Learn how to greet people
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Roland: Roland here! Newbie Season 2, Lesson 1 - How Are You? |
| Hello, and welcome to the Newbie Series Season 2 at ArabicPod101.com, where we study Egyptian colloquial in a fun, educational format! |
| Hala: So, brush up on the Arabic that you started learning long ago, or start learning today. Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Roland, what are we looking at in this lesson. |
| Roland: In this lesson, you will learn how to... |
| Hala: greet people. |
| Roland: This conversation takes place... |
| Hala: on the streets of Egypt. |
| Roland: The conversation is between... |
| Hala: Hala and Roland. |
| Roland: The speakers are friends, therefore the speakers will be speaking... |
| Hala: informal Egyptian Arabic. |
| Roland: Now, if you are listening on an iPod |
| Hala: Or an iTouch or iPhone |
| Roland: Click the center button of the iPod or tap the screen on your iTouch or iPhone to see the notes for this lesson while you listen. |
| Hala: Read along while you listen. |
| Roland: This technique will help you to remember faster. Okay, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| رولاند: الســلام عــلــيــكــم يا هالة ، إزيـك |
| هالة: و عــلــيــكــم الســلام يا رولاند ، أنا كــويــسة شــكــراً، و إنــت إزيـك؟ |
| رولاند: الحـمــد لله ، تــمام |
| هالة: إنــت مــبــسوط في مــصـر ؟ |
| رولاند: أيــوة، أنا مــبــسوط ، مــصـر حــلــوة جـــداً |
| هالة: تــمام ، أشوفــك بــكــرة في الجامــعة ؟ |
| رولاند: ماشي ، أشـوفــك بــكـرة ، مع الســلامة |
| هالة: مع الســلامة |
| A: Es-salamu ʿalīkum yā Hālh. Izzayyik? |
| B: Wi ʿalīkum Es-salām yā Roland. ʾnā kiwayyish, šukran, wi inta ʾizzayyak? |
| A: il- ḥamdulilla, tamām. |
| B: ʾnta mabsūṭ fī maṣr? |
| A: ʾywh ʾnā mabsūṭ. maṣr ḥilwh giddan. |
| B: tamām ʾšūfak bukrh fī eg- gāmʿh? |
| A: mašī, ʾšūfik bukrh, maʿa ʾis-salāmh |
| B: maʿa es-salāmh |
| One more time, with the translation. |
| رولاند: الســلام عــلــيــكــم يا هالة ، إزيـك |
| Roland: Peace be upon you, Hala. How are you? |
| هالة: و عــلــيــكــم الســلام يا رولاند ، أنا كــويــسة شــكــراً، و إنــت إزيـك؟ |
| Roland: Peace be upon you too, Roland. I'm good, thanks, and how are you? |
| رولاند: الحـمــد لله ، تــمام |
| Roland: Thanks be to God. I'm fine. |
| هالة: إنــت مــبــسوط في مــصـر ؟ |
| Roland: Are you happy in Egypt? |
| رولاند: أيــوة، أنا مــبــسوط ، مــصـر حــلــوة جـــداً |
| Roland: Yes, I'm happy. Egypt is very beautiful. |
| هالة: تــمام ، أشوفــك بــكــرة في الجامــعة ؟ |
| Roland: Very well. See you tomorrow at the university? |
| رولاند: ماشي ، أشـوفــك بــكـرة ، مع الســلامة |
| Roland: Okay, see you tomorrow. Goodbye. |
| هالة: مع الســلامة |
| Roland: Goodbye. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Hala: Roland, we introduced the most common greeting in the Arabic world, Es-salamu ʿalīkum |
| Roland: Yes, translated as "Peace be upon you" |
| Hala: when we greet each other, we use different forms of greetings, the most common and famous of them all, is assalamu alikom, or "peace be with you," and that is the one we have used. |
| Roland: This is the Islamic greetings, which is very important, because it can be used anytime during the day, to address any number of people, |
| Hala: of any gender, or social status, in any situation, as our society is still very much attached and related to religion in most of what we do, |
| Roland: and all forms of greetings can be used as well, but this one is always on top! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Hala: السلام عليكم / و عليكم السلام [natural native speed] |
| Roland: peace be upon you / and peace be with you, too |
| Hala: السلام عليكم / و عليكم السلام [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hala:السلام عليكم / و عليكم السلام [natural native speed] |
| Hala إزيك؟ [natural native speed] |
| Roland: How are you? (Egyptian Arabic) |
| Hala:إزيك؟ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hala:إزيك؟ [natural native speed] |
| Hala الحمد لله [natural native speed] |
| Roland: thanks be to God |
| Hala:الحمد لله [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hala:الحمد لله [natural native speed] |
| Hala كويس [natural native speed] |
| Roland: good (Egyptian Arabic) |
