Learn how to say the five most common Arabic phrases used in a classroom
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| Musto: Hello and welcome to ArabicPod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Arabic. |
| Hella: I am Hella, and thanks again for being here with us. |
| Hella: أهلا everyone. |
| Musto: Hello, and thanks for joining us in this lesson of All About Arabic. |
| Hella: In this lesson, you will learn the five most useful sentences for learning Arabic. There is no better way to learn Arabic than to use Arabic. So, whether you're attending a class... |
| Musto: ...Or if you're studying with some friends or even studying at ArabicPod101.com, you can use these phrases in Arabic to learn Arabic. But before we get to the phrases... |
| Hella: Let's talk about the top five phrases for learning Arabic. |
| Musto: We'll give you the top five phrases now, and then go into more detail a little later. |
| Hella: And we will give them to you in Standard Arabic, followed by the Egyptian dialect expression, so you will get two in one. |
| Musto: Let's do it! The top five phrases for learning Arabic are... |
| Hella: Phrase number one, Standard Arabic: لو سمحت أعد هذا . Egyptian: لو سمحت عيدا. |
| Musto: "Please repeat that." |
| Hella: Phrase number two, Standard: كيف أقول. Egyptian: إزّاي أقول |
| Musto: "How do you say...?" or literally, "How can I say...?" |
| Hella: Phrase number three, Standard: هل يمكنني أن أسأل . Egyptian: ممكن أسأل |
| Musto: "May I ask?" |
| Hella: Phrase number four, Standard: أنا لا أفهم . Egyptian: مش فاهمة . مش فاهم |
| Musto: "I don't understand." |
| Hella: And finally, phrase number five, Standard Arabic: لو سمحت قل مرّة أخرى ببطئ . Egyptian: لو سمحت قول تاني برّاحة. |
| Musto: "Please repeat that slowly," or literally, "Please say again slowly." |
| Hella: Did you recognize any? Let's hear these phrase one more time, slowly. Phrase number one, Standard Arabic:لو سمحت أعد هذ ا. Egyptian: لو سمحت عيدا. |
| Musto: "Please repeat that." |
| Hella: Phrase number two, Standard: كيف أقول. Egyptian: إزّاي أقول |
| Musto: "How do you say?" or literally, "How can I say?" |
| Hella: Phrase number three, Standard: هل يمكنني أن أسأل . Egyptian: ممكن أسأل |
| Musto: "May I ask?" |
| Hella: Phrase number four, Standard: أنا لا أفهم . Egyptian: مش فاهمة . مش فاهم |
| Musto: "I don't understand." |
| Hella: And finally, phrase number five, Standard: لو سمحت قل مرّة أخرى ببطئ . Egyptian: |
| لو سمحت قول تاني برّاحة. |
| Musto: "Please repeat that slowly," or literally, "Please say again slowly." |
| Hella: So, Musto, what's your experience with these phrases? |
| Musto: Well, for a start, I used to say "How do you say...?" and though people replied to me, their reaction was a little strange. Then I understood that the common expression here was "How do I say...?" |
| Hella: Yes, that is true. It's not wrong to say "How do you say...?" but not the common way. |
| Musto: Now I know! |
| Hella: And now, let's take a closer look into these phrases for learning Arabic. The first one is |
| لو سمحت أعد هذا, and in Egyptian dialect, لو سمحت عيدا. |
| Musto: Which means "Please repeat that." What if I can't really get it? Would it be ok if I keep asking this question? |
| Hella: Yes, of course! The whole idea of repeating something is to learn the right way to say and pronounce words, so no worries. |
| Musto: Great. Moving to phrase number two. |
| Hella: That would be كيف أقول , and in Egyptian إزّاي أقول . |
| Musto: Which means "How do I say...?" |
| Hella: Of course. It can be followed by anything, a word or verb, or if you don't like using a different language while learning Arabic, try to act it out or point at it. |
| Musto: Act it out or point at it? |
| Hella: Well, if you're thirsty, act like you want to drink water. If it's an item in front of you, point at it, and so on. |
| Musto: Well, I have to admit, it's always best to do that. Less of the foreign language is better. |
| Hella: And Arabic becomes your main language. That's it! |
| Musto: So what's the next phrase? |
| Hella: هل يمكنني أن أسأل and in Egyptian, ممكن أسأل |
| Musto: Right. "May I ask...?" Hella, ممكن أسأل ميّة "that's water". |
| Hella: Now you see. This is used only for a question, not for a polite request. |
| Musto: That explains why the waiter always looked and me funny when I said, "Can I ask for tea?" |
| Hella: Yes. You were saying, "May I ask...?" and then "tea" with nothing really to connect them. But I'm sure they got the right meaning. |
| Musto: Well, they did, but now everyone knows better. This can only be used for a question. |
| Hella: And just as an extra piece of information, it's also used as check on someone or check on something, but, of course, you will need to use "on" and that's all. Like to check on a friend, check on a colleague to see if they are doing good, if they were sick, and so on. |
| Musto: Good for me! The next phrase is very important. |
| Hella: أنا لا أفهم and in Egyptian مش فاهمة . مش فاهم , of course for a man and a woman. |
| Musto: "I don't understand." |
| Hella: As you can see, when using it in Standard Arabic form, it's only one, أنا لا أفهم , because we are using the verb in the form of the first person, but when using it in the Egyptian dialect, we use something called a participle which functions as a verb, but it's treated as an adjective. That's why we have it in two forms, masculine and feminine. |
| Musto: Sounds very good to me. You can use what you prefer. So Hella, what's next? |
| Hella: The final phrase is لو سمحت قل مرّة أخرى ببطئ , and in Egyptian لو سمحت قول تاني برّاحة. |
| Musto: "Please repeat that slowly." |
| Hella: Yes, but literally it means "please say again slowly." |
| Musto: Again, one of the expressions better said in a slightly different way, but carries the right meaning. |
| Hella: Yes. It would be ok to use "repeat," but we don't really use it here. It's better to use the verb "to say" in this case. |
| Musto: Well, those are the top five classroom phrases when learning Arabic. Remember, you can leave us a comment on this lesson. |
| Hella: So if you have a questions or some feedback, please leave us a comment. |
| Musto: It's very easy to do. Just stop by ArabicPod101.com... |
| Hella: ...Click on "Comments"... |
| Musto: ...Enter your comment and name... |
| Hella: ...And that's it. |
| Musto: No excuses! We're looking forward to hearing from you. |
| Hella: Thanks for listening, everyone. مع السّلامة |
| Musto: Bye! |
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