll likely either hear or want to use in a classroom setting!

"Yes"

I'm going to give you two ways of saying "yes": one is more Bambara and one is more Jula, but they are both understood and used everywhere.

First, the typical Bambara form which is ɔwɔ. Go ahead and say it if you want: ɔwɔ. Sometimes you might hear it pronounced or written with an a at the beginning too: awɔ. The two are interchangeable so go ahead and use whichever one is easiest for you.

The more typical Jula form is ɔnhɔn. So, again, go ahead and say it if you want: ɔnhɔn. Sometimes its pronunciation can vary a bit too; for instance, with a bit more of an h sound.

"No"

The other half of ɔnhɔn and ɔwɔ is of course, "no", and in this case you've got two options again: one is a bit more Bambara and one is a bit more Jula.

First, the typical Bambara form is ayi. Go ahead and say it if you want: ayi.

The other form, which is more typically Jula, but works just as well even with Bambara speakers is ɔn-ɔn. Go ahead and say it if you want: ɔn-ɔn.

"Ok"

The next essential word is ayiwa.

It can generally can be translated as 'ok' or 'alright' and you can use it both to acknowledge something someone has said to you AND as a filler word when making transitions in conversation.

Go ahead and say it if you want: ayiwa

"Come again?"

For some English speakers, "Come again?" is a bit formal, but it's a simple way to translate an abbreviated expression that you can use if you aren't sure what someone has said and that is: ko di?

So if you hear someone say something and it sounds like ???? to you, you can ask them to repeat by saying ko di?

This expression is made up of two words that we can roughly translate for our purposes here as:

Ko + di ?
say + how/what ?

If we fudge things a little bit then, we could almost think of this expression as being the same as the informal English expression, "Say what?" It's not that informal sounding by any means in Manding though so use it freely whenever you aren't sure what someone has said and you need it repeated.

"I don't understand"

Ok, so at this stage you often obviously aren't going to understand everything that people say. How can you acknowledge this instead of just inappropriately repeating ayi, ɔn-ɔn or ko di? over and over again?

You should memorize and use the expression N m'à faamu, which means 'I don't understand'. For now, you don't need to understand the grammar of the whole phrase, but here it is roughly translated:

N + ma + à + faamu
I + have.not + it + understood

So, more literally, this expression means something closer to 'I haven't understood', but it is generally used similarly to the way that we'd say "I don't understand" in English.

"Excuse me"

Alright, so you managed to say "yes", "no", "come again" before acknowledging that you haven't understood; how do you apologize? You can use the expression hakɛto, which contextually can be translated as, "Excuse me".

Literally it comes from an expression that means "Leave or let alone the sin":

hakɛ + to
sin + leave

But don't read too literally into it—you can think of it as simply a nice way to say "Excuse me".

► Student expressions

In addition to the above, there are few additional expressions that can be helpful when you are starting out as a new student of Bambara.

"I understand"

While you might often be lost, sometimes, you'll want to confirm that you do follow what is going on. In this case you can use: N y'à faamu.

Literally this translates as something close to 'I have understood it':

N + ye +à + faamu
I + have + it + understood

In terms of usage though, it lines up very closely with the English phrase, "I understand."

"I don't know"

Other times, you won't be lost, but you won't have the answer in your head. In this case you can say: N m'à dɔn.

It literally translates to something like 'I have not known it':

N + ma + à + dɔn
I + have.not + it + known

But it generally lines up with the English idea of "I don't know" (as in, "I understand, but I don't have the information necessary to respond")

"How do you say [...] ?"

When you aren't sure of how to say a particular English word in Bambara, it's always best to ask, well, in Bambara! To do so, you can say [...] bɛ fɔ di?

Literally, this expression translates to something like 'How is [...] said?':

[...] + bɛ + fɔ + di ?
[...] + is + said + how ?

But you can generally think of it as equivalent to the English expression "How do you say [...] (in Bambara)?"

You can also optionally add bamanankan na ('in Bambara') to the end of sentence if you want it to be more precise:

[...] bɛ fɔ di bamanankan na?

'How is [...] said in Bambara?'

For instance:

–"Morning" bɛ fɔ di (bamanankan na)?
– "Morning" bɛ fɔ ko 'sɔgɔma' (bamanankan na)

– How does one say "morning" (in Bambara)?
– "Morning" is said 'sɔgɔma' (in Bambara).

"What does [...] mean?"

If, on the other hand, you hear a Bambara word and you aren't sure of what it means, you can use [...] kɔrɔ ko di?

This expression translates literally to something like 'The meaning of [...] is said how?'

[...] + kɔrɔ + ko + di ?
[...] + meaning + is/said + how ?

But you can use it as the equivalent of "What does [...] mean?" in English. For instance:

– "Sɔgɔma" kɔrɔ ko di?
– "Sɔgɔma" kɔrɔ ko 'morning.'

– What is the meaning of "sɔgɔma"?
– The meaning of "sɔgɔma" is 'morning'

► Teacher expressions

Finally, there's a few other useful expressions that you might hear in a Bambara classroom environment.

"Look/watch"

When the teacher wants to draw your attention to something so that you look at or watch something, you may hear the expression [...] filɛ. For instance:

Nin filɛ!

'Look at this!'

(or, 'Watch this!')

"Listen"

If the teacher wants you to listen to something, you may hear the expression [...] lamɛn. For instance:

Dɔnkili lamɛn!

'Listen to the song!'

"Read it"

Should the teacher want you to read something, you'll likely hear [...] kalan. For instance:

Kitabu kalan!

'Read the book'

"Say it"

When you need to say something out loud, you'll likely hear [...] fɔ. For instance:

À fɔ!

'Say it!'

"Repeat"

If you need to repeat or do something over again, the teacher may use the expression Segin à kan (lit. 'Come back on it'). For instance:

Ko di? Segin à kan.

'Come again? Repeat it.'

"Precisely!"

When you answer correctly, you'll often hear a teacher confirm your answer as correct with the exclamation jaati, which we can translate as 'precisely' or 'exactly'.

"Good!"

And finally, when you've aced some activity or lesson, you'll likely hear something like O ka ɲi, which literally means 'That is good'.

Summary

To be a functional beginner speaker of Bambara before we go deeper into Manding grammar, it's helpful to not only master what we've already covered in Basic Bambara, but also a few essential words and phrases that we've reviewed here:

Bambara	English
ɔwɔ; awɔ / ɔnhɔn	yes
ayi / ɔn-ɔn	no
ayiwa	ok
Ko di?	Come again?
Hakɛto	Excuse me
N m'à faamu	I don't understand
N y'à faamu	I understand
N m'à dɔn	I don't know
[...] bɛ fɔ di?	How do you say [...]?
[...] kɔrɔ ko di?	What does [...] mean?
[...] filɛ	Look at / Watch [...]
[...] lamɛn	Listen to [...]
[...] kalan	Read [...]
[...] fɔ	Say [...]
Segin à kan	Repeat it
Jaati	Precisely
O ka ɲi	That's good