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Shona Language

10 interesting pairs of tsumo that will confuse you — and how to make sense of them

October 3, 2025October 2, 2025 by ZimbOriginal

Every dilemma carries a paradox at its heart. If one option were clearly good and the other clearly bad, it wouldn’t feel like much of … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language Leave a comment

8 things every Shona learner should know that will make learning smoother

September 18, 2025 by ZimbOriginal

Every parent wants their child to succeed when learning a new language. But here’s the thing: language learning comes with some brutal truths that most … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language Leave a comment

How to stop these 7 mistakes slowing your child’s Shona skills

September 4, 2025August 28, 2025 by ZimbOriginal

Learning Shona — or any language — is more than memorising vocabulary and rules. It’s about building the confidence and mental habits that allow you … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language Leave a comment

What teaching Shona to children taught me

August 28, 2025August 14, 2025 by ZimbOriginal

A simple Shona tutoring venture that wasn’t so simple When I started helping children with Shona around 2019, I have to be honest—I was anxious, … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language Leave a comment

More easy lessons on madimikira — from ‘Imbwa Nyoro’ (Part 2)

September 5, 2025July 31, 2025 by ZimbOriginal

In a previous post, I explored the madimikira (idioms) found in the Shona novel Imbwa Nyoro by Renny M. Mumvuma. The use of idioms in … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language Leave a comment

Why Shona learning matters, and how to make it easy

August 28, 2025January 9, 2025 by ZimbOriginal

Ever since I took on my first learner back in 2019, Shona learning has become a subject dear to me. I believe proficiency in more … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language Leave a comment

101 English Verbs — and their rich nyaudzosingwi

September 12, 2025March 2, 2023 by ZimbOriginal

This post was last updated on 12 January 2025. Adverbs and Nyaudzosingwi Adverbs are words that modify or describe verbs, adjectives, clauses, sentences, or even … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language 5 Comments

Tsumo| 20 Shona proverbs to inspire good work habits

August 18, 2025November 30, 2020 by ZimbOriginal

Tsumo on work tell a story of a hard-working society, and give the picture that agriculture was the mainstay of the economy of the Shona … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language 10 Comments

Nyaudzosingwi| Breaking down 70 ideophones of breaking

February 20, 2025October 29, 2020 by ZimbOriginal
broken eggshells

In lay terms, ideophones are words that stand out (are ‘marked’) and whose form betrays something of (is depictive of) their meaning. The following 70 … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language Leave a comment

My 5 Shona learning ingredients

August 28, 2025September 12, 2020 by ZimbOriginal
ingredients-recipe

This post was last updated on 28 August 2025. Culture and language are inextricably intertwined. Over the past few years, I’ve spent considerable time researching … Read more

Categories Language, Shona Language 4 Comments
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  • The forgotten but interesting Shona housewarming ceremony
  • 10 interesting pairs of tsumo that will confuse you — and how to make sense of them
  • 5 interesting discoveries from 1,000+ Zimbabweans on their mutupo
  • 8 things every Shona learner should know that will make learning smoother
  • What the Shona believe about witchcraft — and why it’s surprising

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Recent Stories

  • The forgotten but interesting Shona housewarming ceremony October 9, 2025
  • 10 interesting pairs of tsumo that will confuse you — and how to make sense of them October 2, 2025
  • 5 interesting discoveries from 1,000+ Zimbabweans on their mutupo September 25, 2025
  • 8 things every Shona learner should know that will make learning smoother September 18, 2025
  • What the Shona believe about witchcraft — and why it’s surprising September 11, 2025

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