Learn isiXhosa Through Topics You Actually Care About

LingoBear creates short isiXhosa passages on topics you choose. Tap any word for an instant English translation and build your vocabulary as you read. Nguni Bantu language with one of the most extensive click systems of any language, Latin script, around 15 noun classes, two tones, ~19M speakers.

Tap any word for instant translation

Every word in your isiXhosa reading passage is clickable. Get English translations and grammar help — useful for parsing the rich click consonant inventory.

Read about topics you choose

Type any topic and LingoBear generates a fresh isiXhosa reading passage — from Xhosa amapiano music to Eastern Cape travel.

What is Xhosa and where is it spoken?

Xhosa (isiXhosa) is a Nguni Bantu language and one of the 12 official languages of South Africa, with around 19 million speakers — mostly in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng. It is the mother tongue of Nelson Mandela. The orthography was first developed by Scottish missionaries at Lovedale in the 19th century and uses standard Latin letters with no diacritics.

How many clicks does Xhosa have?

isiXhosa is famous for borrowing extensive click consonants from neighbouring Khoisan languages. There are three click 'places' — dental (c), alveolar (q) and lateral (x) — each combinable with five 'manners' (plain voiceless, aspirated, voiced, nasalised, breathy-voiced), giving 15 click consonants in total. The word Xhosa itself begins with a lateral click. LingoBear can teach you to recognise these in context.