Learn how to use the imperative form
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 17 - Becky Here. |
| Nora: I'm Nora. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the imperative form to talk about addresses, and how to follow directions. The conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Nora: It's between Ahmed and John. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends, so they will use informal Standard Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| أحمد: مرحباً جون! ما رأيك أن نقيم حفلاً في بيتك في عطلة نهاية الأسبوع؟ |
| جون: فكرة جيدة! احضروا مشروبات و أنا سوف أعد بعض الطعام. |
| أحمد: رائع! أين تسكن؟ هل يمكنك أن تعطيني عنوانك؟ |
| جون: أكيد! 22 شارع النصر, المعادي, شقة 12 |
| أحمد: ما أفضل طريقة للوصول إلى هناك؟ |
| جون: إنزل من القطار في محطة المعادي ثم إركب الحافلة المتجهة إلى شارع النصر. |
| أحمد: شكراً! سأخبر أصدقائنا إذاً. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| أحمد: مرحباً جون! ما رأيك أن نقيم حفلاً في بيتك في عطلة نهاية الأسبوع؟ |
| جون: فكرة جيدة! احضروا مشروبات و أنا سوف أعد بعض الطعام. |
| أحمد: رائع! أين تسكن؟ هل يمكنك أن تعطيني عنوانك؟ |
| جون: أكيد! 22 شارع النصر, المعادي, شقة 12 |
| أحمد: ما أفضل طريقة للوصول إلى هناك؟ |
| جون: إنزل من القطار في محطة المعادي ثم إركب الحافلة المتجهة إلى شارع النصر. |
| أحمد: شكراً! سأخبر أصدقائنا إذاً. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Ahmed: Hi, John! How about we hold a party at your place this weekend? |
| John: Good idea! You get drinks and I will prepare some food. |
| Ahmed: Nice! Where do you live? Can you give me your address? |
| John: Sure! Maadi, Al-Nasr street, building 22, apartment 12. |
| Ahmed: What's the best way to get there? |
| John: Get off at Maadi station and take the bus that goes to Al-Nasr street. |
| Ahmed: Thank you! I'll tell our friends then. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Nora, we have already talked about the typical family structure in the Middle East and you told us that it can be quite big. So it’s not common for people to live by themselves, right? |
| Nora: It's not normal in Egypt and the Arab world in general for people to live alone in a house, especially for women. |
| Becky: Does this mean that young people live with their family for a long time? |
| Nora: Normally, young men and women live with their parents until they get married. |
| Becky: But if you are a foreigner, you might have to rent a house and live alone... |
| Nora: Many landlords don't accept single men or women renting their apartments, so you have to look around the neighborhoods with many expats, and that's where you'll find a landlord that doesn't mind having single foreigners renting their apartments. |
| Becky: It sounds quite difficult… Can you suggest a word in Arabic that is related to this topic? |
| Nora: سمسار (semsār) |
| Becky: which means "landlord agent." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nora: حفل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: party |
| Nora: حفل[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: حفل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: فكرة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: idea |
| Nora: فكرة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: فكرة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: عنوان [natural native speed] |
| Becky: address |
| Nora: عنوان[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: عنوان [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: طريقة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: way, method |
| Nora: طريقة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: طريقة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: حافلة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bus |
| Nora: حافلة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: حافلة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: إذاً [natural native speed] |
| Becky: then |
| Nora: إذاً[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: إذاً [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: شقة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: apartment |
