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How To Say ‘How Are You?’ In Yoruba & Common Responses

In this post, you will learn how to say ‘how are you?’ in Yoruba.

💡 ‘Bawo ni’ is a common way to say ‘how are you?” in Yoruba but there are other ways too (which I cover in this post).

You’ll also learn common responses so you can respond in Yoruba if you’re asked this question.

This can be really useful if you’re speaking with someone from Nigeria, Benin, Togo or if you’re travelling to any of those places. 

How To Say ‘How Are You?’ In Yoruba

There are a few different ways to ask ‘how are you?’. Here are the most common:

EnglishYoruba
How are you? (friendly)Bawo ni?
How are you? (long version)Bawo ni o se wa?
How are you? (informal)Se alafaia ni?
How are you? (formal)Se alaafia le wa?
How are you? (polite)Se daadaa ni?
Different ways to say ‘How are you?’ in Yoruba

How To Respond To ‘How Are You?’ In Yoruba

There are many different ways that you can respond to ‘bawo ni’ or any of the other versions of ‘how are you?’.

Here’s a table of common responses to ‘how are you?’ as well as how to say ‘Thank you’ if you want to thank somebody for asking how you are.

EnglishYoruba
Thank you (speaking with an elder)E se
Thank you
(speaking with friends or people of the same age)
O se
I’m fineMowa dada
I’m fineA dupe
I’m fineAlaafia ni
GoodDara
Not goodKofibe da
I’m very happyInumi dun gan
I feel sickAra mi koda

It’s also useful to know how to say ‘and you?’ or ‘what about you?’ to find out how someone else is if they ask you.

EnglishYoruba
And you? (friendly)Iwo na nko?
And you? (polite)Iwo nko?

Check out this video to hear the pronunciation of some of these phrases, it also includes lots of additional phrases too:

Example Conversation:

Person 1: Bawo ni? (How are you?)

Person 2: Mowa dada, o se. Iwo na nko? (I’m fine, thank you. And you?)

Person 1: Mowa dada (I’m fine)


Thanks for reading this post. 

You should now know how to say ‘how are you?’ in Yoruba and you should also be able to respond if you’re asked! 

You can’t go wrong with these simple phrases. 

If you want to learn to read in Yoruba, then start by learning the Yoruba alphabet.

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