Yoruba

One of West Africa's great literary and musical languages.

24 themes · 2 age tiers · puzzle library keeps growing

Speakers

Over 45 million first-language speakers

Where it's spoken

Southwestern Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and large diaspora communities across Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad, the UK and the US

Language family

Niger–Congo, Yoruboid branch

In the app

24 themes, 6 puzzle types, 2 age tiers

About Yoruba

Yoruba (Èdè Yorùbá) is one of the largest languages of West Africa, spoken natively by more than 45 million people and understood by many millions more across the African diaspora. It is the everyday language of southwestern Nigeria — Lagos, Ibadan, Ọṣogbo, Abeokuta and beyond — and a major cultural force through Nollywood, Afrobeats, Fuji and Juju music.

Yoruba is a tonal language with three basic pitch levels: high, mid and low. Tones are marked above vowels (á, a, à) and they carry genuine meaning — the same set of letters can mean very different things depending on tone. For this reason we always encourage children to listen to each word, not just read it.

The language has travelled far beyond West Africa. Through the Atlantic slave trade, Yoruba vocabulary, religion and music shaped the culture of Salvador in Brazil, Havana in Cuba, and Port of Spain in Trinidad. When your child learns Yoruba today, they are connecting with a linguistic family that spans three continents.

Proverbs (òwe) are the soul of Yoruba conversation. Even children's speech is peppered with short, poetic sayings — and learning a handful of them early is the quickest way to sound natural.

A handful of Yoruba to take away

These appear across our puzzles — every word in the app is paired with a translation and a spoken voice.

Ẹ kàárọ̀

Good morning

Ẹ kú àárọ̀

Good morning (respectful)

Ẹ ṣé

Thank you

Ọmọ

Child

Bàbá

Father

Ìyá

Mother

Tips from our editors

•Listen before you read. Yoruba tones are almost impossible to guess from spelling alone.
•Learn greetings by time of day — Yoruba has different words for morning, afternoon and evening.
•Match new words with a song lyric or a Nollywood line you already know.

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.