| Hala:كويس [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hala:كويس [natural native speed] |
| Hala كويسة [natural native speed] |
| Roland: good (Egyptian Arabic) |
| Hala:كويسة [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hala:كويسة [natural native speed] |
| Hala تمام [natural native speed] |
| Roland: well (Egyptian Arabic) |
| Hala:تمام [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hala:تمام [natural native speed] |
| Hala أشوفك [natural native speed] |
| Roland: see you (for a man) |
| Hala:أشوفك [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hala:أشوفك [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Roland: So let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Hala: The first word/phrase we’ll look at is.... |
| Roland: Peace be upon you. |
| Hala: In Arabic, the most common greeting is "Peace be upon you." This is heard every day throughout the Arabic speaking world. In the conservation we had: |
| Peace be upon you Hala. Which in Arabic is Es-salamu ʿalīkum yā. |
| Peace be upon you, too, Roland. Wi ʿalīkum Es-salām yā Roland. You can't see the difference, as the greeting doesn't change in this case, but in other forms of greeting, it will change depending upon the gender listener. |
| Roland: The next phrase is "I'm Happy" which in Arabic is... |
| Hala: أنا مـَـبـْـسوط |
| Roland: Why is this important Hala? |
| Hala: Oh, come on Roland, you know that Egyptians are extremely hospitable, and will always ask if you're happy in Egypt. |
| Roland: Yes, that's definitely true. So you need to get familiar with this question and the answer. Which of course is always, "Yes, I'm happy." |
| Hala: And that is? |
| Roland: أنا مـَـبـْـسوط |
| Hala: And our next phrase is ḥilwh, which is "beautiful" |
| Roland: For example, Egypt is very beautiful, it's maṣr ḥilwh giddan. |
| Hala: This word is used very frequently as an adjective like Egypt is beautiful, but can also be used many other ways. You'll use this word in many situations. Here it's in the feminine form, but it is often heard in the masculine form. And when it comes in the masculine form, it can be used as "dessert." So between "nice," "good," "beautiful," and "dessert," it's a super word. |
| Roland: It's very useful. So let's go to the grammar points then. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Roland: The focus of this lesson is simple sentences in Egyptian Arabic. |
| Hala: In Arabic, there is no equivalent of the verb "to be" in the present tense. We can find an equivalent or the verb itself in past or future tenses when speaking about habits and routine, or about future plans. |
| Roland: This might be confusing at the start, but it's easy to get used to. |
| Hala: When addressing a man or a woman, you use different forms of greetings. In the dialog, Roland said |
| Roland: izzayyik. While Hala said... |
| Hala: ʾizzayyak. So the sound "ak" is used for a man, while the sound "ik" is used for a woman. It's not "by", it doesn't depend on the gender of the speaker, but the one you are addressing. So because I was speaking to Roland I said izzayyak and he is speaking to me as a girl, he said |
| Roland: izzayyik. |
| Hala: Let's just look at subject pronouns ( I, you – masculine, feminine ) and the adjectives |
| Roland: أنا - "I," or "I'm." إنــْــت "you; you are" for a male. And if I want to say "you; you are" for a woman, I say إنــْــتي . |
| Hala: we use 2 forms for "you," masculine and feminine, this will affect everything that follows it, so always remember and pay attention to this small detail. |
| Roland: That means when we use the adjectives, we will have it in both masculine and feminine, and then the plural, but we'll wait until the time comes for that. |
Outro |
| Roland: That just about does it for today. |
| Hala: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Roland: Make this lesson's vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flashcards in the learning center. |
| Hala: There is a reason everyone uses flashcards... |
| Roland: They work! |
| Hala: They really do help memorization. |
| Roland: You can get the flashcards for this lesson at |
| Hala: ArabicPod101.com. |
| Hala: مع السلامة |
| Roland: Goodbye. |
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