Free Swahili learning resources
11 free resources, checked and categorised.
Every link is usable without paying. Some ask for a free account or keep extras behind a paid tier, and those are labelled.
Everything below is usable without paying; where a resource asks for a free account or keeps extras behind a paid tier, the row says so. The list covers the main ways people study Swahili: structured courses to build a foundation, dictionaries to look things up, and listening and reading material to spend real time in the language. Start with one course and one dictionary, then add listening once you can follow simple sentences.
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A Swahili Textbook for American spies. A bit old, but very exhaustive.
Swahili educational reference with phrases, numbers, online dictionaries, illustrated vocabulary, proverbs, dialogues, graded exercises, games, and country profile quizzes
Free Swahili grammar and vocabulary lessons with sections on nouns, verbs, pronouns, questions, reading, translation, dictionary, audio, video, radio, and exercises
Video and audio Swahili lessons for learning to speak, read, write, and understand the language, with some free account access mentioned
Online Swahili verb conjugator where you enter an infinitive to see conjugated forms for individual verbs
WordPress blog with Swahili lessons, grammar notes, and short quizzes on greetings, dates, pronouns, tense, and travel situations
Department resource page linking to Swahili grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, cultural materials, dictionaries, and external course and media sites
Grammar cheat sheet summarizing Swahili noun classes, with tables of class patterns, examples, and notes on using them in sentences; downloadable as a PDF
YouTube video lesson explaining Swahili vowels with pronunciation examples for each letter
Learn it there, practise it here
Free resources are great for input: reading, listening, explanations. They are weaker at the two things that actually move you forward: speaking Swahili out loud, and remembering what you met once. That is what OwnSlides is for.
Say it out loud
Talk to an AI tutor that answers back, or get matched with other learners and native speakers for a text chat.
Practise what you read
Turn a grammar point or article into exercises, so it moves from recognised to usable.
Keep the words
Save new words to My Words and let spaced repetition bring them back before you forget them.
This directory began from a community-built list of free language resources, a year of collecting and checking by Joanna (u/chlebka) and dozens of contributors who suggested links, shared freely. See the original list. We have since expanded, re-checked and re-categorised it, and we keep the per-resource credits where the original list recorded them.