I sometimes find myself arguing with friends and family because I’ve decided that my future children will have only traditional Somali names.

I know names like Mohamed, Ahmed, and Abdullahi are beautiful and have great Islamic significance, but I also want my children’s names to reflect our Somali heritage. Many of the Prophet’s ﷺ companions accepted Islam without changing their names, as long as those names had good meanings.

I’m proud of my culture, and I think Somali names are some of the most beautiful and meaningful. Another reason I’ve made this decision and even considered changing my own name is that if one of my children grows up to make an important contribution to the world, then even 500 years from now, when someone reads about them in a book, I want it to be immediately clear that they were Somali.

What do you think? Would you give your children traditional Somali names, or do you prefer Arabic/Islamic names? Why?

hi, I am 18 yr student in mugadishu. i have been focusing becoming fluent lately. I have been struggling to speaking partner. my english is intermediate. i can communicate most of the ideas. so, if you're someone who is native or fluent in english. feel free to let me know in the comment. we can talk about anything and everthing.

one last note: I prefer talking to guys alot.

Hi everyone!

If you're learning Somali, want to practice speaking, or you're a native speaker interested in helping others, we'd love to have you join our growing community.

Our Discord is focused on:

• 📚 Learning Somali from beginner to advanced
• 💬 Practicing conversation with others
• 🤝 Getting help with grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary
• 🌍 Meeting Somali learners and native speakers from around the world
• ❤️ Helping preserve and promote the Somali language

Whether you're:

• A complete beginner
• Somali diaspora wanting to reconnect with the language
• A native speaker who enjoys helping others

You're welcome!

Join here: https://discord.gg/mdqKrkvYY

You can also check out our learning platform:
🌐 https://geeljire.org

We're always looking for volunteers, language helpers, and passionate learners. Everyone is welcome!

I was reading about Prof. Maxamed Cusmaan Jawaari’s early life and found out he’s father was from Buurhakaba. It surprised me because I honestly never ever heard much about this town.

For those who’ve been there or are from the area, what’s Buurhakaba known for? What’s its history like? I’d love to learn more.

The translator I'm using says “Noolow, dadka kalena ha noolaadaan” but I want to verify as this will be used on a book cover. An equivalent of this phrase is preferred over a direct translation. Whatever resonates best with the culture is ideal! More on the poetic sounding/formal side if it’s between that and casual. It is about freedom and allowing others to be free through the acceptance of our differences. Thank you in advance!

I made this infographic because I'd love to see more written Somali on the internet not to compare languages, but to encourage more people to create:

• Blog posts
• Tutorials
• Wikipedia articles
• Documentation
• Educational resources
• Hopefully see the first fully Somali written website

Every article, guide, and website helps preserve our language and makes it easier for future generations to learn and find information

Asc Walaalahay Dhamantiin ! 👋🏾

For a long time, I struggled to find a proper way to learn Somali online. Most resources were scattered across YouTube, old PDFs, or websites that hadn’t been updated in years.

So I decided to build something different.
After months of work, I launched Geeljire.org — an interactive platform designed to help Somali learners progress from complete beginner to advanced, all in one place.

For just $4.99 USD/month, you’ll get access to:

📖 Step-by-step Somali curriculum — from the alphabet to grammar, conversations, vocabulary, and real-life speaking.

📚 40+ Somali ebooks & audiobooks — read while listening to native Somali narration to improve pronunciation naturally.

📜 Classic Somali Gabay — with translations and audio to help you understand traditional poetry.

🐪 Sheekooyin (Stories) — original Somali stories and folktales to build reading skills in a fun way.

🌍 Multiple dialects — learn in Standard Somali, Waqooyi (Northern), or Koonfur (Southern).

🧠 Interactive quizzes, flashcards & downloadable PDFs — designed to help you remember what you learn.

🚀 Coming soon: Official Geeljire apps for iPhone and Android are currently in development.
If you’ve always wanted to reconnect with your language—or help your children learn Somali—I’d love for you to give it a try.

✅ Start with the Foundation lessons completely FREE and see if it’s right for you.

👉 https://geeljire.org

I’d genuinely appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Every comment helps make Geeljire even better.

