Learn how to ask about available properties at a real estate agent in a formal Arabic conversation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 15 - Looking for a Place to Call Home in Egypt. I’m Becky. |
| Hany: مرحبا I'm Hany. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about available properties in a real estate agency and their details. The conversation takes place at a real estate agency. |
| Hany: It's between Tim and a Real estate agent. |
| Becky: The speakers are strangers, so they will use formal Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| تيم: السلام عليكم. هل هناك شقق للإيجار في هذه المنطقة؟ |
| سمسار: يوجد شقة واسعة بالطابق الثاني من تلك العمارة. و هناك شقة صغيرة و لكنها تطل على حديقة جميلة بالطابق الثالث بنفس العمارة. |
| تيم: هل هناك مصعد؟ |
| سمسار: لا, المصعد معطل للأسف. |
| تيم: لا أمانع. صعود السلالم رياضة. |
| سمسار: هي أيضاً شقة مفروشة, فلن تحتاج إلى شراء أي أثاث. كما أن سعرها ممتاز. ألفان جنية في الشهر فقط. |
| تيم: لم هي رخيصة هكذا؟ |
| سمسار: لأن المصريين لا يحبون الشقق الصغيرة, لا أحد يريد أن يستأجرها. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Tim: Hello. Are there any apartments around this area for rent? |
| Real estate agent: There is a spacious apartment on the second floor of that building. Also there's a small apartment on the third floor of the same building, but it looks over a beautiful garden. |
| Tim: Is there an elevator? |
| Real estate agent: No, unfortunately the elevator is broken. |
| Tim: I don't mind. Taking the stairs is a form of working out. |
| Real estate agent: It is also a furnished apartment, so you won't have to buy any furniture. And the price is amazing. Only 2000 pounds per month. |
| Tim: Why is it so cheap? |
| Real estate agent: Because Egyptians don't like little apartments, so no one wants to rent it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Hany, could you give us some tips on how to look for a house in Egypt? |
| Hany: There are normal real estate agencies in Egypt of course, and you can use them to rent a house, but people usually just ask building doormen or بواب |
| Becky: Why is that? |
| Hany: They know the apartments and their pros and cons more than any real estate agent! They are also aware of the state of the neighborhood in terms of security, and whether there are any other foreign people living around, and whether there are people that speak your language who can help you in case of trouble! |
| Becky: That’s good to know! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hany: إيجار [natural native speed] |
| Becky: rent |
| Hany: إيجار[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: إيجار [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: طابق [natural native speed] |
| Becky: floor, storey |
| Hany: طابق[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: طابق [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: طل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to overlook (a view) |
| Hany: طل[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: طل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: نفس [natural native speed] |
| Becky: same |
| Hany: نفس[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: نفس [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: صعود [natural native speed] |
| Becky: going up |
| Hany: صعود[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: صعود [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: مصعد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: elevator |
| Hany: مصعد[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مصعد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Hany: مفروشة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: furnished |
| Hany: مفروشة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مفروشة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Hany: فقط [natural native speed] |
| Becky: only |
| Hany: فقط[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: فقط [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 word is.. |
| Hany: هُناك.. |
| Becky: meaning "there is" |
| Hany:The word hunaaka consists of two parts: هنا huna meaning "here" and the pronoun ك ka meaning "there". |
| Becky: Taken literally, it might not make sense, but all in all it means "there is." |
| Hany: This expression stays the same for masculine and feminine nouns. |
| Becky: It also indicates a current form, something in the present.Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. هُناكَ مُشكِلَة في المَشروع. |
| Becky: ..which means "There is a problem with the project.” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Hany: لِلأَسَف |
| Becky: meaning "unfortunately" |
| Hany: The word lilʾasaf consists of two parts: لل lil meaning "to” or “for" and الأسف al- asaf meaning "the sorrow". |
| Becky: So literally it means something like "to the sorrow". But in context, it means "unfortunately". |
| Hany: You can use this expression at the beginning or end of a sentence, so it's very flexible. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. |
| نَسيتُ أَن أُحضِرَ الكِتابَ مَعي لِلأَسَف. |
