Learn Arabic verb conjugation in the imperfect tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| May: مرحباً أنا اسمي مي. |
| Danya: و أنا دانيا. |
| Timothy: Timothy here! Beginner, Lesson 7 - Do you speak English? Hello and welcome to the Beginner Series at ArabicPOD101.com, where we study modern Arabic in a fun, educational format! |
| Danya: So, brush up on the Arabic that you started learning long ago, or start learning today. |
| May: And join us for this lesson of ArabicPOD101. |
| Timothy: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Last time, we learned to form nationalities from country names. What is the word for nationality in Arabic? |
| Danya: جنسية. |
| Timothy: Okay. Now, let's review. |
| Danya: يا مي ما جنسيتك؟ |
| Timothy: May, what's your nationality? |
| May: انا أردنية و انتِ؟ |
| Timothy: I'm Jordanian. And you? |
| Danya: أنا سورية و أنت يا تيموثي ما جنسيتك؟ |
| Timothy: I'm Syrian. And you, Timothy, what's your nationality? |
| Timothy: أنا أمريكي. I'm American. Okay. So what are we talking about today? |
| Danya: Today, we are talking about languages. We are going to show you how to find out what languages people speak. |
| Timothy: All right. Drastically improve your pronunciation with the voice recording tool in the premium learning center. Record your voice with a click of a button and play back what you record just as easily. This tool is a perfect compliment to the line-by-line audio. Let's get in to today's conversation. |
| May: In this conversation, a tourist is looking for something in the streets of Damascus, Syria. |
| Danya: She is going to ask a stranger on the street for some help. |
| May: This is a polite, casual conversation in standard Arabic. |
| Timothy: We'll focus on how to ask someone if they speak English. |
Lesson conversation |
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| نور: عفوا. هل تتكلمين الإنجليزية؟ |
| سارة: نعم، أتكلم القليل من الإنجليزية. |
| نور: Great, can you tell me how to get to the Umayyad Mosque? |
| سارة: أنا آسفة. أتكلم فقط القليل من الإنجليزية. هل تفهمين العربية؟ |
| نور: نعم، ولكن أفهم القليل منها فقط. |
| Eric: One more time with the translation. |
| مرة ثانية مع الترجمة. |
| نور: عفوا. هل تتكلمين الإنجليزية؟ |
| Timothy: Excuse me. Do you speak English? |
| سارة: نعم، أتكلم القليل من الإنجليزية. |
| Timothy: Yes, I speak a little English. |
| نور: Great, can you tell me how to get to the Umayyad Mosque? |
| سارة: أنا آسفة. أتكلم فقط القليل من الإنجليزية. هل تفهمين العربية؟ |
| Timothy: I'm sorry. I only speak a little English. Do you understand Arabic? |
| نور: نعم، ولكن أفهم القليل منها فقط. |
| Timothy: Yes, but I understand a little bit of it only. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Timothy: Oh poor girl, she can't find the mosque. |
| May: It's too bad. I hear it is really beautiful. |
| Danya: Yeah it really is! |
| Timothy: Have you been there? |
| Danya: Yes. In fact, every time I'm in Damascus I visit the Umayyad mosque. |
| May: The site is a must-see for tourists who visit Syria, Christians and Muslims alike. |
| Timothy: So what makes the mosque such an attraction? |
| May: Well, there are several religious shrines including one for John the Baptist. There are also tombs on the site as well as an Arabic calligraphy museum and beautiful minarets. |
| Timothy: Is there a special that we have to dress in order to go to a mosque? |
| Danya: Certainly. Men need to wear long pants. |
| Timothy: Long pants. Can you wear shorts? |
| Danya: You can as long as it covers your knees. You're fine. You're allowed to wear short sleeves too. Women need to wear something that covers their body, anything long that covers up and a head scarf. |
| Timothy: So how long, just cover the knees or does it have to go all the way down to the ankles? |
| Danya: It doesn't have to go down all the way down to the ankles as long as it's something that's covering her body and that's modest and nothing revealing. |
| Timothy: What about sleeves? |
| Danya: Long sleeves. |
| Timothy: Long sleeves? |
