🇧🇼Setswana (Tswana) for English speakers

1. Setswana and its world

Setswana (Tswana) is a Bantu language of the Sotho-Tswana group — the dominant national language of Botswana, an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe, and a recognized minority language in Namibia.¹² Counting first- and second-language speakers, well over eight million people use it: about 4.1 million L1 speakers in South Africa (over 70% of North West Province), more than a million in Botswana, and millions more as an L2.² It is closely related to Sesotho and Sepedi — learn one Sotho-Tswana language and the other two open like adjacent doors.¹²

Setswana also carries one of southern Africa's proudest literary histories: Robert Moffat's 1857 Setswana Bible was among the first complete Bibles in any African language, and Sol T. Plaatje — journalist, founding member of the ANC, and Setswana's great man of letters — translated Shakespeare into the language a century ago.⁶ Today it is the language of Botswana's kgotla democracy, of motswako hip-hop, and of a living broadcast and print culture.

Setswana ke puo ya Batswana. E buiwa kwa Botswana, kwa Aforika Borwa le kwa Zimbabwe. Batho ba le bantsi ba bua Setswana malatsi otlhe: kwa gae, kwa kgotleng, mo marekisetsong le mo dikolong. Fa o ithuta Setswana, o tla utlwa botho jwa batho ba Botswana le Aforika Borwa — gonne puo ke selotlolo sa pelo.

English: Setswana is the language of the Batswana. It is spoken in Botswana, in South Africa and in Zimbabwe. Many people speak Setswana every day: at home, at the kgotla, in the markets and in the schools. If you learn Setswana, you will hear the botho (humanity) of the people of Botswana and South Africa — for a language is the key to the heart.

Why learn Setswana as an English speaker?

• The noun-class system — the heart of Bantu grammar — is transparent here: unlike European grammatical gender, a Setswana noun's class is reliably visible in its prefix (mo-tho "person," ba-tho "people"), so agreement is learnable by pattern, not memorization.³⁵
• Pronunciation is friendly: a compact vowel set, fixed penultimate stress, and consonants that — with a few glorious exceptions like tlh and kg — map closely onto English.²⁴
• It is the single most useful language for Botswana, where English handles offices but Setswana handles life — and one of South Africa's twelve official languages.¹²
• Two tones only (high and low) — a gentle introduction to tone languages, with famous minimal pairs to keep you honest.²⁴

What to expect

Setswana is agglutinative in its verbs (chains of prefixes and suffixes around a root) and classifying in its nouns (every noun belongs to a class; its class drives agreement across the sentence). Word order is subject–verb–object like English, but the subject is always echoed by a concord on the verb: Bana ba bua "The children they-speak." Tone is real but unwritten: o bua Setswana with a high-toned ó means "he speaks Setswana," with low o it means "you speak Setswana" — context and ear carry you.²⁴

2. Sounds and spelling

• Stress always lands on the second-to-last syllable and lengthens it: mosadi "woman" is [mʊ̀ˈsáːdì]. Add a suffix and the stress moves with it.²⁴
• The letter d is the sound of l before i and u — Setswana [d] and [l] are one phoneme in disguise.²⁴
• Two tones, high and low, unwritten. A high tone spreads rightward onto following syllables: simolola "begin" is pronounced símʊ́lʊ́la.²⁴
• A curiosity you can deploy at parties: Setswana has three click consonants — but only in interjections and ideophones, like qô-qô for knocking (now usually ko-ko) and the annoyed click written x-x. No ordinary word requires a click.²⁴

3. First words: the greeting ritual

Tswana culture is a greeting culture — walking past someone without dumela is genuinely rude. The morning classic asks how you woke:

— Dumela, rra! O tsogile jang? — Ke tsogile sentle, mma. Wena o tsogile jang? — Le nna ke tsogile sentle. Ke a leboga. — Go siame. Tsamaya sentle! — Sala sentle!

English: — Hello, sir! How did you wake? — I woke well, madam. And how did you wake? — I too woke well. Thank you. — All right. Go well! — Stay well! (The leaver is told "go well," the stayer "stay well.")

The flashcard deck at the top of this page holds all 348 words and phrases of this guide, and the identical list downloads as CSV, TSV, or an Anki .apkg — the same rows as the full table on the Setswana vocabulary page.

• Setswana vocabulary — full 348-word table + SRS trainer — The complete deck as a browsable table, with CSV / TSV / Anki / .apkg downloads.

