Good news: Lingala spelling is phonetic — words are pronounced the way
they are written, every time. Master these sounds once and you can read anything.
The 7 vowels
Lingala has seven vowels. Five look familiar, and two — ɛ and
ɔ — are "open" versions of e and o. In everyday
writing (texts, social media) people usually just write e and o for
all of them, but the sounds stay distinct in speech.
A a
"ah" as in father
mama — mother
E e
"ay" as in say (no glide)
elɔ́kɔ — thing
Ɛ ɛ
"e" as in bet
lɛlɔ́ — today
I i
"ee" as in see
mbisi — fish
O o
"o" as in go (no glide)
moto — person
Ɔ ɔ
"aw" as in law
matɔ́ndɔ — thank you
U u
"oo" as in food
butú — night
The consonants
Most consonants sound just like they do in English. A few notes are marked below.
B b
as in boy
bana — children
D d
as in day
madɛ́su — beans
F f
as in fun
mafuta — oil
G g
hard g, as in go
koganga — to shout
K k
as in key
kolia — to eat
L l
as in love
lipa — bread
M m
as in man
moto — person
N n
as in no
nini — what
P p
as in pen
papa — father
R r
often sounds like l; mostly in loanwords
radio — radio
S s
as in sun
sango — news
T t
as in tea
tata — father
V v
as in van
kovanda — to sit, to live
W w
as in water
wapi — where
Y y
as in yes
yo — you
Z z
as in zoo
kozala — to be
C c & H h
rare — only in loanwords (c sounds like "ch")
hotɛ́li — hotel
The special pairs (prenasalized consonants)
This is the most distinctive part of Lingala sounds. These letter pairs count as
single sounds and can start a word — say the nasal (m/n)
and the consonant together in one beat: mbote is "mbo-te", not "em-bo-te".
mb
mbote — hello
mp
mpo na — for, because of
nd
ndako — house
ng
ngai — I, me
nk
nkómbó — name
ns
nsoso — chicken
nt
ntango — time
nz
nzala — hunger
ny
like Spanish ñ
nyama — animal, meat
About tones: Lingala is a tonal language — the accent mark in
matɔ́ndɔ shows a high tone. Textbooks write them, everyday writing usually
doesn't. Don't stress about tones yet; you'll pick them up by listening.