| Nora: شقة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: شقة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: قطار [natural native speed] |
| Becky: train |
| Nora: قطار[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: قطار [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Nora: محطة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: station |
| Nora: محطة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: محطة [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Nora: ما رأيك؟ (mā raʾyuk) |
| Becky: meaning "What do you think?" This is a very useful expression when you want to ask someone's opinion about something that is understood from the context. |
| Nora: ما (ma) means "what" and رأيك (ra'yuk) means "your opinion." The ك (k) at the end of the word رأي (ra'y) is a possessive pronoun meaning "your." You can change the possessive pronoun depending on who you are speaking to. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. ما رأيك يا كامل؟ (mā raʾyak yā kāmil?) |
| Becky: ..which means "What do you think, Kamel?" Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Nora: فكرة جيدة (fikrah ǧayyidah) |
| Becky: meaning "Good idea." |
| Nora: This could be a possible answer to the question ما رأيك؟ (mā raʾyuk) |
| Becky: meaning "what do you think?” |
| Nora: It can be also used in a general context to agree with someone's idea. فكرة (fikrah) means “idea,” and جيدة (gayyidah) means “good.” |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. إنها فكرة جيدة. (ʾinnahā fikrah ǧayyidah.) |
| Becky: .. which means "It is a good idea." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Nora: أين تسكن؟ (ʾayna taskun?) |
| Becky: meaning "Where do you live?" |
| Nora:This is a very compact expression. أين (Ayn) means “where,” and تسكُن (taskun) means "you live." |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. نسيت أن أسألك. أين تسكن؟ (nasītu ʾan ʾasʾalak. ʾayna taskun?) |
| Becky: .. which means "I forgot to ask you. Where do you live?" Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the imperative form. More specifically, you’ll learn how to talk about an address and how to get there. Nora, is there a set order when giving an address in Arabic? |
| Nora: There is no set order for saying where something is as long as it’s comprehensible, but the most common way is: Building number, Street name/number, area, city (if needed), and flat number. |
| Becky: Let’s consider the one in the dialogue: |
| Nora: It was (22 šāriʿ al-naṣr, al-maʿādī, šaqqah 12.) |
| 22 شارِع النَصر,المَعادي, شَقَّة 12. |
| Becky: meaning “Maadi, Al-Nasr street, building 22, apartment 12.” |
| Nora: Here is another example - 15, šāriʿ al-ʾūtūstrād, madīnah naṣr, šaqqah 50 |
| 15, شارِع الأوتوستراد, مَدينَة نَصر, شَقَّة 50 |
| Becky: meaning “Building 15, Autostrad street, Nasr city, flat no.50” |
| Nora: This is also the order you’ll find on a postcard or a letter. |
| Becky: Now that we’re talking about addresses and how to get around, let’s learn some important vocabulary related to directions. Nora, could you give us the main directions’ names in Arabic? |
| Nora: Sure, let’s start with يَمين (yamīn) |
| Becky: meaning “right” |
| Nora: يَسار (yasār) |
| Becky: meaning “left” |
| Nora: أَمام (ʾamām) |
| Becky: meaning “in front of” |
| Nora: خَلف (ḫalf) |
| Becky: meaning “behind” |
| Nora: بِجانِب (biǧānib) |
| Becky: which means “next to.” Now let’s give a couple of sentences with these direction words. |
| Nora: أَسكُنُ أمام البَنك. (ʾaskunu ʾmām el-bank.) |
| Becky: “I live in front of the bank.” |
| Nora: أنا بِجانِب المَخبَز. (ʾnā beǧāneb el-maḫbaz.) |
| Becky: “I’m next to the bakery shop.” Ok, now let’s move on and talk about the imperative.The imperative form is used to give orders or instructions. |
| Nora: In Standard Arabic, the form you use to talk to friends or children is the same one you use to talk to your boss or people older than you are! |
| Becky: So the form doesn’t change according to the level of the person you are talking to. |
| Nora: That’s right. You just might have to add a من فضلك (min fadlik) meaning “please” to sound more polite. |
