Most Igbo lessons teach you to ask questions. Fewer teach you to answer them, which is the half you need when someone asks you something first.
This topic does both, in pairs — and starts with the thing about Igbo questions that genuinely surprises people.
Yes-or-No Questions Need No Question Word
English rearranges a sentence to ask a question. You will come becomes will you come? — the words move.
Igbo does not move anything. You say the statement and let your voice rise:
- Ị ga-abịa? — Will you come?
- I nyere ụmụaka a nri? — Did you give these children food?
- Taa bụ Afọ. Ị ga-abịa? — Today is Afọ. Will you come?
Compare Ị ga-abịa? with the statement Anyị ga-abịa, we will come. Same structure. Only the pronoun and the intonation differ.
This is why you can ask questions in Igbo from your very first week. If you can say a sentence, you can ask it.
The Questions You Will Be Asked
These four come up in nearly every first conversation. Each is paired with an answer you can give straight away.
Your name
- Gịnị bụ aha gị? — What is your name?
- Aha m bụ … — My name is …
The question and the answer use the same frame in the same order — aha, whose, bụ, the name. You are not learning two things.
Where you are from
- Kedụ obodo i si? — Which town are you from?
- Obodo m dị n’ebe dị iche. — My town is in a different place.
Naming your town on its own is a complete and natural answer. You do not need a full sentence.
What you want
- Kedụ ihe ị chọ? — What do you want?
- Achọghị m … — I don’t want …
Note ihe in the question — thing. Literally what thing do you want? Ihe is a word worth having, because it fills the gap whenever you do not know the noun.
How you are
- Kedụ? — How are you?
- Kèdụ́ kà í mèrè? — How are you doing?
- Kedụ, nwa m? — How are you, my child?
Kedụ on its own is a complete greeting. It is also the most flexible question word in Igbo — the dictionary glosses it as how? which? where?
Questions With a Question Word
When you need something more specific than yes or no, the question word goes first and the rest of the sentence follows in its normal order:
- Onye kpọrọ gị? — Who called you?
- Ebee ka ọ nọ? — Where is she?
- Ebee ka ị na-eje? — Where are you going?
- Kedụ ndị e siiri nri a? — Which people was this food prepared for?
- Ị bụ nwaanyị ka ị bụ nwoke? — Are you a woman or a man?
That last one shows how Igbo offers a choice — two statements joined by ka. Are you X or are you Y, with the verb repeated rather than left out.
The Answer You Need Most
You will not understand every question. The useful skill is answering anyway, in Igbo:
- Amaghị m. — I don’t know.
- Biko. — Please. (say it again, more slowly)
Two short answers that keep the conversation in Igbo. Reaching for English instead is what ends it.
Practise Both Halves
Here is the mistake almost every learner makes: they drill the answers and never say the questions out loud. Then someone asks them something and they do not recognise it, even though they could have answered it.
So say both sides. Ask Kedụ obodo i si? aloud, several times, until hearing it is ordinary. Then answer it. Then take any statement you can already make and turn it into a yes-or-no question just by lifting your voice at the end.
Keep Building Your Igbo Sentences
Asking and answering is the fourth topic in Sentences Part 2, after the pronoun work and before everyday expressions. The lesson closes with a conversation that is mostly questions and answers in sequence.
👉 Learn How to Build Igbo Sentences – Part 2 free on IgboLearn
🎤 Get asked these questions for real in a live Igbo conversation
Related reading: Kedụ is the word doing most of the work above, and hello in Igbo explains why it is a question rather than a greeting. How are you in Igbo has the fuller set of replies, how to ask questions in Igbo takes name, town and work further, and how to introduce yourself in Igbo is the answering half of the same exchange.
Say the statement and let your voice rise. English rearranges the words — you will come becomes will you come — but Igbo moves nothing. Ị ga-abịa? has the same structure as the statement; only the intonation differs.
First, with the rest of the sentence following in its normal order. Kedụ is the most flexible of them — the dictionary glosses it as how, which and where — and on its own it is already a complete greeting.
Answer anyway, in Igbo. Two short replies keep the conversation alive where reaching for English ends it. And practise asking as well as answering — most learners drill answers, then freeze because they did not recognise the question.