Learn how to use the irregular plural to talk about living conditions in an informal conversation between friends
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 13 - Talking About Living Standards in Arabic. I’m Becky. |
| Hany: مرحبا I'm Hany. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the living conditions of people and different standards of living in the same country. The conversation takes place at a university. |
| Hany: It's between Sara and Mina. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends, so they will use informal Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| سارة: كيف كان أول يوم من البرنامج التطوعي؟ |
| مينا: زرنا الأحياء الفقيرة حول القاهرة. |
| تيم: إنهم يسكنون في بيوت صغيرة و مظلمة جداً يا سارة. |
| مينا: لن تتصوري حجم المأساة التي يعيشونها. أسرة قديمة و أثاث متهالك. الوضع صعب.. |
| سارة: ماذا ستفعلون إذا؟ |
| تيم: والله أنا لا أعرف من أين سنبدأ حتى. ولكن رؤساء الفرق سوف يقسموننا إلى أربع فرق. |
| مينا: كل فرقة سوف تتولى أحد المهام. لا تقلق يا تيم. سوف نساعدهم بالتأكيد. |
| تيم: لم أكن أعرف ان هناك أسر فقيرة لهذه الدرجة في مصر. بعض البيوت لا يصلها الماء! |
| سارة: بالتأكيد فأنت تسكن في الزمالك و هي منطقة أغلبيتها من الأغنياء. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Sara: How was the first day of the volunteer program? |
| Mina: We visited the poor neighborhoods around Cairo. |
| Tim: They live in very small and dark houses, Sara. |
| Mina: You can’t imagine the magnitude of the tragedy they are living in. Old beds, run-down furniture. The situation is tough. |
| Sara: What are you going to do, then? |
| Tim: God, I don't even know where to start. But the team leaders divided us into four teams. |
| Mina: Each team will take over a task. Don't worry, Tim. We will help them for sure. |
| Tim: I didn't know that there were such poor families in Egypt. Some houses don't even have water! |
| Sara: Of course, you live in Zamalek and the majority of the people living in that area are rich. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Hany, is the situation as bad as they said in the dialogue? |
| Hany: Unfortunately yes, and one sad thing is that many middle and middle-upper class Egyptians have no idea how the poor live and how their houses look, and the quality of the services they get. |
| Becky: How bad are the services? |
| Hany: For example, many of these poor areas have no sewage systems and barely any electricity. They learn to live with what they are given. |
| Becky: And I suppose that that causes their lifestyle to deteriorate, affecting not only their hygiene, but also education, and even their future. |
| Hany: Yes, that is so. |
| Becky: Let’s hope it improves soon. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hany: حول [natural native speed] |
| Becky: around |
| Hany: حول[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: حول [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: مظلمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: dark |
| Hany: مظلمة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مظلمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: تصور [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to imagine |
| Hany: تصور[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: تصور [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: مأساة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: tragedy |
| Hany: مأساة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مأساة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: أسرّة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: beds |
| Hany: أسرّة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: أسرّة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: أثاث [natural native speed] |
| Becky: furniture |
| Hany: أثاث[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: أثاث [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Hany: متهالك [natural native speed] |
| Becky: run-down |
| Hany: متهالك[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: متهالك [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Hany: الوضع [natural native speed] |
| Becky: the situation |
| Hany: الوضع[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: الوضع [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And lastly.. |
| Hany: أغلبية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: majority |
| Hany: أغلبية[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: أغلبية [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.. |
| Hany: لن تتصور |
| Becky: meaning "you won’t imagine" or “you can’t imagine” |
| Hany: This expression consists of two words: lan meaning "will not", and tatasawwar meaning "imagine.” |
| Becky: You use it when you want someone to put themselves in your shoes and imagine something you saw or felt. Always use it to talk about your own experiences. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. لن تتصور ما الذي حدث معي اليوم! |
| Becky: ..which means "You won't imagine what happened to me today!" Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: من أين أبدأ |
| Becky: meaning "where do I start.." |
| Hany: This expression is made up of three words: min meaning "from", ayna meaning "where", and abda meaning "I start". |
| Becky: You use this expression when there is a long story that you want to tell, or a huge issue you need to solve, and you don't know where to start telling it or solving it. Hany, can you give us an example? |
| Hany: For example, you can say.. القصة طويلة و لا أعرف من أين أبدأ. |
| Becky: .. which means "The story is long and I don't know where to start." Okay, what's the last phrase? |
| Hany: لهذه الدرجة |
| Becky: meaning "To that extent" |
| Hany: This expression is made up of two words: li-hazihi meaning "to this" and al-darajah meaning "extent". |
| Becky: All in all it means "to that extent", and it's used just like its English equivalent. It's mainly used after adjectives as an adverb. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Hany: You can say.. هل كنت متعباً لهذه الدرجة؟ |
