English to Swahili Translator
Translate English to Swahili (Kiswahili) for messages, notices and work email, with a glossary to keep names and technical terms fixed.
Machine translation can be wrong, especially for legal, medical and official documents. Use it to draft and understand; have a qualified translator review anything with real consequences.
What to watch between English and Swahili
Politeness without a formal "you"
Swahili has no tú/usted split. Politeness comes from words such as tafadhali (please), naomba (I request) and greetings like shikamoo for elders. The Formal tone adds these; Casual drops them.
Noun classes
Swahili nouns belong to classes that change the prefixes on verbs and adjectives (kitabu kizuri, vitabu vizuri). A term you lock in the glossary will be inflected correctly around it, but check plurals in the side-by-side view.
Kenya and Tanzania
Standard Swahili is shared, but everyday vocabulary and borrowed English words differ between Kenya and Tanzania. Add your preferred words to the glossary if you write for one country.
Going the other way? Use the Swahili to English translator.
Formal or casual?
English Could you send me the report by Friday?
Naomba unitumie ripoti kabla ya Ijumaa, tafadhali.
Example output for the tone setting. Your own translations are generated live.
English to Swahili: questions
Is this English to Swahili translator free?
Yes. No account, no email and no paywall. Each request holds up to 5,000 characters, with a fair-use limit per visitor.
Does it write Kenyan or Tanzanian Swahili?
It writes standard Swahili that readers in both countries understand. Pin country-specific words in the glossary if you need them.
Can I rely on it for official documents?
Use it to understand or draft. Certificates, contracts, immigration and medical papers need a qualified (often certified) human translator.
Other language pairs
- English to Spanish
- Spanish to English
- English to Chinese
- English to Japanese
- Japanese to English
- English to German
- English to Italian
- English to Portuguese
- English to French
- French to English
- German to English
- English to Korean
- Swahili to English
- English to Hindi
- English to Tagalog
- English to Arabic
- Arabic to English
- Chinese to English
- Russian to English
- Portuguese to English
- Italian to English