| Danya: Yeah. And a woman must cover her hair. Now, men and women need to take off their shoes when they enter a mosque. One thing at the Umayyad Mosque is that because there are a lot of tourists who come and as we said Christians and Muslims visit the site, you're expected to dress a certain way because you're going to a mosque. Just in case you weren't prepared, they provide robes at the entrance that have like a little head scarf attached to the robe. |
| Timothy: Oh that's nice. |
| Danya: Yeah. |
| Timothy: Okay. So is there anything else around the mosque? |
| May: Yeah. There are restaurants that serve some great authentic food. These places were actually old Damascus homes that have been renovated into restaurants. |
| Danya: And there are also lots of souvenir and handcraft stands and shops around the Umayyad mosque. |
| Timothy: Wonderful. And for our listeners out there, we'll put a cultural section in the PDF where you can learn a little more on the history of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Timothy: All right, let's get into the vocab. First we have excuse me. |
| May: عفوا [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Excuse me. |
| May: عفوا [slowly - broken down by syllable], عفوا [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Next, we have the verb. |
| May: تتكلم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: You speak, masculine. |
| May: تتكلم [slowly - broken down by syllable]. تتكلم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Okay, now, let's hear the feminine version. |
| Danya: تتكلمين [natural native speed] تتكلمين [slowly - broken down by syllable]. تتكلمين [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Now, let's hear, I speak. |
| May: أتكلم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: I speak. |
| May: أتكلم [slowly - broken down by syllable]. أتكلم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Okay, what's the next word? |
| May: إنجليزية |
| Timothy: English. |
| May: إنجليزية |
| Timothy: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Danya: قليل [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Little. |
| Danya: قليل [slowly - broken down by syllable]. قليل [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Next, we have a phrase. |
| May: أنا أسف [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: I'm sorry. |
| May: أنا أسف [slowly - broken down by syllable].أنا أسف [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Okay, what's the next word? |
| May: فقط [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Only. |
| May: فقط [slowly - broken down by syllable]. فقط [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Now, we have another verb. |
| May: تفهم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: You understand, masculine. |
| May: تفهم [slowly - broken down by syllable]. تفهم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Now, let's hear the feminine form. |
| May: تفهمين [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: You understand, feminine. |
| May: تفهمين [slowly - broken down by syllable]. تفهمين [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: And now, let's hear the first person. |
| May: أفهم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: I understand. |
| May: أفهم [slowly - broken down by syllable]. أفهم [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Now, we have another language. |
| May: عربية [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Arabic. |
| May: عربية [slowly - broken down by syllable]. عربية [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Now, for our final word. |
| May: منها [natural native speed] |
| Timothy: Of it. |
| May: منها [slowly - broken down by syllable]. منها [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Timothy: All right, let's talk about the usage for some of these words and phrases in more detail. The first word we have was عفواً. What are some situations where we would say عفواً? |
| Danya: You can use it let's say you're out shopping and you bumped into someone. |
| Timothy: عفواً. |
| May: Or it could be a reply for thank you, شكراً, you say عفواً. |
| Timothy: شكراً. |
| May: عفواً. |
| Danya: If you're talking to someone and you didn't catch the last thing they said? |
| Timothy: What was that? |
| Danya: عفواً. |
| Timothy: Okay. What if you're trying to get someone's attention? |