4. Concords: the engine of the sentence

Every Setswana verb starts with a subject concord — a little prefix agreeing with the subject. For people, learn these and you can talk all day:

Two workhorse patterns join the concords: the plain present (Ke bua Setswana "I speak Setswana") and the present with -a- when the verb ends the sentence: Ke a bua "I am speaking / I do speak." The infinitive is go + stem — go bua "to speak," go ja "to eat" — and doubles as the class-15 verbal noun ("speaking").³⁵

Saying no

Negation wraps the verb in ga … and shifts the final vowel to -e: Ke a itse → Ga ke itse "I don't know"; O bua → Ga a bue "he doesn't speak." The perfect negates with its own pattern — Ke lapile "I'm tired" but Ga ke a lapa "I'm not tired," not the expected *Ga ke lapile: a genuine, attested trap that catches every learner.⁵

Practice reader — A1 story: Ke nna Mpho (I am Mpho)

Dumelang! Leina la me ke Mpho. Ke Motswana. Ke nna kwa Botswana, mo motseng o monnye. Ke na le rre le mme. Rre ke molemi. O lema mmidi le mabele. Mme o apaya bogobe le morogo. Ke na le nnake. Leina la gagwe ke Neo. Neo o rata go tshameka. Le nna ke rata go tshameka, mme ke rata go bala dibuka thata. Mo motseng wa rona go na le sekolo, kereke le kgotla.

English: Hello! My name is Mpho. I am a Motswana. I live in Botswana, in a small village. I have a father and a mother. My father is a farmer. He grows maize and sorghum. My mother cooks porridge and greens. I have a little sibling. Her name is Neo. Neo likes to play. I also like to play, but I like reading books most. In our village there is a school, a church and a kgotla.

Re na le diruiwa: dikgomo, dipodi le dikoko. Dikgomo di kwa morakeng le rremogolo. Ntša ya rona e bidiwa Thebe. Thebe o rata bana. O taboga le rona letsatsi lotlhe. Katse ya rona e bidiwa Pusi. Pusi o rata mashi le go robala mo letsatsing. Mo mosong, ke tsoga phakela. Ke tlhapa, ke ja bogobe, ke nwa tee. Ke tsamaya go ya sekolong le Neo. Kwa sekolong re ithuta Setswana, Sekgoa le dipalo. Morutabana wa rona o pelonomi. O re ruta dipina tsa Setswana.

English: We have livestock: cattle, goats and chickens. The cattle are at the cattle post with grandfather. Our dog is called Thebe. Thebe loves children. He runs with us every day. Our cat is called Pusi. Pusi loves milk and sleeping in the sun. In the morning, I wake early. I wash, I eat porridge, I drink tea. I walk to school with Neo. At school we learn Setswana, English and arithmetic. Our teacher is kind-hearted. She teaches us Setswana songs.

Maitseboa, re ja dijo tsa maitseboa mmogo. Morago ga dijo, nkoko o re bolelela dinnaane. Dinnaane tsa gagwe di monate thata! Di bua ka tau, phokoje le kgomo. Neo o tshega thata. Bosigo, ke robala sentle. Fa pula e na, batho botlhe ba itumela. Ba re: "Pula! Pula!" Gonne mo lefatsheng la rona, pula ke lesego le botshelo. Ke rata motse wa me, ke rata batho ba me, ke rata Setswana!

English: In the evening, we eat supper together. After the food, grandmother tells us folktales. Her tales are very sweet! They speak of the lion, the jackal and the cow. Neo laughs a lot. At night, I sleep well. When the rain falls, all the people rejoice. They say: "Pula! Pula!" Because in our land, rain is luck and life. I love my village, I love my people, I love Setswana!

5. The noun-class system: Setswana's filing cabinet

Every Setswana noun carries a class prefix, and the classes come in singular/plural pairs. The classic description (Cole 1955) groups them like this:³

Two comforts. First, the prefix is visible — you can usually read a noun's class straight off the word, which is why the Peace Corps manual praises Setswana's system as more transparent than European gender (its example: German Mädchen "girl" is neuter, while Setswana mosetsana sits predictably in the person-class).³⁵ Second, the classes power everything else: possessives (buka ya me "my book," bana ba me "my children"), demonstratives, and the verb concords you already know — o for class 1, ba for class 2, e for class 9, di for class 10: Kgomo e a fula "the cow grazes"; Dikgomo di a fula "the cows graze."

