🇼🇸Samoan for English speakers

1. Samoan: a Polynesian language of the Pacific

Samoan — gagana Sāmoa to its speakers — is a Polynesian language of the Austronesian family, spoken by approximately 470,000 people worldwide: about 260,000 in the Samoan archipelago (the independent nation of Samoa and the US territory of American Samoa), and large diaspora communities in New Zealand (where Samoan is the third most widely spoken language, 101,900 speakers as of the 2018 census), the United States (over 180,000 people, 2010 census) and Australia (49,021 people, 2021 census).¹ It is ISO 639-3 smo, Glottocode samo1305, classified as Austronesian → Malayo-Polynesian → Oceanic → Polynesian.¹²

Samoan at a glance

Sounds and spelling

Samoan has five vowels (a, e, i, o, u), each with a phonemic long form marked by a macron: tama ‘child’ versus tamā ‘father’ shows the length contrast doing real work.⁴ The consonant inventory is small — the core alphabet has only nine consonant letters (f, g, l, m, n, p, s, t, v) plus the glottal stop 'okina, with h, k and r appearing only in loanwords. The letter g represents the velar nasal [ŋ], as in English “sing,” never a hard “g.” The glottal stop is phonemic and changes meaning: mai ‘from’ versus ma'i ‘sickness.’⁴ The macron and 'okina were formally readopted by Samoa's Ministry of Education in 2012 after falling out of common use in the 1960s, so older printed material often omits them.⁴

First words

Reader A1 — O le 'āiga (The family)

Constructed for this guide entirely from words on the deck below, using simple verb-initial (VSO) clauses with the present-tense marker e and the past-tense marker sa — both attested in standard descriptions of Samoan and used here exactly as documented, never invented. It is a practice text, not authentic Samoan literature; section 8 lists real Samoan-language media to move on to.

Tālofa. O le tamā. O le tinā. O le tama. O le teine. E tele le 'āiga. E alofa le tamā i le tama. E alofa le tinā i le teine. E fiafia le 'āiga. E lelei le fale. Sa alu le tama i le fale. Sa moe le teine i le fale. E fiafia le tama. E fiafia le teine. Fa'afetai, 'āiga.

— Hello. The father. The mother. The child (boy). The child (girl). The family is big. The father loves the child. The mother loves the girl. The family is happy. The house is good. The child went to the house. The girl slept in the house. The child is happy. The girl is happy. Thank you, family.

Tasi, lua, tolu, fā, lima: e lima tagata i le 'āiga. Ono, fitu, valu, iva, sefulu: e sefulu tusi i le fale. E lelei le tasi. E tele le sefulu. E ola le 'āiga i le fale. Sa galue le tamā. Sa moe le tinā.

— One, two, three, four, five: five people in the family. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten: ten books in the house. One is good. Ten is many/big. The family lives in the house. The father worked. The mother slept.

E lanumeamata le sami. E lanumoana le vai. E samasama le lā. E pa'epa'e le fetū. E uliuli le pō. E mumu le afiafi. E lelei le taeao. E fiafia le tagata i le sami. E alofa le tagata i le 'āiga ma le fale.

— The sea is green. The water is blue. The sun is yellow. The star is white. The night is black. The evening is red. The morning is good. The person is happy at the sea. The person loves the family and the house.

E lelei le taumafataga. E manaia le talo. E manaia le fa'i. E fiafia le tama e 'ai talo ma fa'i. Sa fia inu le teine. Sa inu le teine i le vai. E leaga le timu. Sa timu i le pō. E lā i le taeao. E fiafia tagata uma i le lā. E manaia le sami ma le vao.

— The food is good. The taro is nice. The banana is nice. The child is happy to eat taro and banana. The girl wanted to drink. The girl drank water. The rain is bad. It rained at night. There is sun in the morning. Everyone is happy about the sun. The sea and the forest are nice.

O a'u, o le tama. O oe, o le teine. E igoa a'u 'o Sione. E igoa oe 'o Sina. E ola mātou i Sāmoa. E a'oa'o mātou i le aoga. E fiafia mātou i le gagana Sāmoa ma le gagana Peretania. E manaia le atunu'u.

— I am the boy. You are the girl. My name is Sione. Your name is Sina. We (excl.) live in Samoa. We (excl.) study at school. We (excl.) are happy about the Samoan language and the English language. The country/nation is beautiful.

E manaia le masina. E pa'epa'e le fetū i le pō. E fiafia le 'āiga uma i le taeao. E lelei tagata Sāmoa.

— The moon is beautiful. The stars are white at night. The whole family is happy in the morning. Samoan people are good.

