Learn how to use the future tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 23 - What Would You Do With One Million Egyptian Pounds? Becky Here. |
| Nora: I'm Nora. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the future tense. The conversation takes place on a bus. |
| Nora: It's between Ahmed and some friends. |
| Becky: The speakers will use informal Standard Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| مها: ماذا ستفعلين إذا ربحت مليون جنيه؟ |
| آشلي: سأشتري بيتاً حتى أعيش هنا للأبد! |
| أحمد: أنا سوف أشتري سيارة فخمة لأبهر الفتيات! |
| آشلي: ماذا عنك يا مها؟ |
| مها: أظن أنني سأترك عملي ثم أقوم برحلة حول العالم! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| مها: ماذا ستفعلين إذا ربحت مليون جنيه؟ |
| آشلي: سأشتري بيتاً حتى أعيش هنا للأبد! |
| أحمد: أنا سوف أشتري سيارة فخمة لأبهر الفتيات! |
| آشلي: ماذا عنك يا مها؟ |
| مها: أظن أنني سأترك عملي ثم أقوم برحلة حول العالم! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Maha: What would you do if you won a million pounds? |
| Ashley: I'd buy a house to be able to live here forever! |
| Ahmed: I would buy a luxurious car to impress girls! |
| Ashley: What about you, Maha? |
| Maha: I think I'll leave my job and make a trip around the world! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Nora, there is a very common exclamation in Arabic, that we can translate as “If God wills” |
| Nora: Right, that’s إن شاء الله (In shā' Allāh) and you'll hear it everywhere in the Arab world. It's a phrase that you have to use after sentences in the future tense that discuss future plans, especially if you're talking to Muslims, although Christians use it too. |
| Becky: Is it related to religion? |
| Nora: It originally had a religious nuance to it, but now it's used by everyone and has become an important part of people's speech. |
| Becky: Using it will make you sound like a native speaker! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nora: إذا [natural native speed] |
| Becky: if |
| Nora: إذا[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: إذا [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: ربحت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: you won (feminine) |
| Nora: ربحت[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: ربحت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: مليون [natural native speed] |
| Becky: million |
| Nora: مليون[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: مليون [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: بيت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: house |
| Nora: بيت[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: بيت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: حتى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: in order to, to |
| Nora: حتى[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: حتى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: للأبد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: forever |
| Nora: للأبد[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: للأبد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: فخمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: luxurious |
| Nora: فخمة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: فخمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: أبهر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I impress |
| Nora: أبهر[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: أبهر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And lastly.. |
| Nora: رحلة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: trip |
| Nora: رحلة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: رحلة [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: إذا ربحتِ (ʾiḏā rabiḥtī) |
| Becky: meaning "If you win.." |
| Nora: The word iza means "if" and it is always followed by a verb in the past tense. Here the verb is رَبِحتِ (rabihtii) meaning "you won." |
| Becky: Note that, like in English, even though the verb is in the past tense, the meaning still implies that it's a hypothetical situation. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. إذا لم تذهب, لن أذهب. (ʾiḏā lam taḏhab, lan ʾaḏhab.) |
| Becky: ..which means "If you don't go, I won't go." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: حتى (ḥattaā) |
| Becky: meaning "in order to" |
| Nora: In a different context it can also mean "until," if it's followed by a date or a time or an event. |
