How an adult who speaks some Yorùbá but cannot read it can start, covering the alphabet, tone marks, greetings, core vocabulary, keyboards, and named quality resources with links.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Dis file na for special person: adult wey dey hear or speak small Yorùbá, wey dem never teach to read or write am, and wey tone-marked text dey fear am. Dat kain position dey very common, and no be person fault. Dem no teach Yorùbá tone marking well for Nigerian schools, e no dey online like dat, and English-medium education push am comot well well since colonial period reach now, na wetin Nigerian government decision for November 2025 come make strong pass as dem make English di only language of instruction (see yoruba-literature-and-modern-language).
Di good news clear well well. Di Yorùbá writing system small, e dey regular, and na phonetic. No silent letters dey inside, and no spelling exception dey to memorize. Person wey already know di language by ear fit learn to read am within few hours of focus, because di problem na notation problem, no be language problem.
Yorùbá get 25 letters. Learn dem for three groups.
The seven vowels. Call dem out loud in order, na so Yorùbá children dey learn dem:
a e ẹ i o ọ u
Di two wey get dot for under na separate letters, no be decorated versions of di ones near dem. ẹ na di vowel inside English bet; e close pass to di vowel inside they. ọ na di vowel inside thought; o close pass to go. If you already dey speak Yorùbá, you dey make dis distinction every time without even thinking about am; wetin you just dey learn now na to see am.
The eighteen consonants.
b d f g gb h j k l m n p r s ṣ t w y
Three notes. gb na one letter, single sound wey person dey make by closing di lips and di back of di tongue together. p no be English p; na di sound wey English speakers dey hear as kp, and you already dey produce am. ṣ na sh.
No c, q, v, x, z dey, so any word wey carry dem na loanword or name wey dem spell with English convention.
Nasal vowels dem dey write dem with n for front: in, ẹn, an, ọn, un. Di n mean say di vowel na nasal, no be say separate consonant dey.
Na di whole inventory be dat. Full detail dey inside yoruba-phonology-and-tone.
Na dis part people dey avoid, and na di part wey dey open reading way.
Three marks, wey one of dem na di absence of mark. Na di whole system be dat.
Di reason why e matter na because tone dey separate words from each other. Ọkọ na husband, ọkọ́ na hoe, ọkọ̀ na vehicle. Iṣẹ́ na work and ìṣẹ́ na poverty. To read Yorùbá wey no get tone mark mean say person go dey guess between dem from context; to read Yorùbá wey get tone mark mean say you just know am straight.
The practical trick for adults: no try to learn tones as abstract pitches. Carry words wey you already dey talk correctly, look how dem write dem with marks, and join di mark with di sound wey you already dey make. Wetin you dey do na to put label on top knowledge wey you already get, no be to acquire new sound distinction. Na why person wey grow up dey hear di language get big advantage pass foreign learner and no suppose compare demsef to beginners.
The known hard part. Research on learners find out say error rate na 12 percent for High tone and 26.5 percent for Low, but over 97 percent for Mid . Mid na di tone wey no get mark, and because e no dey show for page and no get English equivalent, na im people dey miss pass. If you be fluent speaker, dis one no be big problem for you at all, because you already dey produce Mid correctly when you dey talk. Trust your mouth pass your eye.
Di fastest way to go from "I no fit read Yorùbá" to "I fit read Yorùbá" na to read text wey you already know di meaning, so dat decoding go be di only task.
Good candidates, as dem arrange roughly:
yoruba-names for how to break dem down. Dis one dey motivate person because di gain dey show immediately.yoruba-owe-proverbs get pass forty with full diacritics and meaning.translation-and-bias join am so you fit see di translation choices as you dey go.Yorùbá greeting dey deep and na compulsory social duty, and greetings na di most-used Yorùbá wey diaspora people dey keep pass. Take note say many of dem dey start with ẹ, di respectful plural wey dem dey use for elders, strangers, and anybody wey dem suppose show respect; di familiar forms dey drop am.
| Yorùbá | Literal | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Ẹ káàárọ̀ | greeting of the morning | good morning |
| Ẹ káàsán | greeting of the afternoon | good afternoon |
| Ẹ kúùrọ̀lẹ́ | greeting of the evening | good evening |
| Ẹ kúalẹ́ | greeting of the night | good night |
| Ó dàárọ̀ | until morning | goodnight, on parting |
Di kú part na greeting particle wey dey appear throughout, roughly "greeting on di occasion of."
