I’m very pleased that the posts which I have written previously on Arabic have been popular. Therefore I decided to add a regular monthly Arabic post as a standard feature of my blog.
Some important basics everyone should know:
I ana
You enta (male) entee (female)
He huwa
She hiya
They humma
We nahnu
Mine liya or lee
Yours laka
His lahu
Her’s laha
Their’s lahum
Ours lana
Why? Laish
When? Meta
No la
Yes na’am
Filed under: culture, Saudi Arabia, Saudi culture, Saudi education, Saudi Living, travel Tagged: | Riyadh, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, Saudi culture, Saudi customs, travel
I think the first 2 and the last 2 on the list are perhaps the most important along with the previously posted shukran and afwan.
Is there a separate you plural form?
How about Where? Feen? along with When?
Great series. Thanks!
thanks for your efforts
its being easier to learn arabic now
thanks again – please post daily alongwith your mind boggling articles
Of course, Arabic being such a wide and varied language, one must understand that there are varients of these depending on where you go. There is also often more then one way of saying the same thing in the same place, ie “na’am” can also be “aywa’.
Transliteration becomes an issue when you are not writing in Arabic script.
At first, when I first started learning Arabic I’d get frustrated that I’d have to learn different words when speaking to people of different regions and have to explain myself when speaking to an Egyptian when I’d be perfectly understood by someone of the Khalij, but I got used to it.
As to Morrocans and other Maghrebes, forgot about it.
Chiara,
As to plural form, Arabic actually has more than one plural form. There is one for two, and one for three or more.
Abu Sinan- ah yes, na’am and aywa both very familiar.
The dual plural discussion came up on another of American Bedu’s lessons, but I thought it was for “we” (two-originally “wit” in Old English) and “we” (three etc originally “we” in Old English).
Dialectal variations in Arabic are challenging but ultimately enriching, Moroccan being probably the most distant-all that amazigh, French, and back translated Spanish LOL-I used to be able to distinguish Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisia but no longer. Only sure fire Moroccan is the number 2 “juge”
Transliterations in my opinion are especially interesting from Arabic to each different European language eg. fadil (Fr) fadeel (En) taoufik (Fr) tawfik (En) etc.
American Bedu is giving us a start, and a starting point for discussions that teach more.
Fun!
BTW where have you been in the marrying a Saudi man debates-you have been conspicuous by your absence LOL
Thank you, this post is well-timed
Chiara,
I have just been kind of busy. As to marrying Saudi men, I wouldnt be a good one for that, my wife and her three sisters have all said they’d never marry a Saudi man again.
This includes Saudi men born and raised in the West, their contention being that the cultural trash that marks the majority of these men knows no international borders.
Glad you all like the arabic post but if you want to digress on other subjects please do so offline via email, the debate page or the applicable post! Appreciate your understanding and cooperation.
Abu Sinana, wrong post, yet always enjoyable to read your delicately diplomatically worded comments.
”NO” is the most important word in any language, but it can always be replaced by a knock on the head.
”Sodd off” is also a very important expression, can we have that one in unequivical Arabic please??
My apologies for my part in going off topic. I expected the response, if any, to go on the appropriate thread.
Re: arabic language on this post, I notice there is no You (plural) listed-what would it be?
You (plural) according to “Making Out in Arabic” is “antum”
“Sod Off” looks like it has the book’s equivalent to “Stop bothering me” and is: “tawaqqaf ‘an iza’aajii”
Does the “kit” pictured above come from the company SoundVision?
Ah, like a big girl
, and linguistically trained enough to google appropriately :- ) I found the following answers to my dual plurals and you plural questions:
Arabic Subject Pronouns
Singular
I أنا Ana
you (singular masculine.) أنتَ Anta
you (singular feminine) أنتِ Anti
he هو Howa
she هي Hiya
Dual
you (dual male or female) أنتُما Antuma
they (dual male or female) هُما Humaa
Plural:
We نحن Nahn
you (plural masculine) أنتُم Antum
you (plural feminine) أنتُن Antun
they (plural masculine) هُم Hum
they (plural feminine) هُن Hun
I hope others find this helpful, and love dual plurals as much as I do!
Continuing on the post, the same site offers the following possessive pronouns:
Arabic Independent Possessive Pronouns
Singular
Mine li لي
yours (sing masculine) lak لك
yours (singular feminine) laki لك
his lah له
hers laha لها
Dual
yours (dual male or female) lakumaa لكما
theirs (dual male or female) lahumaa لهما
Plural
Ours lana لنا
yours (plural masculine) lakum لكم
yours (plural feminine) lakun لكن
theirs (plural masculine) lahum لهم
theirs (plural feminine) lahun لهن
From
http://arabic.speak7.com/arabic_pronouns.htm
Thanks again for the impetus to learn/re-learn these.
