Learn the basics of Arabic letter writing and possessive endings
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natasha: Hello. |
| Judith: Absolute Beginners Season 1, Lesson 8, “My First Arabic Letter.” Hello and welcome to ArabicPod101.com where we study modern Arabic in a fun educational format. |
| Natasha: So, brush up on the Arabic that you started learning long ago or start learning today. |
| Judith: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Natasha, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Natasha: In this lesson, you will learn how to right a postcard. |
| Judith: This is a postcard being read. It’s a card form Julia to her friend Aisha back in America. |
| Natasha: The language is informal Modern Standard Arabic. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Natasha: عزيزتي عائشة، |
| Natasha: Now, read slowly. |
| Natasha: عزيزتي عائشة، |
| Natasha: Now with the translation. |
| Natasha: عزيزتي عائشة، |
| Natasha: Dear Aisha. |
| Natasha: كيف حالُك؟ أنا بِخير والحمد لله. |
| Natasha: How are you? I am well. Thanks to God. |
| Natasha: أنا في مصر الآن. |
| Natasha: I am in Egypt now. |
| Natasha: ذَهبت أولاً إلى الأسكندرية وانا الآن في القاهرة. |
| Natasha: I first went to Alexandria and now I’m in Cairo. |
| NATASHA: فندقي جميل وأعجبني. |
| Natasha: My hotel is beautiful. I like it. |
| Natasha: دعاني محمد بالأمسِ إلى حفلة عيد ميلاده. |
| Natasha: Yesterday Muhammad invited me to his birthday party. |
| Natasha: كانت مها حاضرة أيضا، والتقيت صديقيهِما، خالد و أحمد. |
| Natasha: Majah was in town, too, and I met their friends, Khalid and Ahmed. |
| Natasha: الأمر كان ممتعاً، هل اِلتقيتهِما؟ |
| Natasha: It was fun. Have you met them? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Okay, let’s talk about mail in the Arab world. How common is it to write a real letter still, you know, like on paper? |
| Natasha: We’re actually not very used to get mail. I’m talking not about all the Arabic countries, but some of them. They don’t really have mail boxes. So, you can say it’s rather traditional way. You can hand it. People just deliver it to your home. |
| Judith: So, do people use email instead or? |
| Natasha: Yeah, you can say this like the young generation uses emails, but the older generation not really. A lot of them don’t really know how to use the computer. |
| Judith: Okay, so, they just communicate person to person? |
| Natasha: Person to person per telephone like they call each other, they simply send their kids with the mail. |
| Vocabulary and Phrases (running time 2:30, preparation time 10 min.) |
| Judith: Okay. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall look at is? |
| Natasha: عزيزَتي |
| Judith: My Dear. |
| Natasha: عزيزَتي |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: مصر |
| Judith: Egypt. |
| Natasha: مصر |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: ذهب |
| Judith: To go. |
| Natasha: ذهب |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: إلى |
| Judith: Too. |
| Natasha: إلى |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: الفندق |
| Judith: Hotel. |
| Natasha: الفندق |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: أعجبني |
| Judith: I like it. |
| Natasha: أعجبني |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: دعى |
| Judith: To invite. |
| Natasha: دعى |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: الأمس |
| Judith: Yesterday. |
| Natasha: الأمس |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: حاضِرة |
| Judith: Present. |
| Natasha: حاضِرة |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: ألتقي |
| Judith: To meet someone. |
| Natasha: ألتقي |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: الأمر كان |
| Judith: It was. |
| Natasha: الأمر كان |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: ممتعاً |
| Judith: Fun. |
| Natasha: ممتعاً |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Natasha: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first phrase we’ll look at is? |
| Natasha: "Dear Aisha" . This is actually expressed as “My dear, Aisha” in Arabic. It’s the standard way to start a letter. |
| Judith: Next? |
| Natasha: "a´jabnii" |
| Judith: I like it. |
| Natasha: Is an advance form which you cannot understand yet, so, learn it as it set phrase. |
| Judith: It’s a useful phrase to know. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Natasha:The focus of this lesson are possessive endings. Arabic does not have words for “m y,” “your,” “our” and the like, instead these are express as endings that are attached to whatever noun you have. |
| Judith: My name becomes, name my, "ism-ii". The “Esm” is name and the “e” is for “my”. We’ve seen some of these endings in previous lessons. Let’s have an overview now, using the word “Esm”, name, as an example. |
| Natasha: ismii - إسمي |
| Judith: My name. |
| Natasha: ismuka - إسمُكَ |
| Judith: Your name to a man. |
| Natasha: ismuki - إسمُكِ |
| Judith: Your name to a woman. |
| Natasha: ismuhu - إسمُهُ |
| Judith: His name. |
| Natasha: ismuhaa - إسمُها |
| Judith: Her name. |
| Natasha: إسمُنا |
| Judith: Our name. |
| Natasha: ismukum - إسمُكُم |
| Judith: Your name to a group of men or a mixed group. |
| Natasha: ismukunna - إسمُكُنَّ |
| Judith: Your name to a group of women. |
| Natasha: ismuhum - إسمُهُم |
| Judith: Their name to a group of men or a mixed group. |
| Natasha: ismuhunna - إسمُهُنَّ |
| Judith: Their name to a group of women. We can already reveal something more. These endings have a triple use. When they are attached to a noun, they are possessive pronouns. When they are attached to a verb with very few changes, they are the object pronouns. For example, the word “me” in “He invited me”. And when they are attached to a proposition, they allow you to express things like, “with me,” “with you” and so on. Let’s go over these endings, again, quickly. Can you just show us all the forms of, you know, like "with me", "with you" and so on? |
| Natasha: That’s right. |
| Judith: So, learn these endings well and you will find future chapters of grammar much easier. That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
|---|
| Judith: Attention perfectionists, you are about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Natasha: Lesson review audio tracks. |
| Judith: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with this short effect of audio tracks. |
| Natasha: Super simple to use. Listen to the Arabic word or phrase. |
| Judith: Then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Natasha: You’ll speak with confidence knowing that you’re speaking Arabic like the locals. |
| Judith: Go to ArabicPod101.com and download the review audio tracks right on the lesson’s page today, okay? See you next time. |
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