Sounds, Tones and Special Letters
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Lesson overview
How Zulu 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
Zulu (isiZulu) is spoken in South Africa, where it is the most widely spoken home language. Before learning phrases, get to know how it sounds and how it is written.
How It's Written
Zulu is written in the Latin alphabet. It has three click sounds, written c, q and x, and it is tonal, though tones are not marked in writing. Nouns start with class prefixes — the language itself is isiZulu.
Examples
Look closely at the marks in these greetings — you'll learn them in the next lesson: • Sawubona — Hello (to one person) • Sanibonani — Hello (to several people) • Unjani? — How are you? • Wamukelekile — Welcome
Learning Tip
Always learn a word together with its marks. Leaving them out can change the pronunciation — and in a tonal language, sometimes the meaning.
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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