Thanks Susan. I leave to Aafke, a comment about how close “Stop bothering me” is to her view of “sod off” LOL.
Here again, I hope you will indulge me, Bedu, in my plug for the best Arabic language teaching tool I’ve found: http://www.naturalarabic.com.
It is extremely versatile, and serves all levels of learners. Free lessons and a seven day free trial are available.
I have no affiliation whatsoever with this site, except as an enthusiastic supporter.
I thank everyone for adding to these monthly arabic postings with more words, information and informative sites!!!!
I know it is a public blog, but Arabic is such a rich language when it comes to curses, often so vulgar, yet so poetic as well.
Too bad we couldnt do a 18 and older blog post covering the first words almost everyone learns first in any language.
Abu Sinan-please, thank you, hello, goodbye, washroom, how are you??
Please: min fudlik
Thank you: shukran
Hello: marhaba or salam alaikum are typical
Goodbye: ma’salaama
Washroom: Hamam
How are you: kaif al hal (male) kaif al haliki (female) or informal can use shlonik ent (male) or shlonik entee (female)
American Bedu-thank you. Some of these words are distinct from those of dialectal Moroccan. I shall be more universal in my vocabulary choices now.
I was also suggesting to Abu Sinan that these are the first words many learn in a language as opposed to the “curses” some do.
Many Saudis have told me they have great difficulty following morrocan arabic!
We once took my visiting father-in-law to a formal dinner event put on by the Canadian Arab Federation thinking it would be a linguistically easier social event for him-unfortunately as he said “I can understand them [Egyptian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian] but they can’t understand my Moroccan.” Since fewer spoke French than English the whole thing backfired. It really brought home to me how far off standard Arabic Moroccan is, and how soon even educated Moroccans lose their spoken Standard Arabic after retirement!
One I always like isnt Saudi, but more Kuwaiti….”Ish loanak” It literally means “what colour are you”.
The first time I got that I looked at my arm and said “white” with a funny look. It is another way of asking how someone is.
Chiara,
I know curse words in about 12 languages and am functional in four languages. I can give you the words you talk about in about 6 languages.
Curse words, right or wrong, tend to be almost universal. I remember overhearing an African American telling another one to listen out for Arabs saying “abid” (slave) as it was an insult. That was here in the USA, or when I was a teen knowing to call Arabs “jehoodi” if they upset you.
Abu Sinan-I suspect we had very different adolescent experiences and so have differently apportioned linguistic talents.
I am happy with my one truly vile Arabic curse word and one slang word for a significant appendage.?
Shokran for the 2 insults though? . Unfortunately, if I were to use them my husband might find himself in a fist fight (almost got him into one of those by flipping off an Italian in Florence? ).
Bslama
Chiara
who just learned more emoticons
For classical/Quranic Arabic try out:
http://www.80percentwords.com
Shukran American Bedu for this post, it helps me learn more arabic words! When I use them while talking to my boyfriend on the phone, you should hear his surprised voice! so funny!!
I’m so happy to hear this Miss Turtle – that’s fallah (cool in arabic)!
salam
as a Saudi Bedouin, there are many Glossary and pronunciation in our AlDossari tribe dialect.For Example, if you are saying “Did you go?” in formal Arabic or as we call it fosha it will be “hal thahabt” هل ذهبت؟ but in Saudi Arabia they mostly say “reht??”=”went” رحت؟ , But our tribe members say “reht’tant??” رحتنت؟ in one word which I think came from “reht ant”=”went you” رحت أنت؟ but I’m not sure.
For Your Information and I know you will like these piece of information AmericanBedu.
so If you say thesewords below to your saudi family member will simply say “Huh?”
هماني =as I was =hamany (Exclusive for Dossari)
ميده =I mean him = made’ah (Exclusive for Dossari)
ادعثه = fun = ed ‘athah (Exclusive for Dossari)
مصدوع =crazy = masdoo’a (Exclusive for Dossari)
تسنكياه = You aren’t better than him (exclusive for Dossari )= tsankyah
يغريه = convience him to do thing (usually bad)=ygreah
جعلة الهندرية الملسا =Uknown
شفتنته = Did you see him?= sheft’tantah?
اقلط=come in=eglet
.this is I didn’t find in any tribe
تسايف الباب=leave the door a little bit opened = tsiyeef elbab
there are more but enough with these……Good Luck in Arabic ………LoL
Saudi Bedu – thank you so much! I especially like “tsankyah”
I wish I knew enough to write a posting about tribes of Saudi Arabia…
anyone willing to take that on? I’d make it into a post?
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Thanks,
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Andy McFaul
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