Read your first book in Swahili.
Short stories in Swahili that stay inside the words you know, with the meaning of any word a tap away and audio to read along to.
The shortest path to reading Swahili.
Vocabulary drills only take you so far. To learn to read Swahili you have to read Swahili, and that's where most learners stall. Native books are a wall. Children's books are written for children. Graded readers are dull.
ReadBilingual gives you short Swahilistories pitched at your level, set from the words you've learned or from a one-minute placement quiz. Tap any word to see what it means in that sentence. Press play to hear the story read aloud.
A reading level for every Swahili learner
Just starting
About 250 core words. One or two characters, a single place, simple actions.
Comfortable
About 800 core words. Multi-chapter stories with a small cast.
Conversational
About 2,000 core words. Dialogue and subplots. Full short stories.
Independent
About 4,000 core words. Idiom and regional voice. Novellas of 8 to 12 chapters.
Advanced
Fiction at native level, curated.
The classics
At C1 the rest of Swahili literature opens up. We'll point you at where to start.
Start reading Swahili today.
Coming soon to iOS and Android. Your first story will be five minutes away.