Setswana se na le melao e e phepa: leina lengwe le lengwe le na le setlhopha sa lone. Fa o itse setlhopha, o itse gotlhe: o itse leemedi, o itse kgolagano, o itse popego ya polelo. Bona: motho o a bua; batho ba a bua; kgomo e a fula; dikgomo di a fula. Molao o le mongwe fela — mme dipuo tsotlhe tsa Sotho-Tswana di dira ka one mokgwa o.

English: Setswana has clean rules: every single noun has its class. If you know the class, you know everything: you know the pronoun, you know the agreement, you know the shape of the sentence. Look: the person speaks; the people speak; the cow grazes; the cows graze. Just one rule — and all the Sotho-Tswana languages work this same way.

Possession by concord

"Of" changes shape with the possessed noun's class: wa (cl. 1/3), ba (cl. 2), ya (cl. 4/9), la (cl. 5), a (cl. 6), sa (cl. 7), tsa (cl. 8/10), jwa (cl. 14), ga (names/places). So: ngwana wa me "my child," bana ba me "my children," ntlo ya me "my house," leina la me "my name," Setswana sa rona "our Setswana," dikgomo tsa rremogolo "grandfather's cattle."

6. Moving through time

The perfect in -ile is your friend for states: lapile "tired," itumetse "glad" (from itumela), tsogile "awake." Some verbs shift consonants before -ile (ja → jele "ate") — learn the common ones as vocabulary.³⁵

Question words

Practice reader — A2 story: Kwa morakeng (At the cattle post)

Ka Matlhatso a a fetileng, nna le Neo re ile kwa morakeng go etela rremogolo. Re tsogile phakela, re jele bogobe, mme re tsamaile ka koloi ya ga malome. Tsela e ne e le telele. Re bone dithaba, sekgwa le diphologolo: ditshephe, diphuti le dinonyane tse dintsi. Neo o boditse malome: "Malome, a re tla bona ditau?" Malome o tshegile a re: "Nnyaa, ngwanaka. Ditau di kgakala. Kwa morakeng go na le dikgomo fela."

English: Last Saturday, Neo and I went to the cattle post to visit grandfather. We got up early, ate porridge, and travelled in uncle's car. The road was long. We saw hills, bush and animals: springbok, duikers and many birds. Neo asked uncle: "Uncle, will we see lions?" Uncle laughed and said: "No, my child. The lions are far away. At the cattle post there are only cattle."

Kwa morakeng, rremogolo o ne a re emetse. Re mo dumedisitse: "Dumela, rremogolo! O tsogile jang?" A araba: "Ke tsogile sentle, bana ba me. Tlang, ke lo bontshe dikgomo." Dikgomo tsa gagwe di dintsi e bile di dintle. O di itse ka maina: Kgantsang, Thamane, Seabelo. Rremogolo o re rutile go gama kgomo. Neo o lekile — mashi a tshologile! Rotlhe re tshegile thata. Motshegare re jele seswaa le bogobe. Rremogolo o boleletse dinnaane tsa bogologolo: ka dikgomo tsa ga rraagwemogolo, le ka phokoje yo o botlhale.

English: At the cattle post, grandfather was waiting for us. We greeted him: "Hello, grandfather! How did you wake?" He answered: "I woke well, my children. Come, let me show you the cattle." His cattle are many and beautiful. He knows them by name: Kgantsang, Thamane, Seabelo. Grandfather taught us to milk a cow. Neo tried — the milk spilled! We all laughed a lot. At midday we ate seswaa and porridge. Grandfather told tales of long ago: about his own grandfather's cattle, and about the clever jackal.

Maitseboa, loapi lo ne lo le lontle. Re bone dinaledi tse dintsi — kwa morakeng ga go na mabone a toropo. Rremogolo o rile: "Bana ba me, dikgomo ke botshelo jwa Motswana. Mme se se botlhokwa go feta dikgomo ke botho. Motho ke motho ka batho." Ke gopotse mafoko ao. Mo mosong, re boetse gae. Ke ne ke lapile, mme pelo ya me e ne e itumetse. Ke tla boela kwa morakeng ngwaga o o tlang — le nna ke tla ithuta go gama sentle!

