Learn Shona Through Topics You Actually Care About

LingoBear creates short Shona passages on topics you choose. Tap any word for an instant English translation and build your vocabulary as you read. Bantu language, most widely spoken first language in Zimbabwe, Latin script, ~22 noun classes, two contrastive tones, ~14M speakers across Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Tap any word for instant translation

Every word in your Shona reading passage is clickable. Get English translations and grammar help — useful for parsing the rich noun-class agreement system.

Read about topics you choose

Type any topic and LingoBear generates a fresh Shona reading passage — from Great Zimbabwe history to Harare culture.

What is Shona and where is it spoken?

Shona (chiShona) is a Bantu language and the most widely spoken first language in Zimbabwe, with around 14 million speakers across Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The standard written form was codified in 1931 (the Doke standard) from the major dialects Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Korekore and Ndau. It is one of Zimbabwe's 16 official languages.

What grammar features does Shona have?

Shona uses around 22 noun classes (sometimes counted as 21) whose prefixes trigger agreement throughout the sentence. Verbs are agglutinative and take subject, object, tense, aspect and mood markers. The language has two tones — high (often unmarked) and low — that can change meaning: mukákî 'milker' vs mukákî with different tonal patterns. LingoBear lets you see these in real text.