What writing system does Swahili use?

Latin alphabet. Swahili was historically written in Arabic script (Swahili Ajami).

Is Stichos suitable for complete beginners with zero prior knowledge (A0)?

Yes. A0 is a primary focus, designed for readers with no prior knowledge. A1 then adds basic everyday vocabulary and simple connected clauses as your foundation grows.

Are Stichos levels the same as CEFR levels?

Not exactly. Stichos levels use the familiar CEFR names, from A0 to B2, and are modelled on the CEFR (the Common European Framework of Reference), so a Stichos B1 is meant to feel close to a B1 in your course book. They aren't an official CEFR rating, and different books and exams draw the lines in slightly different places. A0 is Stichos's own addition, just below the framework's first level.

Are the stories written by AI, and how accurate are they?

Yes. Stories are generated by AI and then checked by further automated steps against the grammar and vocabulary rules for your level. That catches most problems, but it isn't a human editor, so an occasional unnatural phrase or slip can get through. Treat Stichos as practice material, and check anything you're unsure of with a teacher or a reference.

Can I read stories with explanations in my native language?

Yes. Stichos allows you to pair any target language with any native support language. You can read a Croatian story with French glosses, or a German story with Spanish explanations.

How does word lookup work while reading?

Tap or click any word for its meaning in that sentence, explained in your own language. In the full version, you can save any word to your Vocab Bank for later review.

Is the preview free, and what happens to my email?

Yes. The preview is free and needs no account. If you join the Reading List, we use your email to send your 3 free sample stories (PDF, after you confirm your address) and to let you know when we fully open. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle it.

Do stories include audio or narration?

Story narration isn't part of the preview. At launch, the Premium Audio add-on reads every story aloud in a natural-sounding AI voice, in 39 of our 40 languages (Esperanto doesn't have audio support yet).

Read Your First Swahili Story

Explore a free beginner passage with line translations and tap-to-translate vocabulary.

Stichos creates live A0 and A1 stories with tap-to-translate words and line-by-line translations in English.

Maua ya Mama

Leo ni siku ya kuzaliwa ya mama.

Today is mother's birthday.

Danieli anapenda mama yake sana.

Danieli loves his mother very much.

Anataka kununua maua mazuri.

He wants to buy beautiful flowers.

Danieli anaenda soko la Kariakoo leo.

Danieli goes to Kariakoo market today.

Soko hili ni kubwa sana.

This market is very big.

Watu wengi wananunua vitu hapa.

Many people are buying things here.

Danieli anatafuta maua mazuri.

Danieli is looking for beautiful flowers.

Anaona maua ya waridi.

He sees roses.

Maua haya ni mekundu na mazuri sana.

These flowers are red and very beautiful.

Anapenda maua haya sana.

He likes these flowers a lot.

Anaona muuzaji wa maua.

He sees the flower seller.

Danieli anamsalimia muuzaji huyu.

Danieli greets this seller.

Danieli: Anasema, "Shikamoo bwana."

He says, "Shikamoo sir."

Muuzaji: Muuzaji anasema, "Marahaba."

The seller says, "Marahaba."

Danieli: Danieli anasema, "Naomba maua haya, tafadhali."

Danieli says, "I ask for these flowers, please."

Danieli: Anasema, "Naomba bei, tafadhali."

He says, "I ask for the price, please."

Muuzaji anataja bei ya maua.

The seller states the price of the flowers.

Bei ni shilingi elfu tano.

The price is five thousand shillings.

Danieli anatafuta pesa zake.

Danieli looks for his money.

Hapati pesa katika mfuko mmoja.

He does not get money in one pocket.

Anaona pesa katika mfuko mwingine.

He sees the money in another pocket.

Danieli anatoa pesa hizi.

Danieli takes out this money.

Danieli: Anasema, "Chukua pesa."

He says, "Take the money."

Muuzaji: Muuzaji anasema, "Asante."

The seller says, "Thank you."

Muuzaji: Muuzaji anasema, "Chukua maua haya."

The seller says, "Take these flowers."

Danieli: Danieli anasema, "Asante sana."

Danieli says, "Thank you very much."

Anabeba maua ya waridi.

He carries the roses.

Ananusa maua haya mazuri.

He smells these beautiful flowers.

Yanatoa harufu nzuri sana.

They give off a very nice smell.

Danieli anafurahi sana leo.

Danieli is very happy today.

Sasa anaenda nyumbani kwa mama yake.

Now he goes home to his mother.

Mama atapenda maua haya.

Mother will like these flowers.

Quick facts about Swahili

Speakers

Swahili is mostly a second language: about 5.3 million people speak it as a first language and about 92 million as a second language (Ethnologue estimates, 2019–2023).¹

Did you know?

Swahili is a Bantu language with many Arabic loanwords, and it is a working language of the African Union and the Southern African Development Community.¹

The main challenge

Noun classes: every noun belongs to a class marked by a prefix, such as m-/wa- for people (mtoto, watoto: child, children) or ki-/vi- for many things (kitabu, vitabu: book, books), and adjectives, pronouns and verbs agree with that class.¹

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language

About the Swahili language

Language family	Niger–Congo → Atlantic–Congo → Bantu → Northeast Coast Bantu → Sabaki; Guthrie code G.42–43¹
Speakers	Mostly a second language: about 5.3 million native speakers and about 92 million second-language speakers (Ethnologue estimates, 2019–2023). Estimates of the total vary widely by source, from about 50 to 200 million, but generally fall between 60 and 150 million.¹
Primary script	Latin alphabet. Swahili was historically written in Arabic script (Swahili Ajami).¹
Word order & typology	Agglutinative, with generally subject–verb–object order. Nouns fall into noun classes (numbered 1–11 and 14–18), and verbs, adjectives and demonstratives take prefixes that agree with them.²
Official status	Official in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, and a national language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An official language of the East African Community and a working language of the African Union and SADC.¹

Swahili reading proficiency benchmarks (CEFR)

Stichos level	Approximate framework equivalent	Reader profile
A0	Pre-A1	Early Beginner
A1	CEFR A1	Beginner
A2	CEFR A2	Elementary
B1	CEFR B1	Intermediate
B2	CEFR B2	Upper Intermediate

Stichos levels are modelled on the CEFR. No Swahili-specific proficiency scale with a published CEFR crosswalk was found, so the column shows CEFR levels only. They are a guide to reading difficulty, not an official CEFR rating.