English: In the evening, the sky was beautiful. We saw many stars — at the cattle post there are no town lights. Grandfather said: "My children, cattle are the life of a Motswana. But what matters more than cattle is botho — humanity. A person is a person through people." I remembered those words. In the morning, we returned home. I was tired, but my heart was glad. I will go back to the cattle post next year — and I too will learn to milk properly!

7. Objects, places, and "there is"

Object concords slot between subject-marker and verb: Ke a go rata "I love you"; Ke a mo itse "I know him/her"; O a e reka "he buys it (the cow, class 9)." The reflexive is i-, hiding inside verbs you already use: go ithuta "to learn" is literally "to teach oneself" (i- + ruta, with a sound shift). Setswana derives constantly — learn to see the seams.

• Locatives: the suffix -ng puts you at a place — sekolo "school" → sekolong "at school," ntlo → ntlong — usually with kwa (yonder), mo (in/at), or fa (near): mo ntlong "in the house," kwa toropong "in town," fa gae "at home."³
• Existence: go na le … "there is/are": Mo motseng go na le sekolo "In the village there is a school." Negative: ga go na … "there isn't."
• "Can": ka — Nka go thusa "I can help you"; with se it makes the negative future: Nka se ye "I won't go."
• Subjunctive: A re ye! "Let's go!" — the mood of suggestions, purposes and polite instructions.

Mo Setswaneng, lediri le tshwara dilo di le dintsi ka nako e le nngwe: leemedi la modiri, leemedi la sediriwa, nako le tiro. Bona: Ke-a-go-rata — "nna, wena, lorato" mo lefokong le le lengwe fela. Fa o ithuta go bona dikarolo tse, Setswana ga se thata: se na le thulaganyo e e phepa jaaka dipalo.

English: In Setswana, the verb holds many things at once: the doer's marker, the object's marker, the time and the action. Look: Ke-a-go-rata — "I, you, love" in one single word. Once you learn to see these parts, Setswana is not hard: it has an arrangement as clean as arithmetic.

Practice reader — B1 story: Loeto lwa Gaborone (The journey to Gaborone)

Ka kgwedi ya Phukwi, ke ne ka ya kwa Gaborone la ntlha. Mme o ne a mpolelela: "Mpho, o tla ya le rakgadi. O tla bona toropokgolo." Ke ne ke itumetse thata! Re tsamaile ka bese. Mo tseleng, ke bone masimo, meraka le metse e mennye. Fa re fitlha kwa Gaborone, ke gakgametse: matlo a magolo, dikoloi tse dintsi, batho ba ba tabogang gongwe le gongwe. Rakgadi o ntshwere ka seatla a re: "Se tshabe, ngwanaka. Toropo e kgolo, mme batho ke batho fela."

English: In the month of July, I went to Gaborone for the first time. Mother told me: "Mpho, you will go with your aunt. You will see the capital city." I was very happy! We travelled by bus. On the way, I saw fields, cattle posts and small villages. When we arrived in Gaborone, I was amazed: big buildings, many cars, people hurrying everywhere. My aunt took me by the hand and said: "Don't be afraid, my child. The city is big, but people are just people."

Re ile kwa mabenkeleng a magolo. Rakgadi o rekile diaparo le dijo. Nna ke rekile buka ya dinnaane tsa Setswana ka tšhelete e mme a e nneileng. Motshegare, re jele nama le merogo, ra nwa namune. Morago, re etetse tsala ya ga rakgadi. Leina la gagwe ke Mma Kelebogile. O nnile mo Gaborone dingwaga di le masome a mabedi, mme o sa ntse a bua Setswana se se phepa. O rile: "Mo toropong, bana ba bantsi ba bua Sekgoa fela. Mme puo ya rona ke botlhokwa — ga ke batle gore e latlhege."

English: We went to the big shops. My aunt bought clothes and food. I bought a book of Setswana folktales with money my mother had given me. At midday we ate meat and vegetables and drank orange juice. Afterwards, we visited my aunt's friend. Her name is Mma Kelebogile. She has lived in Gaborone for twenty years, and she still speaks clean Setswana. She said: "In the city, many children speak only English. But our language is precious — I don't want it to be lost."

Maitseboa, re boetse gae ka bese. Mo tseleng, ke akantse thata. Toropo e monate: go na le dilo tse dintsi tse dišwa. Mme motse le one o monate: go na le kagiso, go na le losika, go na le dinnaane tsa ga nkoko. Ke ipoditse: "A nka nna mo toropong ka letsatsi lengwe?" Gongwe. Mme fa ke ka ya, ke tla tsaya Setswana sa me le nna. Jaaka Mma Kelebogile a buile: motho o ka fetola legae la gagwe, mme ga a ka ke a fetola pelo ya gagwe. Puo ke pelo — mme pelo ya me e bua Setswana.

