Learn how to use the verb "to like/love"
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| Marḥaban, ʾanā Carole! Hi everybody! I’m Carole. |
| Welcome to ArabicPod101.com’s Al-ʿarabiyyah fi ṯalāṯi daqāʾiq. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Arabic. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb faʿala which means "to do" in Arabic. |
| In this lesson, we will learn how to use ʾaḥabba, the most romantic Arabic verb, which is also the fourth verb in our series dedicated to the most common Arabic verbs. |
| ʾaḥabba can mean both "to like" and "to love" in Arabic, so in this lesson we are going to see how to use it correctly. Let’s go! Hayyā binā! |
| Imagine you are in a restaurant with your date and he or she asks you "Do you like cheese?" If you’re a man, she will ask you Hal tuḥibbu al-ǧubnah? |
| If you’re a woman, he will ask you Hal tuḥibbīna al-ǧubnah? |
| So supposing you like it (even if it is not so romantic!) you can answer Naʿam, ʾuḥibbu al-ǧubnah |
| [slowly] Naʿam, ʾuḥibbu al-ǧubnah |
| tuḥibbu and tuḥibbīna are the masculine and feminine forms of the 2nd person of the verb “to love”. |
| So let’s break down this answer: |
| First we had: |
| Naʿam which is simply "Yes." |
| Then ʾuḥibbu which is the 1st person form of the verb ʾaḥabba in the present indicative. |
| Finally we had al-ǧubnah -- which is the correct way to talk about cheese in general. |
| So all together it is Naʿam, ʾuḥibbu al-ǧubnah |
| Note that in Arabic, we can use the verb ʾaḥabba to express both that we "love" or that we "just like" something or someone. |
| Even if you just appreciate something, you can use ʾaḥabba. On the contrary, it is also the verb to use when talking about something you really love or about the person you are in love with. |
| In fact, the verb ʾaḥabba has different levels of understanding, and this often depends a lot on the word that comes after it. For example, if you say ʾanā ʾuḥibbu al-ǧubnah kaṯīran it will mean that you like cheese very much, kaṯīran means “a lot”. |
| To say that you like your cheese with bread you can say ʾanā ʾuḥibbu al-ǧubnah maʿa al-ḫubz, maʿa means “with”, al-ḫubz means “bread”. |
| And of course, ʾaḥabba is above all the verb of love, so if you are talking to the person you fell in love with, you can tell him (ʾanā) ʾuḥibbuka or her (ʾanā) ʾuḥibbuki which is the famous "I love you" in Arabic! Isn’t that romantic? |
| Now it’s time for Carole’s Tips. |
| In Arabic, if you want to tell someone that you fell in love or are in love with them, there’s a stronger way to express it, by saying : |
| ʾanā muġramun biki if a man is talking to a woman, and ʾanā muġramatun bika if a woman is talking to a man. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to use the verb aḥabba depending on the degree of your love! |
| Next time we’ll learn how to say “to come” in Arabic. |
| Do you know how to say it? I’ll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Al-ʿarabiyyah fi ṯalāṯi daqāʾiq! |
| ʾilā al-liqāʾi qarīban! |
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