| Becky: .. which means "Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the book with me." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: لا أمانع |
| Becky: meaning "I don't mind" |
| Hany: This expression is made up of two words: لا la meaning "no" and أمانع umani' meaning "I mind". |
| Becky: It is a simple expression that you can use when you feel neutral about something, not too positive or too negative. An example please Hany. |
| Hany: For example, you can say.. لا أُمانِع وُجود شَريك لي في البَيْت. |
| Becky: .. which means "I don't mind having a room mate." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask about available properties in a real estate agency and their details.. |
| Hany: In this lesson we’ll see the adjectives or النعت (al-na’t) and their final vowelling rules. |
| Becky: The most unique thing about adjectives in Arabic, is that they follow the noun they describe in not only gender and number, but also in final vowelling. Let’s see some examples from the dialogue. |
| Hany: يوجد شقة واسعة. (yūǧadu šaqqatun waāsiʿatun) |
| Becky: meaning “There is a big apartment.” |
| Hany: Let’s focus on the word waāsiʿah, واسعة |
| Becky: It’s an adjective meaning “wide” or “spacious.” There are some key features about this adjective to take note of, listeners. The first one is that it came AFTER the word it described, unlike English. It’s literally like saying “apartment big.” We can also notice that it followed the noun it describes in gender, number, and final vowelling. |
| Hany: Right, the noun it refers to is شقة (šaqqah), which is feminine and the final vowelling, raf’ with dammah, is the same for both the noun and the adjective, شقةٌ واسعةٌ (šaqqatun waāsiʿatun). |
| Becky: Let’s see another example and try to apply these rules to it: |
| Hany:Again from the dialogue لكنها تطل على حديقة جميلة (lakinnahā tuṭillu ʿalā ḥadīqatin ǧamīlatin.) |
| Becky: “But it overlooks a beautiful garden.” |
| Hany: Also in this case, the adjective gamilatin came after the word it described and followed it in gender (feminine), number (singular) and final vowelling garr with kasra. Together they are حَديقَةٍ جميلةِ (ḥadīqatin ǧamīlatin.) |
| Becky: Is this the case for all nouns followed by adjectives? |
| Hany: Mostly, but there is one exception to the rule. As we mentioned in another lesson, when an adjective describes a noun that happens to be an irregular plural, the adjective that follows will ALWAYS be in the feminine singular form. |
| Becky: Let’s see an example of this from the dialogue. |
| Hany: المصريين لا يحبون الشقق الصغيرة (al-miṣriyyīn lā yuḥibbūn al-šuqaqa al-ṣaġīrata.) |
| Becky: meaning “Egyptians don’t like small apartments.” |
| Hany: In this case, the adjective الصغيرة (al-sagirata) came after the noun it described and followed it in final vowelling, but not in gender and number. |
| Becky: Ok, now let’s talk about how to ask about available properties in a real estate agency and their details. When you ask about the availability of something in English, you usually say “Is there..?”, but as we know, Arabic has no verb “to be” in nominal sentences, which leaves us with the word meaning “there”. |
| Hany: Luckily, we use the same exact expression in Arabic, so we use the word hunaak هناك meaning “there”. For example, هناك شقة صغيرة و لكنها تطل على حديقة جميلة. (hunāka šaqqatun ṣaġīratun wa lakinnahā tuṭillu ʿalā ḥadīqatin ǧamīlatin.) |
| Becky: Which means “There's a small apartment, but it looks over a beautiful garden.” |
| Hany: Hunaak, هُناك is a very useful word for saying that something exists somewhere or asking about the availability of something. Like in this example, the little apartment exists or is in the building... |
| Becky: ...or as we normally say in English, “there is a small apartment”. |
| Hany: Another example is هناك أسر فقيرة في مصر (hunaaka usar faqiirah fi misr.) |
| Becky: literally meaning “Poor families exist in Egypt.” and in a loose translation “There are poor families in Egypt.” Now what if we want to ask about the availability of something? |
| Hany: we just simply add the question marker hal هل before the affirmative sentence and we get a Yes/No question. For example هل هناك أسر فقيرة في مصر (hal hunaaka usar faqiirah fi misr.) |
| Becky: “Are there poor families in Egypt?” |
| Hany: Another example is هل هناك مصعد؟(hal hunaaka mis’ad?) |
| Becky: meaning “Is there an elevator?” What if you want to say that something existed somewhere, but in the PAST? |
| Hany: You just have to put the past tense inducer kaana, كان, which we learned in earlier lessons, before the word hunaaka, resulting in kaana hunaaka, كان هناك. For example, كان هناك أحدٌ في الحمام. (kaana hunaaka ahadun fi al hammaam.) |
| Becky: meaning “There was someone in the bathroom.” |
| Hany: To form a Yes/No question in the past, you also just add hal to the beginning of the past tense sentence. For example, هل كان هناك أحدٌ في الحمام؟ (hal kaana hunaaka ahadun fi al hammaam?) |
| Becky: meaning “Was there someone in the bathroom?” |
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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