English: In the evening, we returned home by bus. On the way, I thought a lot. The city is pleasant: there are many new things. But the village is pleasant too: there is peace, there is family, there are grandmother's folktales. I asked myself: "Could I live in the city one day?" Perhaps. But if I go, I will take my Setswana with me. As Mma Kelebogile said: a person can change their home, but they can never change their heart. Language is the heart — and my heart speaks Setswana.

8. The two-tone system — where grammar hides in pitch

Setswana's two tones are unwritten but grammatical. The textbook minimal pairs:²⁴

High tone also spreads rightward onto the next two syllables (unless word-final): simolola "begin" → [símʊ́lʊ́la]; simologêla "begin for" → [símʊ́lʊ́χɛla].²⁴ Practically: at B2 you should be shadowing radio Setswana and marking pitch on new vocabulary — a learner who ignores tone will keep accidentally calling people "you" when they mean "he."

Verb derivation: one root, a family of verbs

These stack: tshwaraganelwa "be handled jointly" (hold + reciprocal + applicative + passive) — the very verb inside the national proverb in Unit 10. Reading Setswana well means parsing such towers calmly, from the root outward.

One language, several homes

Standard Botswana Setswana, South African Setswana (with its own orthographic tradition), and the urban mixed variety Sepitori of Pretoria — which blends Setswana and Sepedi with Afrikaans and English — form one continuum with different centres of gravity.² Botswana radio sounds more conservative; Gauteng streets more mixed; the two written standards differ in small spellings. This guide follows the Botswana-leaning standard while flagging South African forms where they matter.

Practice reader — B2 story: Kwa kgotleng (At the kgotla)

Mo motseng wa rona, dikgang tsotlhe tse dikgolo di buiwa kwa kgotleng. Kgotla ke lefelo la puisano: fa gare ga motse, kafa tlase ga setlhare se segolo. Teng, mongwe le mongwe o na le tshwanelo ya go bua — monna le mosadi, mogolo le yo monnye. Go twe: "Mafoko a kgotla a mantle otlhe." Ka Labotlhano o o fetileng, kgosi ya rona e ne ya bitsa phuthego. Kgang e ne e le ya metsi: pompo ya motse e ne e senyegile, mme ka dikgwedi tse pedi batho ba ne ba tshela ka sediba se le sengwe fela.

English: In our village, all the big matters are discussed at the kgotla. The kgotla is the place of dialogue: in the middle of the village, under a great tree. There, everyone has the right to speak — man and woman, elder and young person. It is said: "All the words of the kgotla are beautiful" (everything may be aired there). Last Friday, our chief called a meeting. The matter was water: the village pump had broken, and for two months people had been living on a single well.

Batho ba ne ba bua ka kelotlhoko le ka maitseo. Rre Modise o ne a ema pele: "Kgosi, metsi ke botshelo. Bana ba rona ba tshwanetse go nwa metsi a a phepa." Mme Boitumelo le ene a ema: "Ke dumalana le Rre Modise. Mme ke gakolola gore re se ka ra letela puso fela — re ka simolola ka madi a rona." Ba bangwe ba ne ba ganetsa, ba re puso e tshwanetse go duela. Kgosi e ne ya reetsa botlhe, e sa tsee letlhakore. Kwa bofelong, ya bua ka lentswe le le ritibetseng: "Ke utlwile mafoko a lona otlhe. Kgetsi ya tsie e kgonwa ke go tshwaraganelwa. Re tla dira jaana: re tla kopa puso thuso, mme le rona re tla ntsha seabe."

English: People spoke carefully and with courtesy. Mr Modise stood first: "Chief, water is life. Our children must drink clean water." Mrs Boitumelo also stood: "I agree with Mr Modise. But I advise that we not wait for the government alone — we can begin with our own money." Others objected, saying the government must pay. The chief listened to everyone, taking no side. At the end, he spoke in a calm voice: "I have heard all your words. A bag of locusts is managed by carrying it together. We will do this: we will ask the government for help, and we ourselves will also contribute."