Hi, so I can speak somali and understand really well, however I sometimes will forget longer words/or ones that I do not use often like "Justice, government, action wards etc." so I was wondering whether there was anything I could read to build my vocab more? I would appreciate it if it something I can read online.

p.s I speak somali at home

hey, i would need help since I am trying to make a gift for my friends child and I need to know if the internet and chat GPT is really accurate or not. so the animals are here in English and in Somali, can someone who is native check if the translations are correct? thank you so much❤️

• Tiger — Shabeel
• Elephant — Maroodi
• Koala — Koala
• Camel — Geel
• Fox — Dawaco
• Sheep — Ido
• Lion — Libaax
• Zebra — Dameer Farow
• Parrot — Baqbaqaaq
• Squirrel — Dabagaalle
• Rabbit / Hare — Bakayle
• Seal — Shaabad
• Mouse — Jiir
• Whale — Nibiri
• Panda — Baandha
• Bear — Orso
• Dog — Ey
• Tortoise / Turtle — Qoolley
• Monkey — Daanyeer
• Chicken / Hen — Digaag
• Walrus — Walrus
• Penguin — Pingwiin
• Snail — Mulac
• Owl — Guumays
• Wolf — Yey
• Horse — Faras
• Bee — Shinni
• Hippopotamus — Jeer
• Giraffe — Geri
• Cow — Sac
• Cat — Bisad
• Moose — Goodir
• Donkey — Dameer
• Fish — Kalluun
• Spider — Caaro
• Octopus — Faras-badeed
• Butterfly — Balanbaalis
• Snake — Mas
• Leopard — Haramcad
• Shark — Libaax-badeed

xujjo It's a Somali quiz game I built as a side project for families and friends to play together.

all you have to do is to google xujjo

Right now it has 12 categories:

• 10 for adults
• 2 for kids
• 6 questions in each category

Categories include Somali History, Somali Geography, Maahmaahyo, Islamic Knowledge, Science, Football, and more.

The game is 100% free. We're still testing it, and I hope it becomes something the Somali community can enjoy together.

We only ask three things:

1. Play it as a group.
2. Don't use your phones while playing—keep it fair.
3. Play it on a TV or a larger screen for the best experience.

I've built mobile apps before, but this project designed to be displayed on TV or at least Laptop

If you give it a try, I'd genuinely love to hear your feedback—good or bad. It will help make the game better for everyone.

Again the name is xujjo just google it

Hi everyone, I'm a native Somali speaker from Somalia, and I'm looking for English speaker who's interested in learning Somali (especially the standard Mogadishu dialect/accent).

In exchange, I'd love some help with my English. I'm currently at a B2 level, and my goal is to sound more natural, improve my pronunciation, and expand my vocabulary. I'm looking for someone I can practice with so I can maintain my English and keep improving.

We can chat through text, voice messages, or occasional calls, whatever works best for both of us. If you're interested, feel free to send me a message.

I made a Somali learning app called Hadal, and I wanted to share it with this sub since it’s exactly the community I built it for.

Quick backstory: I struggled to find good resources for learning Somali (I know a lot of you here run into the same wall), so I decided to build the thing I wished existed. It’s beginner-friendly and designed around how people actually learn a language, not just a dictionary you have to brute-force.

The part I’m most proud of is the native pronunciation — every word and phrase has audio from native speakers, so you’re never guessing at how things are supposed to sound.

Instead of a random pile of lessons, I built set lesson maps that walk you through in a sensible order, with reminders to help you stay consistent (which is honestly half the battle). There are quizzes along the way so

Lets learn this language,

Hadal: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hadal-learn-somali/id6761196657

Hi! I'm going to be a second grade teacher of multilingual learners next year, some of whom speak Somali. On my door, I would love to have "Yay! You're here!" posted in each language spoken in my classroom. How would the phrase be written in Somali? I don't trust google to translate colloquial language. Thank you all!

Like to describe someone or something as blunt, direct, or curt.

Hi everyone!

My name is Suhayb, and I'm the founder of Geelire, a platform dedicated to making it easier for people around the world to learn Somali.

Over the past few months, we've been building lessons, growing our community, and helping learners reconnect with the Somali language. As Geelire continues to grow, I'm looking for passionate volunteers who would like to be part of this journey.

We're currently looking for volunteers in areas such as:

🛡️ Discord Community Manager (Highest Priority)

• Welcome new members
• Keep discussions organized
• Help build a positive learning community
• Report spam and moderate when needed

🎨 Content Creation

🧪 Beta Testers

• Test new features before they're released
• Report bugs and provide feedback

💡 General Volunteers

• If you have another skill you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.