| Danya: You can also say عفواً. |
| Timothy: So you walk up with someone, I tap him on the shoulder, عفواً. |
| Danya: عفواً |
| Timothy: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Danya: تتكلم |
| Timothy: You speak. Can we get an example? |
| Danya: هل تتكلم العربية؟ |
| Timothy: Do you speak Arabic. Now, how would you ask a woman? |
| Danya: هل تتكلمين العربية؟ |
| Timothy: Okay. Can we hear that new verb form again? |
| Danya: تتكلمين |
| Timothy: Okay, let's compare those two, the masculine and the feminine. |
| Danya: تتكلم, masculine, تتكلمين, feminine. |
| Timothy: So تتكلم, masculine, you speak. And تتكلمين, feminine, you speak. All right, now, how do you say, I speak Arabic. |
| Danya: أتكلم العربية |
| Timothy: Okay, let's hear that new verb again? |
| Danya: أتكلم |
| Timothy: أتكلم, I speak. |
| Danya: أتكلم |
| Timothy: Let's compare that with you speak. |
| Danya: تتكلم |
| Timothy: You speak. |
| Danya: أتكلم |
| Timothy: I speak. All right. What's the next word? |
| May: إنجليزية |
| Timothy: English. |
| May: إنجليزية |
| Timothy: So in this dialogue, we used English to refer to the English language. |
| Danya: Right. |
| Timothy: Now, this word sounds a little funny in Arabic, you know? |
| Danya: The reason for that is the word إنجليزي or إنجليزية is written in as إنجليزية so with the جbut we actually pronounced it as a “Ga” sound. |
| Timothy: Sort of like in Egypt. |
| Danya: Right. It's a regional difference. In Egypt, they pronounce the ج as a “Ga”, but in formal Arabic, there is no “Ga” sound, but only this word is an exception. |
| Timothy: The next word is little. |
| May: قليل |
| Timothy: Right. So how can we use قليل? |
| May: If you could say, I speak a little Arabic, قليل من العربية. |
| Timothy: Okay, أتكلم قليل من العربية. Like a small amount of money. |
| Danya: Right. |
| Timothy: Or? |
| May: عندي قليل من الصبر, I have a little patience. |
| Timothy: Yes, we know. |
| Danya: Thanks. |
| Timothy: So those are just different ways of using قليل. I noticed that we always use قليل with the preposition قليل من الصبر, قليل من الوقت,من So what's the next word? |
| May: آسف |
| Timothy: I'm sorry. |
| Danya: Now, that's how men would say I'm sorry. A female would say أنا آسفة. |
| Timothy: Okay, so you put in the تاء مربوطة on the end. |
| Danya: Right. So you put the A sound at the end of the word. |
| Timothy: So أنا ىسف. |
| Danya: أنا آسفة. |
| Timothy: So what are some situations where we could use أنا آسف? |
| May: If you bumped in to someone, you say أنا آسف or أنا آسفة. |
| Timothy: Okay. |
| Danya: If someone dear to your friend such as your parents or relatives. |
| Timothy: So if your friend suffers a loss. |
| Danya: Right, you'll say أنا آسف. |
| Timothy: Okay. What if I were to hurt your feelings? |
| May: You could also say أنا أسف. |
| Danya: You should actually. |
| May: Yeah. |
| Timothy: Okay. What's the next word? |
| May: فقط |
| Timothy: Only. Okay, so how many hairs are on Homer's head? |
| Danya: ثلاثة فقط. |
| Timothy: Only three. |
| Danya: Only three or three only actually. |
| Timothy: Right, just three? |
| Danya: Just three. |
| Timothy: Now, we have another verb. |
| May: تفهم |
| Timothy: You understand, masculine. Okay, can we get an example? |
| Danya: هل تفهم العربية؟ |
| Timothy: Do you understand Arabic? And how would we ask a woman? |
| Danya: هل تفهمين العربية؟ |
| Timothy: Okay, let's hear that new verb form again? |
| Danya: تفهمين |
| Timothy: Let's compare the two. |
| Danya: تفهم, تفهمين |
| Timothy: So تفهم, masculine, you understand. And تفهمين, feminine, you understand. All right, now, how do I say I understand in Arabic? |
| May: أفهم العربية. |
| Timothy: Let's hear that new verb form again. |
| May: أفهم |
| Timothy: Okay, so we had you understand. |
| Danya: تفهم |
| Timothy: I understand. |
| May: أفهم |
| Timothy: So the only difference is the تَ sound at the beginning. What's the next word? |
| May: عربية. |
| Timothy: So that's Arabic, meaning the Arabic language. |
| Danya: Yes. And you can also refer to someone's nationality. If you're referring to someone who's Arab, a man, هو عربي, he is Arab or she is Arab, هي عربية. |
| Timothy: So you said a nationality. Which country would an Arab be from? |
