Learn some Arabic phrases that your Arabic professor won't teach you
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| Hella: Hello and welcome to ArabicPod101.com, where we study Arabic in fun and educational format. |
| Musto: So, brush up on the Arabic that you started learning go or start learning today. |
| Hella: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. What are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Hella: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of All About Arabic. Hella here. |
| Musto: In this lesson, you will learn five phrases your teacher will never teach you. |
| Hella: But we will. So in this lesson, you will learn how to break the ice using greeting form. |
| Musto: Second, you'll achieve showing your approval in a cool way. |
| Hella: Third, you will learn how to show your dislike or lack of interest in something. |
| Musto: Before the end of this lesson, you will be able to tell someone to ignore something or let it go in a cool way. |
| Hella: And the by the end of this lesson, you will know how to show that you like or are impressed by something using one word. Now, let's cut to the chase. We'll give you the top five phrases your teacher will never teach you and then explain these in more detail, give you the proper usage, and also explain in what situations you can use these phrases so you don't embarrass yourself. |
| Musto: The top phrases your teacher will never teach you are... |
| Hella: Phrase Number 1, صباح القشطة . صباح الجمال . صباح الفلّ. |
| Musto: A morning of Arabian jasmine. A morning of beauty. A morning of cream. |
| Hella: Phrase Number 2, قشطة |
| Musto: Fine. Cool. |
| Hella: Phrase Number 3, مليش فيه. |
| Musto: I'm not into it, it's not my thing, or I have no knowledge about this. |
| Hella: Phrase Number 4, كبّر دماغك or كبّري دماغك. |
| Musto: Let it go, drop it, or ignore it. |
| Hella: And finally, Phrase Number 5, تحفة موت . |
| Musto: Fantastic, awesome, so cool. |
| Hella: Ok. Now, remember these are in the Egyptian dialect. So Musto, did you recognize any of them? |
| Musto: Let's hear them again slowly. |
| Hella: Ok. Phrase Number 1, صباح القشطة . صباح الجمال . صباح الفلّ. |
| Musto: A morning of Arabian jasmine. A morning of beauty. A morning of cream. |
| Hella: Phrase Number 2, قشطة. |
| Musto: Fine. Cool. |
| Hella: Phrase Number 3, مليش فيه. |
| Musto: I'm not into it, it's not my thing, or I have no knowledge about this. |
| Hella: Phrase Number 4, كبّر دماغك or كبّري دماغك , addressing a man and a woman. |
| Musto: Let it go, drop it, or ignore it. |
| Hella: And finally, Phrase Number 5, تحفة موت. |
| Musto: Fantastic! Awesome! So cool! So, Hella, why won't these phrases be taught by a teacher? Is it rude, vulgar, or what? |
| Hella: No, nothing like that at all. It's just slang, and most teachers won't like their students learning slang. They might think it's not the best way to learn. |
| Musto: So are they commonly used? How often can we hear them and use them? |
| Hella: Well, nearly in everyday situations. They are very common and you will find even more ways to use them than what we're going to learn here. |
| Musto: Super. It won't be offensive to anyone? |
| Hella: No! Not at all. It simply new expressions that we created to make it easier and much smoother dealing with each other. It's also pretty funny, so there's always a good chance you will put a smile on someone's face while using them. |
| Musto: Good enough for me. I think everyone will understand them without any problems. |
| Hella: The older generations will most likely understand it, but that doesn't mean they like it. But they are more open to it now than before. So that's the good news. |
| Musto: Great. Now let's take a closer look into these words and phrases. |
| Hella: Starting with phrase one, صباح القشطة . صباح الجمال . صباح الفلّ , which means "A morning of Arabian jasmine, a morning of beauty, and a morning of cream." |
| Musto: As far as I know, صباح الخير means "good morning." These sound very similar to it. |
| Hella: You're right, Musto. What we do is take the first word, which means morning, and add anything after it to express your mood. Something you like, something you want to do or are going to do, and so on. |
| Musto: Right. And it's very common to use this phrase in its different forms? |
| Hella: Yes! Very, and with these specific phrases, everyone will be using it one way or another. Even your boss at work, friends and colleagues for sure, family. Even shop owners or salesmen, taxi drivers, you name it. |
| Musto: I have to say, it's a very nice way to say good morning. Very creative as well! |
| Hella: Yes, and as long as you master the first word, which is صباح, you can add anything after it, even an English word. |
| Musto: So I can even say صباح الكوفي or صباح الكولد ? |
| Hella: Why not? That's the whole idea. It's very flexible depending on whom uses it. |
| Musto: Can you pronounce it again, please? |
| Hella: صباح. |
| Musto: The last letter is tricky for me. |