Phuthego e ne ya fela ka kutlwano. Beke e e latelang, banna ba motse ba epa mosele; basadi ba apaya dijo tsa badiri; bašwa ba romela dikitsiso ka megala ya bone. Puso ya romela diphaephe. Kgwedi morago ga moo, metsi a ne a elela gape mo motseng. Kgosi ya re kwa kgotleng: "Lo bone, batho ba me? Ga go na kgang e e ka fenyang motse o o buisanang." Ke ithutile selo se segolo ka letsatsi leo: mo Setswaneng, go bua ga se go fenya — go bua ke go aga. Kgotla ga se lefelo fela; ke mokgwa wa botshelo.

English: The meeting ended in agreement. The following week, the men of the village dug a trench; the women cooked for the workers; the young people sent notices on their phones. The government sent pipes. A month later, water flowed in the village again. The chief said at the kgotla: "Do you see, my people? There is no matter that can defeat a village that talks together." I learned something great that day: in Setswana, speaking is not about winning — speaking is building. The kgotla is not just a place; it is a way of life.

9. Formal Setswana: oratory, radio, and the written word

C1 Setswana means commanding registers: kgotla oratory with its proverbs and honorifics; broadcast Setswana on Radio Botswana and Btv; the compressed literary style of D.P.S. Monyaise's novels and Sabata-mpho Mokae's contemporary fiction; and everyday urban code-switching you must understand but choose when to use.⁶⁷⁸ Exercise: take one item from the Botswana Daily News Setswana pages and re-tell it three ways — to a friend, to an elder at the kgotla, and as a radio bulletin. Then check yourself against the real noon bulletin.

Formal speech leans on the passive and on abstract class-14 nouns: Go itsisiwe gore… "It is hereby announced that…"; boipelego "self-reliance," boitshwarelo "forgiveness," boikarabelo "responsibility." Learn to build and unbuild these on sight: bo- + i- (reflexive) + root + suffix.

Practice reader — C1 story: Mokwadi wa dibuka (The writer of books)

Kgomotso o goletse mo motseng o monnye gaufi le Mahikeng. E rile a le monnye, nkoko wa gagwe a mmolelela dinnaane bosigo bongwe le bongwe: tsa ga Phokoje yo o botlhale, tsa ga Tselane le dimo, tsa dikgomo tse di buang. E rile a tsena sekolo se segolwane, a lemoga selo se se mo utlwisang botlhoko: mo laeboraring go ne go na le dibuka tse dintsi tsa Sekgoa, mme tsa Setswana di le mmalwa fela — e bile bontsi e le tsa bogologolo. A ipotsa: "Dinnaane tsa ga nkoko di ile kae? Goreng di sa kwalwe?"

English: Kgomotso grew up in a small village near Mahikeng. When she was little, her grandmother told her folktales every night: of Jackal the clever, of Tselane and the ogre, of talking cattle. When she reached high school, she noticed something that pained her: in the library there were many English books, but only a handful in Setswana — and most of those were old. She asked herself: "Where have grandmother's tales gone? Why are they not written?"

Fa a fetsa dithuto tsa gagwe kwa yunibesithing, Kgomotso o ne a simolola go kwala. Mo mosong, a bereka jaaka morutabana; bosigo, a kwala dinnaane tsa ga nkoko ka Setswana se se phepa, a di baakanyetsa bana ba gompieno. Bangwe ba ne ba mo tshega: "Dibuka tsa Setswana ga di rekwe! Kwala ka Sekgoa, o tla dira madi." Mme ene a gana. A re: "Sol Plaatje o kile a ranolela Shakespeare mo Setswaneng — a nna nka se kgone go kwalela bana ba ga etsho dinnaane tsa bone? Puo e e sa kwalweng e a swa. Ga ke batle go bona Setswana se swa ke lebile." Buka ya gagwe ya ntlha e ne ya gatisiwa morago ga dingwaga di le tharo. Ya bidiwa "Dinnaane tsa ga Nkoko".

English: When she finished her studies at university, Kgomotso began to write. In the morning she worked as a teacher; at night she wrote grandmother's tales in clean Setswana, adapting them for today's children. Some laughed at her: "Setswana books don't sell! Write in English and you'll make money." But she refused. She said: "Sol Plaatje once translated Shakespeare into Setswana — can I not manage to write for our own children their own tales? A language that is not written dies. I will not watch Setswana die before my eyes." Her first book was published after three years. It was called "Grandmother's Folktales."