| Danya: The 22 Arab countries. |
| Timothy: Oh, okay. So it's more like an ethnicity. |
| Danya: Right, exactly. |
| Timothy: Okay. Now, our final word. |
| Danya: منها |
| Timothy: Of it. Okay, so of من and ها, it. |
| Danya: It's a pronoun. |
| Timothy: We learned ها before. ها meant her. |
| Danya: Right. We said that objects in Arabic could either be masculine or feminine. There is no it in Arabic, so it's one of the two. |
| Timothy: Okay. So it is either he or she? |
| Danya: Right. In this case, منها, what we were referring to which is the Arabic language was feminine form, so we used a pronoun ها with we said قليل من العربي instead of قليل من العربية, it would be منهُ. |
| May: The word اللغة, اللغة العربية, is the language and it's Arabic, so عربية has to match and be feminine too. But if you want to say the Arabic man, الرجل, الرجل العربيis masculine so عربي also has to also be masculine. |
| Danya: So if you want to refer to that man, but in a pronoun, you want to retract it to a pronoun, instead of saying the whole thing. |
| Timothy: Okay, like the letter came from him. |
| Danya: Right, exactly. So you could say منهُ.The هُ ”hu” refers to the Arabic man. |
| Timothy: So منها could be of it or of her or from her and منهُ would be from him or from it or of it. |
| May: Yes. |
Lesson focus |
| Timothy: Okay, let's move on to today's grammar point. Today's grammar point is conjugation in the singular, first and second person. The Arabic verb is made of three parts, the root, the wazn, and the affixes. |
| May: The root is a set of usually three letters that tells us what the general meaning of the word is. For example, درسَ is the root for يدرس, he studies. |
| Danya: The wazn is the pattern of vowels and stresses. It tells us more information and let's us distinguish between يدرس, he studies and يُدَرّس, he teaches. |
| Timothy: Okay. So يَدرس an يُدرّس both have the same common meaning of studying, يَدرس, he studies, يُدرّس, he gets someone to study. |
| May: Right, but to teach is a better translation for يُدرّس. |
| Timothy: Okay. So what does wazn mean? |
| Danya: It means measures or weights, but we can translate it as pattern in this case. |
| Timothy: So the third part of the Arabic verb are the sounds that you attach to the beginning and end of the verb. These prefixes and suffixes, they tell us the difference between I study, you study and he studies. |
| May: Yeah. For example أدرس means I study. |
| Timothy: So if we attach أ meaning I to درس the stem for to study, then we get أدرس, I study. |
| Danya: That's right. |
| Timothy: Okay. Let's hear how to say you study. |
| Danya: تدرس |
| Timothy: All right, in this case we put تَ on the beginning of درس to get تدرس you study. |
| Danya: So we have أدرس, I study and تدرس, you study. تدرس,أدرس. |
| May: That's right. But if you are talking to a woman, then you also have to add ين to the end. |
| Timothy: Yes, in Arabic there are two different words for you, أنتَ for man, أنتِ for a woman. So all we are doing is extending that idea to verbs. Let's hear the example you study. |
| May: تدرس for a man and تدرسين for a woman. تدرسين, تدرس. |
| Timothy: Let's use some examples from the lesson. |
| Danya: أتكلّم |
| Timothy: I speak. |
| Danya: تتكلّم |
| Timothy: You speak, masculine. |
| Danya: تتكلمين |
| Timothy: You speak, feminine. Okay, so what's the stem for to speak? |
| Danya: تتكلم |
| Timothy: With the affixes, we have أتكلم,تتكلم,تتكلمين. What's the next? |
| May: أفهم |
| Timothy: I understand. |
| May: تفهم |
| Timothy: You understand, masculine. |
| May: تفهمين |
| Timothy: You understand, feminine. Okay, so what is the stem for to understand? |
| May: فهم. |
| Danya: So the affixes we have أفهم,تفهم, تفهمين . |
Outro |
| Timothy: That just about wraps up things for today. Reinforce what you've learned by using the flashcards in the learning center. There is a reason why we've all used flashcards at some point in our studies. The bottom line is that they really work. At ArabicPod101.com we understand this, so we offer flashcards for all levels of your study. |
| Danya: مع السلامة |
| May: إلى القاء |
| Timothy: Until next time. |
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