Reference corpora

One large annotated collection of written Swahili is openly documented online.¹

Helsinki Corpus of Swahili 2.0: Books (fiction, plays, poetry and essays), news and parliamentary (Bunge) records from about 1952 to 2015, hosted by the Language Bank of Finland. The annotated version tags each word for part of speech, morphology (noun class, verb prefixes, tense and aspect markers) and syntactic function.¹
Standard Swahili: Stichos writes Swahili readers in Standard Swahili (Kiswahili Sanifu), which is based on the Zanzibar dialect (Kiunguja), and avoids urban slang (Sheng) and non-standard regional forms.²
BAKITA: Tanzania’s National Kiswahili Council (Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa), set up by an act of parliament in 1967, standardizes Swahili and approves new terminology.³^,4

Readability design principles

Readability measurement for Swahili is thin.

Kithinji and Kass (2010): Studying Kenyan research consent forms, the authors state that there are no readability formulas for Kiswahili. They used a cloze test instead (filling in every fifth word) and found that in seven of ten form pairs readers understood the English original better than the Kiswahili translation.¹
Stichos: Stichos sets difficulty with level-by-level grammar rules and sentence-length limits rather than a single readability score.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3131212/

Script & grammar scaffolding

Tense markers: A0 uses only the present marker -na-. A1 adds the past -li-, the future -ta-, the perfect -me- and basic negative forms. The habitual hu- and the subjunctive arrive at A2, the conditional -ki- and the narrative -ka- at B1, and the counterfactual -nge- at B2.
Building the verb: A Swahili verb stacks subject, tense, relative and object markers before the root, as in nilipokupikia (“when I cooked for you”). Object markers such as -m-, -wa- and -ki- open at A2, relative markers (-o-) at B1, and the relative word amba- at B2.
Verb extensions: Suffixes change a verb’s meaning. The passive extension comes in at B1; the applicative (-ia, -ea), causative (-sha, -za) and reciprocal (-ana) at B2.
Politeness: Beginner requests follow the pattern Naomba chai, tafadhali (“May I have tea, please”), and elders and strangers are greeted with respectful forms such as Shikamoo.

Related academic & framework resources

Helsinki Corpus of Swahili 2.0 (Kielipankki): The Language Bank of Finland’s page for the corpus, with its annotated version in the Korp concordance service.
BAKITA (Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa): Tanzania’s National Kiswahili Council, which standardizes terminology and publishes dictionaries and learning materials.
National Kiswahili Council Act (TANZLII): The 1967 act that established BAKITA, as published in Tanzania’s legal information database.
Assessing the Readability of Non-English-Language Consent Forms: The Case of Kiswahili for Research Conducted in Kenya: Caroline Kithinji and Nancy E. Kass, IRB: Ethics & Human Research 32(4), 2010.
Kiswahili Phonology and Pronunciation Guidelines: A guide to Standard Swahili phonology and pronunciation.

Frequently asked questions

What writing system does Swahili use?: Latin alphabet. Swahili was historically written in Arabic script (Swahili Ajami).
Is Stichos suitable for complete beginners with zero prior knowledge (A0)?: Yes. A0 is a primary focus, designed for readers with no prior knowledge. A1 then adds basic everyday vocabulary and simple connected clauses as your foundation grows.
Are Stichos levels the same as CEFR levels?: Not exactly. Stichos levels use the familiar CEFR names, from A0 to B2, and are modelled on the CEFR (the Common European Framework of Reference), so a Stichos B1 is meant to feel close to a B1 in your course book. They aren't an official CEFR rating, and different books and exams draw the lines in slightly different places. A0 is Stichos's own addition, just below the framework's first level.
Are the stories written by AI, and how accurate are they?: Yes. Stories are generated by AI and then checked by further automated steps against the grammar and vocabulary rules for your level. That catches most problems, but it isn't a human editor, so an occasional unnatural phrase or slip can get through. Treat Stichos as practice material, and check anything you're unsure of with a teacher or a reference.
Can I read stories with explanations in my native language?: Yes. Stichos allows you to pair any target language with any native support language. You can read a Croatian story with French glosses, or a German story with Spanish explanations.
How does word lookup work while reading?: Tap or click any word for its meaning in that sentence, explained in your own language. In the full version, you can save any word to your Vocab Bank for later review.
Is the preview free, and what happens to my email?: Yes. The preview is free and needs no account. If you join the Reading List, we use your email to send your 3 free sample stories (PDF, after you confirm your address) and to let you know when we fully open. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle it.
Do stories include audio or narration?: Story narration isn't part of the preview. At launch, the Premium Audio add-on reads every story aloud in a natural-sounding AI voice, in 39 of our 40 languages (Esperanto doesn't have audio support yet).

Teaching Swahili? See the tutor page →

Free Sample Readers · Stichos