au
conjunction
Or; joins alternatives.
Put au between two choices, such as chai au kahawa, tea or coffee.
Origins
Au comes from Arabic أَوْ (ˀau), “or”. The borrowing belongs to Swahili’s pre-modern vocabulary, and the word joins alternatives in Swahili.
Sources4
Thilo C. Schadeberg, World Loanword Database: Swahili donor record (2009), au, page 459.
Au comes from Arabic أَوْ (ˀau), “or”. The borrowing belongs to Swahili’s pre-modern vocabulary, and the word joins alternatives in Swahili.
Haspelmath and Tadmor / Lexibank, World Loanword Database CLDF (2009), wold-master/cldf/forms.csv row 50866; wold-master/raw/db/unit.csv row 50807.
Au comes from Arabic أَوْ (ˀau), “or”. The borrowing belongs to Swahili’s pre-modern vocabulary, and the word joins alternatives in Swahili.
Cairo Arabic Language Academy, المعجم الوسيط, au, page 1.
Au comes from Arabic أَوْ (ˀau), “or”. The borrowing belongs to Swahili’s pre-modern vocabulary, and the word joins alternatives in Swahili.
Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas, Kiswahili Glossary, Glossary: au.
Or; joins alternatives. Put au between two choices, such as chai au kahawa, tea or coffee.
Examples
Unataka chai au kahawa?
Would you like tea or coffee?
Tutaenda leo au kesho?
Will we go today or tomorrow?
Unalipa kwa pesa au kwa kadi?
Are you paying with cash or by card?
Tukutane hapa au hotelini.
Let’s meet here or at the hotel.
Chagua samaki au kuku.
Choose fish or chicken.
Atakuja Amina au Juma.
Amina or Juma will come.
Unataka maji baridi au ya moto?
Would you like cold or hot water?
Tunaweza kutembea au kupanda basi.
We can walk or take a bus.
Nipigie simu au nitumie ujumbe.
Call me or send me a message.
