What are the Twi phrases and expressions you should be familiar with when knocking and entering the house of a person who speaks Twi? Well, before someone enters a Twi speaker’s house or room, he must find out whether there is somebody in by saying Agoo. If there is someone in the house or room he will responding by saying Amee.
In the proceeding scenario we shall look at what to say and expect when you are entering the house of a person who speaks the Twi language.
KNOCKING AND ENTERING A “TWI SPEAKING HOUSE”
When you reach the door you say
Agoo! (Sound for knocking)
Note: You can also say Kɔkɔɔkɔ instead of Agoo.
When there is somebody in the house, he will respond by saying
Amee! Bra mu – Yes! Come in
You then enter the house and greet by saying
Mekyea wo - I greet you
If you are a man, you will hear
Yaa agya (response to a greeting)
If you are a woman, you will hear
Yaa εna (response to a greeting)
From this point the person may offer you are chair by saying
Akonwa nie, tena ase – Here is a seat, sit down
When you knock and the person in the house does not know you, he may respond by saying
Ɛyε Hwan? - Who is it?
In this case, you respond by saying
Ɛyε me … - It is me …
That is all there is to know when knocking and entering the house of someone who speaks Twi.
In our next article under AKAN CULTURE, we shall learn about how to use the correct phrases and expressions to get permission to leave somebody you have visited, whether in the morning, afternoon or evening.
By the way if you want to learn more Twi, you might want to consider reading about Nkyea Twi Primer, the best language learning software for Twi or browse through the rest of our articles. You can also learn more by following our tweets on Twitter , liking us on Facebook or subscribing to our RSS. You can also check out our Youtube Channel for videos of Nkyea Twi language learning products.
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I think that there are appropriate twi spellings for these names eg. Sap)n not sarpong. 3dweso and not Ejisu. Akyeampon and not Acheampong/Akyeampong.
My suggestion is that you try and introduce a row or column where words are first spelt appropriately. Then you can have how the Europeans spelt it as it has come to stay and then etc. If I am learning Asanti twi, dw(o,e,i) not the same as j(o,e,i).
Aside that there are alphabets that are not part of the twi alphabets and this distinction if not drawn will compromise on the true language you seek to teach and it’s quality. Thank you
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