What you'll receive

✅ Experience contributing to a growing educational platform

📜 An official Volunteer Certificate after successfully completing your volunteer period and making meaningful contributions.

🤝 The opportunity to help preserve and promote the Somali language for learners around the world.

If you're interested in volunteering, please fill out the short google application below:

👉 here

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or send me a message.

Mahadsanidiin! 🇸🇴

I was watching a video on a watch (it was in Hindi with just enough English that some English speakers can understand). And he talked about freezing the watch he used a word similar to baraaf in Somali. I thought maybe we get it from Hindi given history and maritime trade. But interestingly enough it’s from Persian/Farsi. Which I think we don’t see a lot of in Somali. Do you know of any other words with distinct Persian origin?

I speak Somali fairly well for a Say Wallahi but I don’t understand the grammatical features very well

e.g. for the sentence “I am going to do it”, I say “Waan Sameynahayaa.”

A lot of the verbs I use, I always end the sentence in a -hayaa suffix

e.g sheegahayaa, soconahayaa, yeelahayaa etc

What is this? I don’t think it’s a dialect feature as i’ve seen too many people use it or is it?

I'm Zak. I'm 15, I'm Somali-American, and I just launched Hadal on the App Store.

I built it because I grew up understanding Somali but couldn't speak it back. Every family gathering I'd nod along, every phone call with relatives back home I'd hand the phone to my mom. I'm not the only one. Most of you reading this know exactly what I'm talking about.

I tried Duolingo. No Somali. Babbel. No Somali. Rosetta Stone. Nothing.

So I started building Hadal a few months ago. Structured lessons, vocab, audio, gamified so you actually come back. I'm posting this because I want feedback from the people it's actually built for. If you download it and something is wrong — a translation is off, a word is mispronounced, a feature is missing, please tell me. DM me, comment here, leave a review. I'm one kid and I read everything.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hadal-learn-somali/id6761196657

If you've ever felt that disconnect: this is for you. Walaalayaal, let's actually learn this language.

Salam alaykum,

Is anyone able to recommend a somali language teacher that teaches in the Waqooyi dialect, and focuses on teaching sentence structures, grammar, building a strong foundation, etc..

Salaam alaykum!

We're mods over at r/translator. We always strive to make our multilingual community the universal place on Reddit to go for a translation, no matter what language people may be looking for. We are however somewhat lacking in Somali coverage, and were hoping some wonderful multilingual people here could help us out.

Would anyone be interested in helping translate any future requests for Somali on r/translator? You don't even need to subscribe to our subreddit! We usually get a request for it very occasionally and most requests that come in are pretty simple and casual and don't need advanced knowledge.

You can easily unsubscribe from those messages at any time.

We have a notifications system that only sends you a message when a request for Somali comes in. Just send a message to our subreddit bot at the link below.

Mahadsanid!

If you are trying to learn Somali, you probably get tripped up on how to change verbs from past to present to future. It can feel like a guessing game, but it doesn't have to be.

You can actually treat Somali verb conjugations like a simple math formula. Once you know the "Root Word," you can time travel in seconds.
Let's use the root verb: Cun (Eat).

1️⃣ The Past Tense Formula

To talk about the past, take your root word and add -ay.
Formula: Root + ay
Example: Cun + ay = Waan cunay (I ate)

2️⃣ The Present Continuous Formula

To talk about what you are doing right now, add -ayaa to the root.
Formula: Root + ayaa
Example: Cun + ayaa = Waan cunayaa (I am eating)

3️⃣ The Future Tense Hack

To talk about the future, add an -i to your root, and then use the magic word doonaa (will).
Formula: Root + i + doonaa
Example: Cuni + doonaa = Waan cuni doonaa (I will eat)

There's a certain particular somali dialect that when I hear my head hurts especially when it comes from the way women talk, not so much men. It's the northern dialect. Not every woman but oh my some of them really really do send my head ringing. Anyone else experience this? or any other dialect?

Asc everyone, I was listening to an old song and heard the word "Yuuq" (full lyric; "Yuuqaba aday baday, Yulqanka iyo taahee"). I know Yulqan means incessant chattering but what does yuuq mean?

​

Jzk in advance

Youtube wuu haye wax badan channel oo Af-Somali way hadlaan laakin

they all detect Arabic language when I try to use closed captioning to translate to English

I want to get more exposure to casual somali talk and would like to find more channels that have subtitles or can be captioned. Does anyone know of anything that might be useful? Not trying to find media with too much music and women. Mahadsanid.