2. Verb-initial word order

Samoan is a verb-initial language: the basic order is VSO (verb–subject–object) or VOS (verb–object–subject), the reverse of English's subject-first pattern. Sa alu le teine i le fale — literally “went the girl to the house” — is a standard example.⁵ Samoan also allows SVO and OVS orders in certain discourse contexts, but VSO/VOS is the pattern a beginner should expect as default.

E lelei le gagana Sāmoa. E iloa e mātou le gagana. E fiafia mātou i le gagana. E lelei tele le iloa lelei o le gagana mo se tagata. E galue tagata uma e iloa le gagana.

— The Samoan language is good. We (excl.) know the language. We (excl.) are happy about the language. It is very good for a person to know the language well. Everyone works to know the language.

3. Articles: specific, not “definite”

Samoan articles encode specificity rather than the definite/indefinite contrast English marks with “the” versus “a.” le is the singular specific article (used above throughout this guide's readers), se is singular non-specific, the plural specific article is often zero (unmarked), and ni is plural non-specific. Grammars note that le has often, inaccurately, been called simply “the” — it marks a specific referent, which usually but not always lines up with English's “the.”⁵

4. The a/o possessive split

Two possessive particles, a and o, divide Samoan possession into two classes depending on the relationship between possessor and possessed — not arbitrarily, but along a consistent semantic line. o marks body parts, mental states, houses, land, clothing worn, and people in fixed relationships (kin, superiors); a marks conduct, language, movable property, weapons, food, and anything the possessor controls or acts upon. Some nouns genuinely accept either, shifting meaning with the choice.⁵

5. Pronouns: singular, dual, and plural, with inclusive/exclusive

Samoan pronouns mark three numbers — singular, dual, and plural — across three persons, and the first person additionally splits into inclusive (‘we, including you’) and exclusive (‘we, not including you’) forms, a distinction English does not make at all.⁵ a'u is ‘I,’ oe is ‘you (singular),’ ia is ‘he/she.’ The plural forms mātou (we, exclusive), tātou (we, inclusive), outou (you, plural) and i lātou (they) build on those singular roots.

Reader B1 — O le gagana ma le 'āiga (The language and the family)

A longer constructed practice text, still built only from deck vocabulary, combining pronouns, numbers, family and nature words from sections 1–5.

E tautala mātou i le gagana Sāmoa. E iloa e tātou le gagana. E alofa a'u i lo'u 'āiga. E fiafia oe i le tusi. E lelei ia. E galue le tamā i le masina. E moe le tinā i le pō. E tagi le tama, ona fiafia lea o ia. E siva le teine, e pese ia.

— We (excl.) speak the Samoan language. We (incl.) know the language. I love my family. You are happy about the book. He/she is good. The father works during the month. The mother sleeps at night. The child cries, then he/she becomes happy. The girl dances, she sings.

E tasi le tamā, e lua tinā — leai, e tasi le tinā, e tasi le tamā. E tolu tama i le 'āiga, e fā teine i le 'āiga. E fitu tausaga le tama, e valu tausaga le teine. E iva tusi a le 'āiga, e sefulu i'a i le sami. E lelei gagana Sāmoa. E fiafia mātou i le gagana ma le 'āiga.

— One father, two mothers — no, one mother, one father. Three boys in the family, four girls in the family. The boy is seven years old, the girl is eight years old. Nine books belong to the family, ten fish in the sea. The Samoan language is good. We (excl.) are happy about the language and the family.

E ola tātou i Sāmoa. E manatua e tātou tuaā. E alofa i lātou i le nu'u. E tautala outou i le gagana fa'aaloalo pe a talanoa i matai. E fa'afetai tātou i le 'āiga ma le atunu'u.

— We (incl.) live in Samoa. We (incl.) remember [our] ancestors. They love the village. You (plural) speak the respectful/dignified register when talking with chiefs. We (incl.) give thanks for the family and the nation.

E ono tausaga o lo'u uso. E fitu tausaga o lo'u tuafafine. E galue le tamā i tausaga uma. E a'oa'o le tama i le vaiaso. E tele tagata i le atunu'u. E lima nu'u i totonu o le atunu'u. E ola i lātou i le sami ma le vao. E manaia le lagi i le pō.

— My brother is six years old. My sister is seven years old. The father works every year. The boy studies during the week. There are many people in the nation. There are five villages within the nation. They live by the sea and the forest. The sky is beautiful at night.

