Sounds, Tones and Special Letters
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Lesson overview
How Naija is written and pronounced: tones and special letters.
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Pacing
Read the stem stem-last (question clause first), eliminate two distractors, then verify constraints.
How Languages marks this
Focus on how Languages scenarios frame constraints, qualifiers ("FIRST", "BEST", "MOST likely"), and boundary cases.
Watch out for
Technically true statements that do not solve the specific constraint in the scenario.
Lesson content
Overview
Naija (Naijá, or Nigerian Pidgin) is spoken in every part of Nigeria, where it is the most widely shared everyday language. Before learning phrases, get to know how it sounds and how it is written.
How It's Written
Naija (Nigerian Pidgin) is an English-based language with words from Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Portuguese. It is written in the Latin alphabet, but its spelling is not standardised — you may see the same word spelt "wetin" or "wettin". Numbers and days of the week are the same as in English.
Examples
Here are some of the greetings you'll learn in the next lesson: • How far? — Hi / how is it going? • How you dey? — How are you? • Wetin dey happen? — What's happening? • Morning o — Good morning
Learning Tip
Naija is learned by ear: listen to Nigerian music, comedy and radio (BBC News Pidgin is a great start) and copy the rhythm. Don't worry about spelling — people write it in different ways.
Practise
Say every word aloud, then take the 10-question check below (60% to pass) to unlock the next lesson. Stuck? Ask the AI tutor about this lesson. This course is in beta: it sticks to common, everyday language, but it has not yet been reviewed by native speakers, and many phrases have regional variants. If something looks wrong, please tell us.
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