How to say I love you in Yoruba
It’s so important to be able to explain what you want and what you need in this life…so in today’s lesson you will learn how to say phrases with ‘I want’ in Yoruba.
This lesson will open you up to a new realm of being able to say what food you want in restaurants, what you want to watch at the cinema and to declare your undying love for your crush in Yoruba.
Let’s begin!
To start, the verb to want in Yoruba is ‘fẹ́’, therefore to say I want in Yoruba you put the pronoun Mo (which mean I) before the word fẹ́, in other words, ‘mo fẹ́’.
Wanting Objects
In Yoruba if you want an object you just need to tack the object on to the end of the phrase ‘I want’, in other words.
Mo fẹ́ + object
So if you are a big lover of yam, as I am, all you have to do is tack the word for yam in Yoruba (iṣu) onto the end of the phrase ‘Mo fẹ́’ i.e.
Mo fẹ́ iṣu
Some more example sentences of wanting objects are given below, a sentence has been provided for any plantain lovers.
Example sentences
| Yoruba | English |
| Mo fẹ́ ẹyin | I want eggs |
| Mo fẹ́ ọbẹ̀ | I want stew |
| Mo fẹ́ ọ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀ | I want plantain |
| Mo fẹ́ ajá | I want a dog |
| Mo fẹ́ ilé | I want a house |
Wanting to do something
Of course, it is not always objects that we want, sometimes we want to do things. So in this section you will learn how to say what you want to do in Yoruba.
NB: In Yoruba you can put verbs together without having to conjugate them, in other words you can put two Yoruba verbs together without having to do anything to them.
Therefore if you want to say that you want to do something in Yoruba just tack the verb onto the end of the phrase, ‘I want’.
Mo fẹ́ + verb
So, if your favourite Burna Boy song comes on and you want to shout “I want to dance!” (I don’t know why you would say that rather than just start dancing, but just go with the example) then just add the verb ‘jó’ to the phrase ‘Mo fẹ́’
Mo fẹ́ jó
Some more example sentences of wanting objects are given below.
Example sentences
| Yoruba | English |
| Mo fẹ́ jẹun | I want to eat |
| Mo fẹ́ ṣeré | I want play |
| Mo fẹ́ kà | I want read |
| Mo fẹ́ sọ̀ | I want speak |
| Mo fẹ́ mu | I want drink |
confused about all the accents and dots? make sure to check out our explainer lessons?
How to say ‘I love you’ in Yoruba
Finally! The part that you’ve been waiting for, how to say ‘I love you’ to your Yoruba partner, it’s time to impress them and show that your down with the culture.
This phrase has a slightly different structure to the one shown in the last two examples.
Now you know how to say phrases with ‘I want’ in Yoruba and how to declare you love for someone in Yoruba.