Learn Igbo: Numbers, Greetings & Conversation

Letters and sounds

The 36-letter alphabet, the dotted vowels and the digraphs that make Igbo look special.

Lesson 1 of 3

36 letters, 8 vowels

The Igbo alphabet

Written Igbo uses the Nkpụrụ Edemede Asụsụ Igbo, the Igbo alphabet. It has 36 letters: 8 vowels and 28 consonants. Nine of those letters are digraphs, pairs of letters that stand for one sound.

The eight vowels are a, e, i, ị, o, ọ, u, ụ.

Three vowel sounds to start with

Tap to flip

Did you know?

The dots under ị, ọ and ụ are not decoration. akwa and akwụ are different words, so the dot changes the meaning.

Lesson 2 of 3

The nine digraphs

Digraphs with examples

Letters	Sound	Example
ch	as in “church”	chere! (wait!)
gb	implosive, no English equivalent	egbe (eagle, gun)
gh	voiced velar fricative	aghụghọ (deception)
gw	g with lip rounding	agwọ (snake)
kp	implosive, no English equivalent	akpa (bag)
kw	as in “queen”	akwụkwọ (book)
nw	n + w	anwụ (mosquito)
ny	palatal nasal	anya (eye)
sh	as in “shabby”; rare, mostly loanwords	shuga (sugar)

Match the words

Tap two cards that belong together.

akwụkwọ = book
anya = eye
agwọ = snake
akpa = bag
anwụ = mosquito

Lesson 3 of 3

Sounds that are new

gb and kp

Two sounds are not found in English: gb and kp. A learner’s tip: say b or p while shaping your mouth as if you were about to say g or k.

Try it slowly with egbe and akpa.

Spelling changes over time

Igbo spelling has changed over the years. A 1961 orthography used dots; one dictionary prints dotted vowels with umlauts so they can be typed easily. This site uses the dotted forms common in schools and publishing today: ị, ọ, ụ, ṅ and ch.

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