Twi Grammar Lessons
Lesson 1: The Akan (Twi) Alphabet
Akwaaba meaning Welcome. First of both the English Language and Akan (Twi) make use of the latin scripts, so you will that both languages have similar set of letters that make up their alphabets.
The Akan alphabet are made up of 22 letters as compared to the 26 letters of the English alphabet.
The Akan (Twi) Alphabet
| Aa | Bb | Dd | Ee | Ɛɛ |
| Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Kk |
| Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Ɔɔ |
| Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu |
| Ww | Yy |
The Akan alphabet does not use the letters j, q, v, x and z. The two letters in red are the only letters that can't be found in the English alphabet.
Just like the English Alphabet, we can group the Akan alphabet into two sets namely vowels and consonants.
The Akan (Twi) Consonants
There are 15 consonants in all namely b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, y
| Consonant | Twi Word | English |
|---|---|---|
| ‘b’ | bankye
bayerɛ |
cassava
yam |
| ‘d’ | dadeɛ
dadoa |
metal nail (tool) |
| ‘f’ |
fitaa/fufuo frankaa |
white flag (noun) |
| ‘g’ |
go gyae |
loosen stop |
| ‘h’ |
huri hunu |
jump (verb) see |
| ‘k’ |
kɛntɛn kuruwa |
basket cup |
| ‘l’ |
lɔre ludu |
lorry ludo |
| ‘m’ |
mukaase mankani |
kitchen cocoyam |
| ‘n’ |
nsa nante |
hand (noun) walk (verb) |
| ‘p’ |
pɛntoa praeɛ |
(broken) glass
broom |
| ‘r’ |
twerɛ pra |
write sweep |
| ‘s’ |
samina sapɔ |
soap sponge |
| ‘t’ |
tɛkyerɛma tafere |
tongue lick (verb) |
| ‘w’ | wareɛ
wie |
marry finish (verb) |
| ‘y’ | yareɛ
|
sickness
|
These are examples of some Twi words beginning with consonant and their meaning. Next stop Akan vowels
The Akan (Twi) Vowels
In all there are 7 vowels in the Akan language: a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ, u.
| Vowel | Twi Word | English |
|---|---|---|
| ‘a’ | adesoa
akoma |
burden (noun)
heart (organ) |
| ‘e’ | efie
ekuro |
home wound (noun) |
| ‘ɛ’ |
ɛdɔm ɛkɔm |
crowd (noun) hunger |
| ‘i’ |
edin di |
name (noun) eat |
| ‘o’ |
osuo opuro |
rain (noun) squirrel |
| ‘ɔ’ |
ɔwɔ ɔsebɔ |
snake tiger |
| ‘u’ |
Wukuada sukuu |
Wednesday school (noun) |
This is where we end the first lesson of Akan for Beginners. Your comments, suggestions and queries would be much appreciated. Send your comments to me via [email protected] . Thank you for reading.
Your Instructor
Hello there, my Julian (Papa Yaw) Ofori-Mensah. I am the founder of Learn Akan (Twi).
Born in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, where Akan (Asante Twi) is spoken as the first language.
Beyond acquiring the language from home as a child. I also had the opportunity of studying the Akan language at both basic and high school level of my education, so I would say I have and in-depth understanding of the Akan language.
This page dedicated to the teaching of the Akan (Twi) language was inspired by my aunt who is from the U.K. She wanted to learn the Akan (Twi) language but was embarrassed plus she wanted to learn the language at her own pace without prejudice. So to help her and others who are interested in learning the language I decided to put up a simplified course regarding the Twi language to enable her and others learn the language. I hope this course is helpful to Akan (Twi) enthusiast and anyone who wants to learn the language.