| Hella: Imagine yourself eating something chilly, you would go, and that's exact sound. Just a bit quieter here because it's at the end. |
| Musto: صباح الشّمس , It's sunny weather today. |
| Hella: Yes, it is. |
| Musto: Moving to phrase number two, what is it, Hella? |
| Hella: قشطة, which literally means "cream." |
| Musto: Isn't it a bit weird to learn "cream"? I mean, this is one word I don't think the teacher would mind teaching us. |
| Hella: Well, the word on its own is not a problem. It's the meaning it holds besides "cream." |
| Musto: And that would be? |
| Hella: Super, great, fantastic, awesome, cool, brilliant, I'm on, count on me, it's a deal, let's do it. |
| Musto: Ok. I didn't see this one coming. I suppose it's very common? |
| Hella: Yes. Extremely. Old people wouldn't really use it much though. It's more of a new generation word. |
| Musto: We can use it in any context? |
| Hella: Well, mostly yes. As you have seen, it has several meanings, depending on how it's used. You can use it separate or in the middle of a sentence. The meaning changes as you want it to. |
| Musto: Is it a pure Egyptian word or does it have any roots to Standard Arabic? |
| Hella: It's actually the same word in Standard Arabic, we just pronounce it قشطة not إِشطة as we do in the Egyptian dialect, and it doesn't have so many meanings, just the main one. |
| Musto: And that would be "cream"? |
| Hella: Great memory! |
| Musto: Ok. So let's move to phrase three, مليش فيه |
| Hella: مليش فيه . It means "I'm not into it," It's not my thing," or "I have no knowledge of about this." |
| Musto: And it's used by a certain age or a group of people? |
| Hella: Not really. It's a very common word among all groups of people, depending on who's using it and why. It could be an old man telling his grandson he's not into computers or he doesn't know much about it, or someone refusing to try or eat a certain kind of food because he's more traditional. |
| Musto: I like this word a lot. Very useful in my case as well. |
| Hella: You can just say, مليش فيه , which means "I'm not into it," "I don't know much about this," but if you want to complete your sentence, you will say, مليش فل . For example, |
| مليش فلكمبيوترز. |
| Musto: I see. So it's either مليش في or مليش فل. |
| Hella: That is correct, depending on if you want to keep it short or complete your sentence. |
| Musto: Great. And phrase four is كبّر دماغك for a man. |
| Hella: Or كبّري دماغك for a woman. |
| Musto: I have to say, this one I already knew, because I heard it so much from my friends. |
| Hella: It's very common among friends, colleagues, classmates, and relatives. Not very much between parents and their children as it could count as being a bit rude. |
| Musto: What does it mean exactly? How is it used? |
| Hella: Well, literally, it means, "Enlarge your brain," but it really means "let it go," "drop it," "ignore it." |
| Musto: That's a very strange way of telling someone to ignore something. |
| Hella: I have to admit it is, but never-the-less, it's very popular. |
| Musto: It's different addressing a man than a woman? |
| Hella: Yes, since we are using a verb, it will be. كبّر دماغك for a man, and for a woman, كبّري دماغك. In the second word, the "rra" sound is very similar to the French "r". |
| Musto: Ah! That makes it easier. |
| Hella: I hope so. Now the last phrase of this lesson... |
| Musto: تحفة |
| Hella: Yes. It originally means "antique." |
| Musto: Why would I describe something as an antique? |
| Hella: Well, an antique is something that is really beautiful, expensive, and full of value and art, so basically it's used in a good way. |
| Musto: So I can say the film is تحفة or the pizza is تحفة ? My friends are تحفة? |
| Hella: Exactly. It describes anything as fantastic, great, real good, or could be one of its kind. |
| Musto: It's never used in a negative way? |
| Hella: Someone might use it to say another person is تحفة , which means he's a bit old-fashioned, but it's not common at all in that meaning. |
| Musto: Good. I would hate it if someone said I was تحفة and not in the cool way. |
| Hella: Well, that's easy to notice. The facial expressions and tone are always good clues. |
| Musto: Well, those are the top five phrases your teacher will never teach you, but of course, they are extremely useful and undeniably essential in everyday Arabic. |
| Hella: Now you know these phrases, and you will be communicating with people in no time. But before you do, ok, thanks for listening, everyone! |
| Musto: مع السّلامة ! Catch you in the next class. |
| Musto: Ok. Some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool on ArabicPod101.com. |
| Hella: Line-by-line audio. |
| Musto: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension. |
| Hella: By listening to lines of the conversation again and again. |
| Musto: Listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. |
| Hella: Listen to the dialogue into bite-sized sentences. |
| Musto: And understand it all. |
| Hella: Try the line-by-line audio at ArabicPod101.com. |
| Musto: That's right! Try it now! |
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