Learn how to talk about someone's character using adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 23 - Talking About Someone’s Character in Arabic. Becky Here. |
| Hany: مرحبا I'm Hany. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about someone's character using adjectives. The conversation takes place in the coffee shop. |
| Hany: It's between Tim and Karim. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends, so they will use informal Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| كريم: أي مشروب تفضل؟ |
| تيم: أريد مشروباً دافئاً, فالجو بارد. |
| كريم: ما أخبارك هذه الأيام؟ |
| تيم: أنا مشغول جداً في بحث تابع لبرنامجي التدريبي. |
| كريم: أنت حقاً شخصية مسؤولة و محترمة يا تيم. |
| تيم: هذا كلام مبالغ فيه يا كريم. أنا فقط أرجو أن يأتي مجهودي بفائدة في النهاية. |
| كريم: ما موضوع بحثك؟ |
| تيم: أقوم ببحث عن طرق مساعدة محدودي الدخل عن طريق المشروعات الصغيرة. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Karim: What would you like to drink? |
| Tim: I want a hot drink, because it's cold. |
| Karim: How are you these days? |
| Tim: I'm very busy with research related to my internship. |
| Karim: You really are such a responsible and respectable person, Tim. |
| Tim: You are exaggerating, Karim. I'm only hoping my efforts have a significant result in the end. |
| Karim: What's the topic of your research? |
| Tim: I'm doing research on ways to help families with a limited income through small-scale projects. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: It seems that in Egypt, the problem of poverty is quite a big one. |
| Hany: That’s true, and I think that may be a reason why the poor in Egypt are becoming more widely represented in pop culture than ever before. |
| Becky: Egypt is one of Africa's most populous countries, with a significant number of people living in slums around Greater Cairo. Most of them are low-income families. |
| Hany: Right. They have their own sub-culture and music and dance style. In the last few years, a local music style, called mahragan, has skyrocketed in popularity and taken over the music scene. |
| Becky: The main theme of these songs is how harsh life is for this group of people and how they view society. |
| Hany: The literal meaning of مَهرَجان (mahragan) is "festival." |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hany: مشروب [natural native speed] |
| Becky: drink |
| Hany: مشروب[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مشروب [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: دافئ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: warm |
| Hany: دافئ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: دافئ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: مشغول [natural native speed] |
| Becky: busy |
| Hany: مشغول[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مشغول [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: بحث [natural native speed] |
| Becky: research |
| Hany: بحث[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: بحث [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: شخصية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: character |
| Hany: شخصية[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: شخصية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: محترم [natural native speed] |
| Becky: respectable |
| Hany: محترم[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: محترم [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: كلام [natural native speed] |
| Becky: talk |
| Hany: كلام[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: كلام [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: رجا [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to hope |
| Hany: رجا[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: رجا [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: مجهود [natural native speed] |
| Becky: effort |
| Hany: مجهود[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مجهود [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Hany: فائدة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: pay-off |
| Hany: فائدة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: فائدة [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: ما أَخبارُك (mā ʾaḫbāruk) |
| Becky: meaning "How've you been?" |
| Hany: This expression consists of two words: ma meaning "what" and ahbaaruk meaning "your news" |
| Becky: so literally it means "What are your news?" |
| Hany: You use it when you want to ask how someone is doing. You can change the possessive pronoun into kum for plural or ki for feminine depending on who you're talking to. |
| Becky: Does this phrase change if you’re addressing a woman? |
| Hany: Yes, it becomes ما أخبارُكِ؟ (mā ʾḫbāruki?) |
| Becky: ..which also means "How are you? (when addressing a female)". Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: تابِع لِـ (tābiʿ liـ) |
| Becky: meaning "related to" |
| Hany: This expression consists of two words: tabi' meaning "belongs" and li meaning "to." |
| Becky: You use it when you want to show that something belongs to or is related to something. |