Yorùbá get greeting for almost every situation, wey be one of di main special features wey e get.
| Yorùbá | Literal meaning | How to use am |
|---|---|---|
| Ẹ kú iṣẹ́ | greeting for work | to person wey dey work |
| Ẹ kú àárẹ̀ | greeting for stress/tiredness | to person wey do heavy work |
| Ẹ kú ilé | greeting for house | to person wey dey house, na person wey just arrive dey talk am |
| Ẹ kú àbọ̀ | greeting for return | welcome back |
| Ẹ kú ìrìn àjò | greeting for journey | to person wey travel |
| Ẹ kú ojúmọ́ | greeting for daybreak | for new day |
| Ẹ kú ọdún | greeting for year | for festival or new year |
| Ẹ kú ẹ̀yẹ | greeting for honour | for celebration |
| Ẹ kú ìyàwó | greeting for bride | for wedding |
| Ẹ kú ọ̀fọ̀ | greeting for loss | condolence |
| Ẹ kú ìpalẹ̀mọ́ | greeting for preparation | to person wey dey prepare |
| Ẹ kú ewu | greeting for danger | to person wey survive danger |
| Ẹ kú ìdúró | greeting for standing | to person wey dem make stand wait |
| Yorùbá | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ẹ ṣé | thank you (with respet) |
| Ó ṣé | thank you (between friends/mates) |
| Ẹ jọ̀ọ́ | please |
| Ẹ má bínú | no vex, dem dey use am as "sorry" or "excuse me" |
| Pẹ̀lẹ́ | sorry, sympathy, dem dey also use am as general greeting to calm person |
| Ẹ káàbọ̀ | welcome |
| Ó dàbọ̀ | bye-bye, till we meet again |
| Ṣé àlàáfíà ni? | peace dey?, how you dey? |
| Àlàáfíà ni | peace dey, body dey well |
| Ṣé dáadáa ni? | everything dey fine? |
| Bẹ́ẹ̀ ni | yes |
| Bẹ́ẹ̀ kọ́ | no |
One cultural note wey dey very important pass the vocabulary: for traditional way, greeting dey come with prostration (ìdọ̀bálẹ̀) for men and kneeling down (ìkúnlẹ̀) for women when dem dey greet elders. How people dey do am now dey vary well-well, and plenty families don change am or stop to dey do am. As person know say the physical action na part of the greeting, e dey explain why "why you no greet me well" na real complaint wey no really get much to do with the words wey person talk.
| Yorùbá | English |
|---|---|
| ènìyàn | person |
| ọkùnrin | man |
| obìnrin | woman |
| ọmọ | child |
| bàbá | father |
| ìyá | mother |
| ẹ̀gbọ́n | elder sibling |
| àbúrò | younger sibling |
| ọkọ | husband |
| ìyàwó | wife |
| ọ̀rẹ́ | friend |
| àgbà | elder |
| ìdílé | family |
| ará | relative, member of community |
Make you note say Yorùbá family words dey show age difference (ẹ̀gbọ́n / àbúrò) instead of gender, wey be the opposite of English brother/sister system. This one no mean say something dey miss for Yorùbá; na just different way to classify things, and the corpus treat am for 09-social.
| Yorùbá | English |
|---|---|
| ilé | house, home |
| oúnjẹ | food |
| omi | water |
| owó | money |
| iṣẹ́ | work |
| ọjà | market |
| ọ̀nà | road, way |
| ilẹ̀ | ground, land |
| ọjọ́ | day |
| oṣù | month, moon |
| ọdún | year, festival |
| orúkọ | name |
| èdè | language |
| ìwé | book, paper |
| ọ̀rọ̀ | word, matter |
| orí | head |
| ọkàn | heart, mind |
| ara | body |
| Yorùbá | English |
|---|---|
| jẹ | to eat |
| mu | to drink |
| lọ | to go |
| wá | to come |
| ṣe | to do, to make |
| rí | to see |
| gbọ́ | to hear |
| sọ | to say |
| mọ̀ | to know |
| fẹ́ | to want, to love |
| ní | to have |
| wà | to be, to exist |
| kọ́ | to learn, to teach, to build |
| kà | to read, to count |
| fún | to give |
| rà | to buy |
| ta | to sell |
Remember say plenty nouns na these verbs wey dem put vowel for front, as dem explain for yoruba-etymology-and-word-formation. Once you learn one verb, e dey often give you several nouns join.
