Chichewa
Malawi's national language — gentle, melodic, and widely understood across the region.
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About Chichewa
Chichewa (also called Chinyanja) is the national language of Malawi and a major lingua franca across Zambia, Mozambique and parts of Zimbabwe. Roughly 14 million people speak it as a first or second language, and it is one of the most widely taught African languages in East African schools outside its home countries.
Chichewa is a Bantu language, non-tonal in most dialects, with a regular noun-class system and simple phonetic spelling. It is considered one of the more approachable African languages for English-speaking learners — a great bridge language for a child's first taste of the Bantu family.
The language carries a strong radio, music and gospel tradition, and its poetry (ndakatulo) is studied in Malawian schools alongside English literature.
'Muli bwanji?' — 'How are you?' — is answered with 'Ndili bwino', but the real answer is expected to branch into family, work and weather. Conversation, not efficiency, is the goal.
A handful of Chichewa to take away
These appear across our puzzles — every word in the app is paired with a translation and a spoken voice.
- •Pair Chichewa with Swahili if you're already learning it — the Bantu grammar logic transfers almost directly.
Pick a theme to play
Each theme gathers 40–80 words, phrases and idioms. Every puzzle type teaches the same vocabulary in a different way — children absorb the words faster because they meet them again and again from new angles.
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