Gompieno, dibuka tsa ga Kgomotso di balwa mo dikolong tsa Botswana le Aforika Borwa. Bana ba kwala dikarabo ka Setswana, ba ithuta diane, ba tshega ka Phokoje jaaka bommè le bonkoko ba tshegile pele ga bone. Mo kopanong ya bakwadi kwa Gaborone, Kgomotso o ne a bua jaana: "Puo ya rona ke letlotlo. Fa re sa e kwale, re latlha letlotlo leo. Fa re e kwala, re le fetisetsa go bana ba bana ba rona. Nna ga ke mokwadi yo mogolo — ke fela ngwana yo o neng a reetsa nkoko wa gagwe." Mme diane tsa re: Lore lo ojwa lo sa le metsi — o tshwanetse go ruta ngwana puo a sa le monnye. Kgomotso o dirile gore go nne jalo.

English: Today, Kgomotso's books are read in the schools of Botswana and South Africa. Children write their answers in Setswana, learn the proverbs, laugh at Jackal as their mothers and grandmothers laughed before them. At a writers' gathering in Gaborone, Kgomotso spoke thus: "Our language is a treasure. If we do not write it, we throw that treasure away. If we write it, we pass it on to our children's children. I am not a great writer — I am only a child who listened to her grandmother." And the proverbs say: A stick is bent while still green — you must teach a child the language while they are young. Kgomotso made it so.

10. Diane: proverbs as the summit of the language

Setswana measures eloquence in diane (proverbs) and maboko (praise poetry). At C2, your goals are to deploy them aptly and to hear their architecture — parallelism, tone melody, and cattle-country imagery. Three to start with:

• Motho ke motho ka batho — "A person is a person through people": the botho/ubuntu philosophy in seven syllables of class-1 and class-2 morphology.
• Kgetsi ya tsie e kgonwa ke go tshwaraganelwa — "A bag of locusts is managed by joint effort": note the passive tower tshwara-gan-el-wa (hold-RECP-APPL-PASS).
• Lore lo ojwa lo sa le metsi — "The stick is bent while still green": education begins young; grammatically, a class-11 noun with its lo- concords on parade.

Practice reader — C2 story: Pina ya pula (The song of the rain)

Bogologolo tala, go twe, lefatshe la Batswana le ne la omelela dingwaga di le tharo. Dinoka tsa kgala, masimo a swa, dikgomo tsa otlhofala mo o neng o ka bala dikgopo tsa tsone. Batho ba leka gotlhe: ba rapela, ba bina, ba isa dikgomo kwa thabeng — mme loapi lwa nna lo phepa, lo se na leru le le lengwe. Kgosi ya bitsa phuthego ya bofelo kwa kgotleng. Ya re: "Batho ba me, re feditse maatla. Yo o ka re thusang a eme." Ga ema mosadimogolo mongwe, leina la gagwe e le Mma Naledi. A re: "Kgosi, nna ga ke na dikgomo, ga ke na madi. Ke na le pina fela — pina e nkoko wa me a e nthutileng: pina ya go leboga pula e e iseng e ne."

English: Long, long ago, it is said, the land of the Batswana dried up for three years. The rivers ceased, the fields died, the cattle grew so thin you could count their ribs. The people tried everything: they prayed, they danced, they drove cattle to the mountain — but the sky stayed clear, without a single cloud. The chief called a final meeting at the kgotla. He said: "My people, we have run out of strength. Let anyone who can help us stand." There stood up a certain old woman, her name Mma Naledi. She said: "Chief, I have no cattle, I have no money. I have only a song — a song my grandmother taught me: a song for thanking rain that has not yet fallen."

Batho ba tshega. "Go leboga pula e e iseng e ne? Ke bosilo!" Mme kgosi ya re: "Mo leseng a opele. Lefoko ga le boele." Mma Naledi a tsholetsa lentswe la gagwe le legologolo, a opela: "Pula, mma wa rona, re a go leboga. Re leboga maru a o tla a tlisang. Re leboga bojang jo o tla bo medisang. Re leboga dikgomo tse o tla di kgorisang. Pula, re go leboga o ise o ne — gonne pelo e e lebogang e bona lesego pele ga le fitlha." Batho ba ne ba didimala. Mongwe le mongwe a simolola go akanya ka dilo tse a di filweng: bana, botshelo, letsatsi la moso. Mme ya re ba akanya jalo, ba lemoga loapi lo fifala. Leru le lennye la tlhagelela kwa bophirima — la gola, la gola, la ala loapi lotlhe. Pula ya na malatsi a le mararo.

