Help...with Swahili.. please..

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girlaboutworld
girlaboutworld

Ok, actually I'm quite shy.. I spent ages looking on the internet for this but apart from the usual online translators...

Basically please can someone translate this for me please.. preferably in a way that's easy to pronounce...

''When are you going to ask me on a date?''

Or ''When are you going to ask me out to dinner?''

Or anything along those lines the easier to pronounce the better.

God this is all so embarrassing, I think he's shyer than I am, although I'm 90% sure he likes me (we work together) eek, see I'm all a muddle I'm dying on the spot just writing this.

His English is great but for some bizzare reason I think I might feel safer asking it in his own language as then I can pretend it's not really happening..

Please can anyone help?

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bjd
bjd

Google translate gives "Wakati ni wewe kwenda kuuliza mimi kwa sasa?" for "when are you going to ask me on a date?". I can't judge its accuracy, but if you go to Google translate, it will also give the pronunciation.

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zashibis
zashibis

Hmmm. Trying to speak a language you don't know how to speak sounds like a truly excellent way to make a (potentially) awkward moment a great deal more awkward. First, stuttering attempts to speak a new language are often very difficult to understand, so I'd wager the most likely response to your query would be a puzzled "Huh?" It'd be amusing if he did understand, though...and then responded in Swahili!

We don't usually dispense Agony Aunt advice hereabouts, but if you're at home in the UK why not just make the first move yourself rather than trying to force his hand? It's 2012, at last report, not 1952.

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girlaboutworld
girlaboutworld

#2 he has an excellent sense of humor and would be pretty flattered ;) Also I'm not in the UK. In some strange way making something awkward being even more awkward brings it full cycle to just being funny.

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tonyk
tonyk

Go for it, girl! I think it's an excellent idea. I can't help you with the Swahili though.

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vinnyd
vinnyd

Your profile says UK, girlaboutworld.

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tonyk
tonyk

profile, schmofile.

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girlaboutworld
girlaboutworld

Whoops, but please bear in mind I still have a Christmas photo as my avatar... stopped using TT before christmas, but have come back on a bit now, mainly for travel but this was a bit different ;)))

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dianahaddad
dianahaddad

I know less than rudimentary Swahili, but I do have a textbook to refer to. I feel like this should be correct, based on what I found:

Wakati ni utanialika kwa chakula cha jioni?

although google is translating that verb as passive. The textbook happens to show an example of "invite" in the passive and it's with a W (-alikwa) so I think the above is actually active. Google is also making "you" the person who is invited, though I confirmed in the textbook that the -ni- in "utanialika" is for "me."

I hope a Swahili speaker will come along and set us all straight on this question.

Keep us posted! Bahati njema.

Edited by: DianaHaddad

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