| Becky: .. which means "Were you that tired?" |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about the irregular plural while explaining the living conditions of people and the different standards of living in the same country. In the previous lessons we’ve learned how to form the regular feminine and masculine plural forms. |
| Hany: Now we must move to a more difficult part, which is the irregular plural. |
| Becky: There is no one certain form for irregular plural, and the forms are quite haphazard, which makes predicting them a very tough job. But in this lesson, we will try to simplify that as much as possible. |
| Hany: In Arabic, the “irregular plurals” are called gam’ taksiir جمع تكسير |
| Becky: which literally means “the plural that breaks the singular form” |
| Hany: Right, that’s because in the irregular plural forms, you don’t add suffixes to the singular form like the regular masculine and feminine plural forms. |
| Becky: Instead, you insert certain vowels in the middle of the word, or omit certain vowels in some other cases. Let’s see an example of both, starting with omitting a vowel mid-word. |
| Hany: For example kitaab, “a book,” becomes kutub, “books”, by omitting the ا vowel in the middle of the singular form kitaab, |
| Becky: that results in a plural form even shorter than the singular form itself. Now let’s take a look at the case of adding extra letters. |
| Hany: For example, qalam, “a pen,” becomes aqlaam, “pens.” Here, we added a hamza أ in the beginning, then added an ا vowel mid-word. |
| Becky: Are all these irregular forms random? |
| Hany: There are common forms for the irregular plural, too. It just needs lots of practice. |
| Becky: Let’s go through some of them, starting from the words in the dialogue |
| Hany: The first form is called الأفعال al-af’aal, for example الحَي al-haii |
| Becky: which means “neighborhood” |
| Hany: and in the plural form becomes الأحياء al-ahyaa’ |
| Becky: What is the next form? |
| Hany: The second form is called فُعول fu’uul, for example بَيت bayt |
| Becky: which means “house” |
| Hany: and in the plural form becomes بيوت buyuut |
| Becky: What is the next form? |
| Hany: The third form is called أفعِلَة aaf’ilah, for example سَرير sariir, and in the plural form becomes أسرّة asirrah |
| Becky: which means “beds”, what’s next? |
| Hany:The next form is called فُعَلاء fu’alaa’, for example رَئيس ra’iis, and in the plural form becomes رؤساء ru’asaa’ |
| Becky: And that means “leaders” |
| Hany: Next is the form called فُعَل fu’al |
| Becky: An example? |
| Hany: أُسرَة usrah, which means “nuclear family,” in the plural form becomes أُسَر usar |
| Becky: Are there other forms in the dialogue? |
| Hany: Yes, the form أفعِلاء af’ilaa’. For example, غَنِي ghanii, which means “healthy person” in the plural form becomesأغنِياء aghniyaa’ |
| Becky: which indicates “healthy people”. The reason we can talk about forms is that if you have a noun in the singular form with the same form as any of the ones we just saw, there’s a very high chance it will follow the same plural form. Let’s go through some examples. |
| Hany: Let’s consider the form called أفعِلاء af’ilaa’, the one for the couple غَنِي ghanii/ أغنِياء aghniyaa’ |
| Becky: Which means “wealthy person/wealthy people” |
| Hany: Similarly the plural for غَبي ghabii, which means “stupid person,” will be أغبِياء aghbiyaa’ , stupid people, and the plural for ذَكي zakii , “intelligent person” is أذكِياء azkiyaa’ |
| Becky: and that means “intelligent people”. |
| Hany: Here is another example for the form فُعَلاء fu’alaa’, which the form for the couple رَئيس ra’iis/رؤساء ru’asaa’ |
| Becky: which means “leader or leaders” respectively |
| Hany: similarly the plural for فَقير fakiir, meaning “poor,” is فُقَراء fuqaraa. Can you hear the similarity? رَئيس ra’iis/رؤساء ru’asaa’ and فَقير fakiir/ فُقَراء fuqaraa |
| Becky: Yes, they definitely follow a similar pattern. So basically, you can memorize basic words for each irregular plural form, and then whenever you see or hear a new word, try to match it with the basic words you know and look for its form pattern, just like we did now. |
| Hany: Right. |
| Becky: There are more than fifty patterns for the irregular plural in Arabic, so learning all of them at once isn’t very realistic, and that’s why comparing nouns and adjectives you already know to new nouns and adjectives you learn is the best way to get used to it. What about the final vowelling of irregular nouns? |
| Hany: Well, that’s very easy because it has the exact same final vowelling as singular nouns! |
| Becky: Good to know. Finally, let’s look at how to conjugate adjectives attached to an irregular plural. |
| Hany: Let’s consider a sentence from the dialogue, إنهم يسكنون في بيوت صغيرة.(innahum yaskunuuna fi buyuutin sagiirah.) |
| Becky: Which means “They live in small houses.” |
| Hany: Observe the adjective “small,” sagiirah. You will notice that it is in the singular feminine form, even though the word “houses,” buyuut, is in the plural form, and happens to be a masculine noun! |
| Becky: Why is that? |
| Hany: because the word “house,” bayt is, FIRST, an inanimate object, and, SECOND, its plural form is an irregular plural form (buyuut). |
| Becky: and ALL irregular plural nouns cause the adjectives that come after them to turn into the singular feminine form. |
| Hany: Right. Here is another example, أسرة قديمة asirrah qadiimah |
| Becky: meaning “old beds” |
| Hany: Here also, note that the adjective qadiimah meaning “old,” describes the irregular plural noun asirrah meaning “beds”, which is also an inanimate object. That’s why the adjective has to be in the singular feminine form. |
| Becky: Let’s give another example. |
| Hany: أسر فقيرة usar faqiirah |
| Becky: “poor families” |
| Hany: the word usar meaning “families”, in Arabic is considered an inanimate noun. Arabic treats the family as a unit, not a group of people. That’s why here, the adjective faqiirah meaning “poor,” had to be in the singular feminine form. |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Hany: شكرا |
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