| Becky: If it's followed by a verb in the present tense, it usually indicates purpose, but it really depends on the context. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. إرفع صوتك حتى أسمعك. (ʾirfaʿ ṣawtak ḥattā ʾasmaʿak.) |
| Becky: .. which means "Raise your voice so that I can hear you." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: ل (li) |
| Becky: this also means "in order to" |
| Nora: Right , another way to imply purpose is simply just a ل (li) pre-fixed to the verb in the present form. In the dialogue, we had li followed by ubhir, a verb in the present form conjugated to the first person, literally meaning “in order to impress.” |
| Becky: Can you give us a different example using this word? |
| Nora: For example, you can say.. سأعود للبيت لأستحم أولاً. |
| Becky: .. which means "I'll go back home to take a shower first." |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the future tense. In Arabic, the future form of verbs is used when discussing either hypothetical situations in a conditional sentence, or future actions. |
| Nora: That's right. The future tense is one of the easiest forms in Arabic grammar so let’s see how to form it together. There are two future forms in Arabic - the sa form and the sawfa form. |
| Becky: We’ll start with the sa form |
| Nora: Forming the future tense is as easy as attaching the prefix sa to the verb in the present tense. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Nora: Sure, let’s have a look at the examples from the dialogue ماذا ستفعلين إذا ربحت مليون جنيه؟ (māḏā satafʿalīn ʾiḏā rabiḥtī milyūn ǧunayh?) |
| Becky: “What would you do if you won a million pounds?” |
| Nora: In this case, the verb in the future was satafʿalīn. Next is سأشتري بيتاً حتى أعيش هنا للأبد! (saʾaštarī baytan ḥattā ʾaʿīšu hunā lilʾabad!) |
| Becky: “I'll buy a house to be able to live here forever!” |
| Nora: Here, the verb in the future was saʾaštarī. In the dialogue we also saw أظن أنني سأترك عملي ثم أقوم برحلة حول العالم! (ʾaẓunnu ʾannanī saʾatruku ʿamalī ṯumma ʾaqūmu biriḥlah ḥawla al-ʿal-am!) |
| Becky: “I think I'll leave my job and make a trip around the world!” |
| Nora:Here the verb in the future was saʾatruku |
| Becky: All of these future tenses have a common feature. |
| Nora: They all share the prefix sa. To form the future, all you have to do is to put sa before the verb in the present form. |
| Becky: So how do I say “I will go” in Standard Arabic? |
| Nora: “I go” is أذهب azhab, all you have to do is to add س sa before it, so سأذهب sa’azhab |
| Becky: What about “he will drink” |
| Nora: Put sa س before يشرب yashrab, which means “he drinks,” and you will get سيشرب sayashrab |
| Becky: Listeners, in the lesson notes you can find a complete conjugation with the future tense. Let’s move on to the other form now. |
| Nora: The other form is the The sawfa Future Form. |
| Becky: The difference here is that this is not a prefix. It’s a full word that implies the future tense when you put it before a present tense verb. Was there an example in the dialogue? |
| Nora: Yes, we had سوف أشتري (sawfa ʾaštarī) |
| Becky: which means I would buy |
| Nora: As you can see, in this form, we simply put sawfa before the present tense verb. “I will go” is سوف أذهب (sawfa azhab), and “he will drink” is سوف يشرب (sawfa yashrab) |
| Becky: Finally let’s take a look at how to describe an event that involves more than one verb in the future in a certain order. |
| Nora: It’s simple! You need the Arabic version of the conjunction “then," which is ثُم (thumma). We saw it in this part of the dialogue:أظن أنني سأترك عملي ثم أقوم برحلة حول العالم! ʾaẓunnu ʾannanī saʾatruku ʿamalī ṯumma ʾaqūmu biriḥlah ḥawla al-ʿal-am! |
| Becky: which means “I think I'll leave my job and make a trip around the world!” |
| Nora: Note how the verb after ṯumma doesn’t have the future tense sa or sawfa, and that’s because it is understood from the context. Naturally a past tense action cannot take place after a future tense verb, so inserting a future tense marker after tumma sounds very unnatural. |
| Becky: Let’s wrap up this lesson with a couple of sample sentences |
| Nora:سَأَعود بَعدَ قَليل. (saʾaʿūd baʿda qalīl.) |
| Becky: "I'll be back in a bit." |
| Nora: سَوْفَ أَستَحِم ثُمَّ أَلحَقُ بِكُم. (sawfa ʾastaḥim ṯumma ʾalḥaqu bikum.) |
| Becky: "I'll take a shower then follow you all." |
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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