E leaga le taimi a le tama. E fia inu ia i le vai. Sa inu ia. E lelei lo'u manatu i le gagana Sāmoa. E fiafia a'u e a'oa'o le gagana. E manaia le fale a lo'u 'āiga. E ola mātou i le atunu'u ma le fiafia.

— The boy's time is bad [he is having a hard time]. He wants to drink water. He drank. My opinion of the Samoan language is good. I am happy to learn the language. My family's house is beautiful. We (excl.) live in the nation with happiness.

E igoa lo'u 'āiga 'o Tuilagi. E sefulu tagata i lo'u 'āiga. E ono tama, e fā teine. E fiafia mātou uma i le nu'u ma le atunu'u.

— My family's name is Tuilagi. There are ten people in my family. Six boys, four girls. We (excl.) are all happy about the village and the nation.

6. Two Samoans: tautala lelei and tautala leaga

Samoan has a well-documented formal/colloquial alternation affecting two whole sound classes. In formal, literary Samoan (tautala lelei, ‘good speech’), /t/ and /n/ are pronounced as written. In everyday colloquial speech (tautala leaga, ‘bad speech’), /t/ shifts to [k] and /n/ merges with /ŋ/ (written ng): tama ‘child’ is pronounced kama, tautala itself is pronounced kaukala, fono ‘meeting’ is pronounced fongo, and ono ‘six’ is pronounced ongo.⁶ This guide's readers use the formal spelling throughout — tama, not kama — which is also what a learner will see written almost everywhere, even though the colloquial pronunciation is what is actually spoken in casual settings.

E lua ala e tautala ai i le gagana Sāmoa: o le tautala lelei ma le tautala leaga. E tautala tagata i le tautala lelei i tusi ma lauga. E tautala tagata i le tautala leaga i taimi masani. E manatu a'u e lelei le iloa o ala uma e lua.

— There are two ways to speak the Samoan language: good speech and bad [colloquial] speech. People speak in good speech in books and speeches. People speak in bad [colloquial] speech in ordinary times. I think it is good to know both ways.

7. Diglossia and the register of respect

Beyond the t/k and n/ng alternation, Samoan has a further, separate formal register — gagana fa'aaloalo, the “dignified” or “respectful” language — used when addressing chiefs, in oratory, and, notably, considered the proper register for prayer.⁶ This register uses entirely different vocabulary for many everyday concepts depending on the rank of the person addressed: for a high chief, ‘house’ is māota, not the everyday fale; a chief's wife is faletua, not to'alua. Lower-ranking speakers may also use self-deprecating vocabulary about their own family when addressing someone of higher rank.⁶ This guide's deck and readers use everyday, non-honorific vocabulary throughout — a learner heading toward oratory or ceremonial contexts needs a dedicated, community-taught vocabulary this beginner guide does not attempt to cover.

E tautala ai tagata i le gagana fa'aaloalo pe a talanoa i matai. E fa'aaloalo tagata i o lātou tuaā. E manatua e tātou le fa'aaloalo, ona e taua tele i le atunu'u o Sāmoa.

— People speak in the respectful register when they converse with chiefs. People show respect to their ancestors. We (incl.) remember [the value of] respect, because it is very important in the nation of Samoa.

E fa'afetai mātou i le gagana Sāmoa. E fiafia mātou e a'oa'o i le gagana. E lelei le atunu'u o Sāmoa ma tagata uma o le atunu'u. E fiafia a'u e a'oa'o i lenei gagana i aso uma, vaiaso uma, tausaga uma. Soifua!

— We (excl.) give thanks for the Samoan language. We (excl.) are happy about learning the language. The nation of Samoa and all its people are good. I am happy to study this language every day, every week, every year. Farewell / good health!

8. Media, books, and further study

• Samoan vocabulary — the full 365-term deck, with SRS trainerA1–B2 — Formal (tautala lelei) spelling with macrons and 'okina, browsable as a table, with CSV / TSV / Anki / .apkg downloads. Identical to the tables on this page.
• kaikki.org — Samoan machine-readable dictionaryReference — The Wiktionary-derived source for most of this guide's vocabulary; browsable by part of speech.
• Le Samoa — Samoan-language newsB1+ — The Samoa Observer publishes bilingual and Samoan-language news coverage from Samoa.
• Radio Australia / Radio New Zealand Pacific — Samoan-language programmingB1+ — Regular Samoan-language news and current-affairs broadcasts serving Pacific diaspora audiences.
• Albert Wendt and other Samoan-language and Samoan-English literatureReference — Pacific-focused booksellers stocking Samoan and Samoan-diaspora authors, a starting point for Samoan-authored reading beyond this guide.

• All language guides — Browse every LinguaCommons language guide.