| Becky: You should already know that any verb in Arabic is originally a 3-letter-stem. Adding certain letters to that stem gets you all the word classes in Arabic. Let’s see how we can make the imperative form using these 3 stem letters. |
| Nora: For example, let’s consider the verb كتب (kataba) meaning “to write." It’s made up of three main letters, ك ت ب . To get the masculine imperative form, we first need to get the present form of the verb, which in this case is يَكتُب (yaktub.) Then we need to remove the يَ (ya) at the beginning, and put an ا (alif) instead, so that we get أُكتُب (uktub) |
| Becky: There were two more imperatives in the lesson dialogue. |
| Nora: Yes, they were إنزِل (inzel), whose stem letters are ن ز ل, meaning “get off!” and إركَب (irkab), whose stem letters are ر ك ب meaning “get on!” |
| Becky: Now comes the more challenging part. Some of the verbs in Arabic have a vowel in their stem, and that’s where rules change a bit. |
| Nora:That’s right. For example, let’s consider the verb قال (qaala) meaning “to say.” As you can hear, the middle stem letter is the vowel letter alif that becomes a و (u) sound when it’s converted to the present tense. In that case, just remove the vowel, and put a damma (which is a vowelling sign) on the first letter of the stem, and you’ll get قُل (qul). |
| Becky: which means “say!” |
| Nora: If the middle stem letter is the vowel alif أ that becomes a ي (i) sound when converted to the present tense, then instead of the damma, we will put a kasra under the first letter of the stem, like for the verb (saara) meaning “to walk”, whose imperative is سِر (sir) |
| Becky: All of these examples assume that we are directing the order or instructions to a singular male. Next, let’s see how we can do this with a female, two people, or a group of people. Let’s see how to direct an order to a singular female. |
| Nora: As a general rule, add an ي (ii) after the masculine form of the imperative. |
| Becky: Let’s use the verb “to write” |
| Nora: if we add ي (ii) to أُكتُب (uktub), we’ll get أُكتُبي (uktubii). |
| Becky: Please note that there is a difference here. The irregular form used for verbs with a vowel for the second letter of the stem doesn’t apply to the feminine form. Let’s look again at the verb meaning “to say”. |
| Nora: First we get the present form, remove the first ي (i) and add the feminine marker ي (i) to the end, then you’ll get قولي (quulii) |
| Becky: In the last lesson, we looked at how to form the dual form for nouns. Is there an imperative form directed to two people? |
| Nora: Yes, and it’s similar to the dual form for nouns. Let’s consider the verb ذهب (zahab) meaning “to go." The dual form is basically just like the masculine singular form, but you only need to add an ا (a) in the end and you’ll get اذَهَبا (ezhabaa) |
| Becky: and just like the feminine form, it doesn’t follow the irregular vowelled form. |
| Nora: Right, so (qaala) meaning “to say” in the dual imperative form is قولا (quulaa) |
| Becky: Finally, let’s take a look at how to give an order to a group of more than two people. |
| Nora: This will be just like the dual form, replacing the ا (aa) fwith an وا (uu), so ذهب (zahab) meaning “to go" becomes اذَهَبوا (ezhabuu) |
| Becky: and just like the feminine form, it doesn’t follow the irregular vowelled form. |
| Nora: Right, “to say” in the imperative plural form is قولوا (quuluu). Listeners, if you’re looking at the lesson notes right now, you might have noticed the ا after the و in this form. This ا is a silent letter so it’s not pronounced. This is the only example of a silent letter in Arabic. |
| Becky: Okay, let’s wrap up with some sample sentences using the imperative. |
| Nora: اِنظُري خَلفَكِ. (inẓurī ḫalfaki.) |
| Becky: “Look behind you.” |
| Nora: اِتَّصِلوا بِمُحَمَّد و اِسأَلوه عَن المَكان. (ittaṣilūā bimuḥammad wa isʾalūh ʿan al-makān.) |
| Becky: “Call Mohamed and ask him about the place.” |
| Nora: اِتَّجِه إلى اليَمين. (ittaǧih ʾilā al-yamīn.) |
| Becky: “Head right.” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Nora: إلى اللقاء (ʾilaā al-liqaāʾ) |
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