| Hany: You have to insert an object after li. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. هَذا المَعمَل تابِع لِلجامِعَة. (haḏā al-maʿmal tābiʿ lilǧāmiʿah.) |
| Becky: .. which means "This lab belongs to the university." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: مُبالَغ فيه (mubalaġ fīh) |
| Becky: meaning "exaggerated." |
| Hany: This expression consists of two words: mubalag meaning "exaggerated" and fih meaning "in it." The adjective mubala' has to have a fi after it to give the meaning "exaggerated". You have to insert an object after the fi, which is h in this example, meaning "it." |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Hany: For example, you can say.. هَذا المَطعَمُ مُبالَغٌ فيه. (haḏā al-maṭʿamu mubal-aġun fīh.) |
| Becky: .. which literally means "This restaurant is exaggerated." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about someone's character using adjectives. |
| Hany: We will learn how to derive the object agent noun form, or the Ism maf’ūl, from verbs. |
| Becky: Deriving object agent nouns from verbs is a bit trickier than subject agent nouns. |
| Hany: Right. It’s important to understand that an object agent noun, in English, is mostly translated into a passive voice verb. |
| Becky: Also, because of its passive voice nuance, only transitive verbs can be made into object agent nouns. Let’s learn how to create and use them together. The structure of the resulting object agent noun depends on the starting structure of the verb. |
| Hany: By structure, we mean being mugarrad or maziid. As we already know, maziid verbs can either have 1, 2, or 3 extra letters other than the root letters, and they have certain forms. |
| Becky: Let’s give an example, considering the verb meaning “to be busy” which has just 1 extra letter |
| Hany: That is يُشغل (yushgal) |
| Becky: What is the resulting object agent noun? |
| Hany: مَشغول (mashguul) |
| Becky: ...which can be translated as “busy.” Now let’s look at a verb with 3 extra letters. |
| Hany: For example يُستَخدَم (yustahdamu) |
| Becky: which means “to use.” What is the resulting object agent noun? |
| Hany: مُستَخدَم (mustahdam) |
| Becky: which can be translated as “used.” Is there any formula for making a verb into an object agent noun? |
| Hany: There are actually two formulas. The maf’uul form, and the muf’al form. |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the first one. |
| Hany: The maf’uul form is the form resulting from creating an object agent noun from a mugarrad verb. Basically, we bring the verb to its root, for example شغل, then we insert a مَ prefix with a damma on top of the root, and a و between the second and the third letter of the root verb, مَشغول |
| Becky: Is there an example of this in the dialogue? |
| Hany: Yes, in the sentence أَيُّ مَشروبٍ تُفَضِّل؟ (ʾayyu mašrūbin tufaḍḍil?) |
| Becky: meaning “What (drink) would you like to drink?” |
| Hany: In this example, the object agent noun is mašrūbin |
| Becky: meaning “drink” |
| Hany: The root verb of “to drink” in Arabic is شرب. Just like we explained, insert a مَ prefix with a damma on the top of the root, and a و between the second and the third letter of the root verb. That way we get مَشروب(Mashruub ) |
| Becky: Ok, let’s take a look at the second formula for making a verb into an object agent noun. |
| Hany: The muf’al form applies to ALL maziid verbs whether they have 1, 2, or 3 extra letters. |
| Becky: How does it work? |
| Hany: Let’s consider يستند (Yastanid), which means “to rely on.” You have to insert a مُ prefix with a damma on the top of the root, and a fat-ha vowelling sign to the second letter of the root verb, and you get مُستَنَد (Mustanad) |
| Becky: Which means “document.” |
| Hany: Using object agent nouns is essential in conversations. By giving agent attributes to a noun or an adjective, you can speak in a concise way while still giving out all the information you need to. |
| Becky: Describing someone’s personality using adjectives that have an object agent noun form is very important in daily conversations. |
| Hany: There is an example in the dialogue أَنتَ حَقّاً شَخصِيَّةٌ مَسؤولَةٌ و مُحتَرَمَةٌ يا تيم. (ʾanta ḥaqqan šaḫṣiyyaẗun masʾuūlaẗun wa muḥtaramaẗun īā tīm.) |
| Becky: meaning “You really are such a responsible and respectable person, Tim.” |
| Hany: Here, one of the object agent nouns, مَسؤول , is derived from a mugarrad verb, and that’s why the maf’uul rule applies to it. Its present tense verb form is يسأل. Just like we explained, insert a مَ prefix with a damma on the top of the root, and a و between the second and the third letter of the root verb. That way we get مَسؤول. |
| Becky: Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson by giving some sample sentences. |
| Hany: أَنا مُعتَزٌّ بِهَوِيَّتي. (ʾanā muʿtazzun bihawiyyatī.) |
| Becky: "I am proud of my identity." |
| Hany: كَرَم شابٌّ مُهَذَّب. (karam šābbun muhaḏḏab.) |
| Becky: "Karam is a polite young man." |
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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