| Yorùbá | Number |
|---|---|
| ọ̀kan | 1 |
| èjì | 2 |
| ẹ̀ta | 3 |
| ẹ̀rin | 4 |
| àrún | 5 |
| ẹ̀fà | 6 |
| èje | 7 |
| ẹ̀jọ | 8 |
| ẹ̀sán | 9 |
| ẹ̀wá | 10 |
Warning make e no shock you: the Yorùbá number system wey pass ten na vigesimal, e dey based on twenty, and e dey use subtraction well-well. Fifteen na twenty minus five, and forty-five na fifty minus five, while bigger numbers dey build by multiplying and subtracting from twenties. E make sense well-well and e completely different from English, and na him be the single hardest part of basic Yorùbá. No try am for week one, and no conclude say you dey fail when e confuse you. Na because of this reason make most Nigerians dey use English numbers for prices and phone numbers now.
You no fit practice writing without way to type the marks. Options dey, and all of dem dey free.
Keyman dey free and open source, from SIL, and e dey run on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and inside browser . Several Yorùbá keyboards dey available through am, including Yorùbá 8, wey dey let you choose the modern subdot or traditional underbar for ẹ, ọ, and ṣ, and Yorùbá Ìrọ̀rùn . Na this option solid pass and na him you suppose pick if you wan choose only one.
WriteYoruba na Yorùbá keyboard for Mac and Windows wey dem produce alongside the YorùbáName project . https://www.writeyoruba.com/
Yorùbá Tones na free browser-based tool for tone-marking and diacritics, wey dey useful when you dey machine wey you no fit install anything. https://yorubatones.com/
Built-in options. For iOS and Android, you fit add Yorùbá keyboard for system language settings on most recent versions. For macOS, the ABC Extended input source dey produce combining marks through dead keys, though as dem note for yoruba-orthography, the combination of subdot-plus-tone still dey awkward because Unicode no get single precomposed character for dem.
Technical note if you dey work with text. Because person must build ẹ́ and ọ̀ from base letter plus combining marks, the same word wey you dey see fit exist as different byte sequences. If you dey build corpus, dey search, or dey remove duplicates, make you use Unicode normalisation (NFC or NFD) consistently. Dem explain this one for yoruba-orthography.
Dem check everything wey dey below and dem dey free unless dem talk otherwise.
Yorùbá Dictionary, University of Wisconsin Pressbooks (Unizin). Free online dictionary wey dey target foreign learners and people wey dey learn am as second language, wey get solid introductory section for front about sounds and pronunciation. https://wisc.pb.unizin.org/yorubadictionary/
YorùbáName, crowdsourced multimedia dictionary of Yorùbá names, wey Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún start, wey hold pass 10,000 names with spelling, word origin (etymology), meanings, audio, and stories, wey the Ọọ̀ni of Ifẹ̀ endorse. E start as undergraduate thesis for University of Ibadan for 2005 and launch publicly on 19 February 2016 . Free. https://www.yorubaname.com/
Global Yoruba Lexical Database, wey Yiwọla Awoyale compile for the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC2008L03). Serious academic lexical resource wey get extensive grammatical documentation. The database itself dey under license through LDC, but the documentation PDF dey open make anybody read and e dey very solid on top word formation and names. https://catalog.ldc.upenn.edu/docs/LDC2008L03/Global_Yoruba_Lexical_Database.pdf
Omniglot, for quick and correct one-page overview of the writing system and pronunciation. https://www.omniglot.com/writing/yoruba.htm
University of Iowa Center for Language and Culture Learning, selected list of Yorùbá language and culture resources. https://clcl.uiowa.edu/language-resources/yoruba-language-and-culture-resources
Resources for Self-Instructional Learners of Less Commonly Taught Languages, University of Wisconsin, wey get list of Yorùbá learning websites with notes and regular updates. Na this place be the best starting point for adult wey dey teach theirself because the notes dey explain wetin each resource actually dey good for. https://wisc.pb.unizin.org/lctlresources/chapter/yoruba-language-learning-resources-updated-1-25/ For wider survey of wetin dey online, including material wey community dey manage, see the Africa in Words listing .