English: The people laughed. "To thank rain that hasn't fallen? Foolishness!" But the chief said: "Let her sing. A word once spoken does not return." Mma Naledi raised her old voice and sang: "Rain, our mother, we thank you. We thank you for the clouds you will bring. We thank you for the grass you will sprout. We thank you for the cattle you will fill. Rain, we thank you before you fall — for a heart that gives thanks sees its blessing before it arrives." The people fell silent. Each one began to think of what they had been given: children, life, the day to come. And as they thought, they noticed the sky darkening. A small cloud appeared in the west — it grew and grew and spread across the whole sky. It rained for three days.

E rile pula e kgaotsa, kgosi ya bitsa Mma Naledi kwa kgotleng. Ya re: "Mmè, o re file thuto e e fetang dipula tsotlhe. Re ithutile gore tebogo ga e letele lesego — tebogo ke yone e le bitsang." Go tloga foo, ya nna ngwao: fa loapi lo fifala, Batswana ba goa "Pula!" — e se kopo, mme e le tebogo. Le gompieno, fa o utlwa lentswe leo kwa dipitsong le kwa medirong, itse gore o utlwa mokgosi wa ga Mma Naledi: pelo e e lebogang e bona lesego pele ga le fitlha. Ke yone pina ya pula — mme ke yone gape pina ya puo: leboga Setswana o sa ntse o se ithuta, mme se tla go nesetsa masego a sone otlhe.

English: When the rain stopped, the chief called Mma Naledi to the kgotla. He said: "Mother, you have given us a teaching that surpasses all rains. We have learned that gratitude does not wait for the blessing — gratitude is what calls it." From then on it became custom: when the sky darkens, Batswana shout "Pula!" — not as a request, but as thanks. Even today, when you hear that cry at gatherings and ceremonies, know that you are hearing Mma Naledi's call: a thankful heart sees its blessing before it arrives. That is the song of the rain — and it is also, again, the song of language: give thanks for Setswana while you are still learning it, and it will rain all its blessings upon you.

11. Books, media and culture in Setswana

Reference and learning

• Peace Corps Botswana Setswana courses (free, Live Lingua archive) — Practical dialogues and grammar — the source of several attested examples in this guide.
• Cole, D. T. An Introduction to Tswana Grammar (Longmans, 1955) — The classic reference grammar behind most later descriptions.
• Bennett, Diemer, Kerford, Probert & Wesi, "Setswana (South African)" — JIPA 46(2), 2016 — The modern phonetic description (Illustrations of the IPA).
• Glottolog: Tswana (tswa1253) — Classification and bibliography.
• Omniglot: Tswana — Alphabet and sample text at a glance.

Reading, listening, watching

• Botswana Daily News / Dikgang — government daily with Setswana pages — Contemporary written standard; free online.
• Radio Botswana (RB1) — national Setswana broadcasting — News bulletins and talk in formal broadcast Setswana — prime shadowing material.
• Sol T. Plaatje — Setswana pioneer; Shakespeare translator — Diphosho-phosho (Comedy of Errors) and collected Setswana proverbs.
• D. P. S. Monyaise — the great Setswana novelist — Omphile Umphi Modise, Bogosi Kupe — the literary canon.
• Sabata-mpho Mokae — contemporary Setswana fiction — Ga ke Modisa (multiple SA literary awards); biography of Plaatje.
• Motswako — Setswana-driven hip-hop — HHP, Khuli Chana and others rhyme in Setswana — the living urban register.
• Culture Spears and Botswana traditional pop — Kulenyane and other Setswana-language hits.
• Setswana Bible (1857 Moffat translation and successors) — One of Africa's first complete Bibles — parallel text for study.

12. Where this guide's facts come from

The grammatical skeleton follows Cole (1955) and the University of Botswana description as synthesized in accessible references, with phonetics anchored to the 2016 JIPA Illustration; the greeting protocol, the lapile/lapa negation trap, and the noun-class transparency argument are attested in the Peace Corps Botswana manual. The practice stories are original compositions built from the deck vocabulary and the documented grammar; the three proverbs are traditional diane recorded in the standard collections (Plaatje onward). Where descriptions disagree — the noun-class count (9-plus-subclass vs. 18 by singular/plural counting), dialect boundaries — the disagreement is reported rather than resolved.³⁵