University Yorùbá programmes. Dem dey teach Yorùbá for credit for many North American universities, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan State, Georgia, Florida, Tulane, and Harvard, and many of them dey run summer intensive classes through African Studies centres and Title VI funding. If you dey near one, you fit often enroll even if no be for degree, and na the fastest structured way be that.
Yoruba101 by Genii Games, interactive app wey dey teach words, numbers, greetings, and proverbs with audio, wey dem design for children and adults. E useful for building habit from the start.
Bamgbóṣé, Ayọ̀, A Grammar of Yoruba (Cambridge University Press, 1966). The standard descriptive grammar of Standard Yorùbá, and the main reference material to check once person don master the basics .
Adesola, Oluseye, Yoruba: A Grammar Sketch. Grammatical overview wey free to download. https://afranaphproject.afranaphdatabase.com/images/stories/downloads/casefiles/YorubaGS.pdf
Masakhane, grassroots African-led NLP community with open Yorùbá datasets including MasakhaNER. https://github.com/masakhane-io/masakhane-ner/
Automatic diacritic restoration models and data, wey Iroro Orife release as open source. E useful if you get untoned Yorùbá text wey you wan mark. See arXiv:1804.00832. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1804.00832
Arranged according to the result you go get from effort, for person wey get limited time.
Week one. Learn the 25 letters loud. Learn the three tone marks. Write your own full name correctly with diacritics, and the names of your parents and grandparents. Install Keyman with Yorùbá keyboard.
Weeks two to four. Practice the greetings wey dey up reach level wey you fit write them without looking. Read five proverbs from yoruba-owe-proverbs every week, loud, and check the tone marks against your own pronunciation.
Months two and three. Read long text wey you already know: like Yorùbá Bible passage, song lyrics, or children book. No use dictionary for every single word; read am make e flow and make recognition dey build naturally.
Ongoing. Follow elders for your family yarn, in Yorùbá, and ask about names, proverbs, and your oríkì orílẹ̀. Na this resource dey finish fastest, e no dey any archive, and according to yoruba-oriki na the oldest women for family dey hold am pass. No app fit replace am.
Three things that will help more than any resource:
Accept say you go sound like learner for some time, even to your relatives. yoruba-owe-proverbs item 33 dey hit the point directly: bí ojú kò bá tì ni, iṣẹ́ kò ní tì ni, if shame no catch you to ask question, the work no go defeat you.
Write with diacritics from day one, even when e slow. To dey learn how to read tone while you dey write without am no dey work, and habit dey stick early.
No treat dialect as error. If your family na Èkìtì, Ìjẹ̀bú, or Ondó, standard materials go different from wetin you grow up dey hear, and the standard no correct pass your own, e just be Ọ̀yọ́-based because of historical reasons wey dem explain for the-yoruba-language. Learn the standard because na wetin dem dey write, and keep your own variety.
The Yorùbá sound system and its three tones, with worked minimal pairs showing how pitch alone changes a word's meaning.
How Yorùbá came to be written in Arabic and then Roman script, who decided the spelling rules, and why the subdots and tone marks are not optional.
The categories of Yorùbá names, the naming ceremony, the names given for birth circumstances and for children thought to return, and a worked list of common names with their literal meanings.
What Yorùbá is as a language, which languages it is related to, how its dialects vary across Yorùbáland, and how many people speak it today.
The machinery Yorùbá uses to make new words, and a worked, confidence-flagged examination of the etymologies of the key religious and philosophical terms.
What Yorùbá proverbs do in speech and in law, and a worked collection of more than forty proverbs in original, literal gloss, and idiomatic English.