Learn how to describe what you did and saw in an email
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 10 - E-mails from Egypt. I’m Becky. |
| Nora: السلام عليكم. I'm Nora. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe what you did and what you saw. The conversation takes the form of an email from Nadia's mother. |
| Nora: It's between Nadia and her mother, Noor, who wrote the email. |
| Becky: The speakers are family, so they will be using informal Egyptian Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ناديه : جالي إيميل من ماما! |
| (in the email) |
| حبيبتي نادية , تحياتي من شرم الشيخ ! |
| البحر جميل والجو ممتاز . |
| عملنا سنوركلينج (غوص) امبارح و شفنا اسماك كتيرة جدا |
| ممكن العيلة كلها تاخد اجازة الصيف دة في شرم الشيخ . |
| حاتحبوها أوي. |
| ايه اخبار المدرسة ؟ |
| .بالتوفيق في امتحانات اخر السنة. |
| بابا بيبعتلك حبه و سلامه . ماما |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| ناديه : جالي إيميل من ماما! |
| (in the email) |
| حبيبتي نادية , تحياتي من شرم الشيخ ! |
| البحر جميل والجو ممتاز . |
| عملنا سنوركلينج (غوص) امبارح و شفنا اسماك كتيرة جدا |
| ممكن العيلة كلها تاخد اجازة الصيف دة في شرم الشيخ . |
| حاتحبوها أوي. |
| ايه اخبار المدرسة ؟ |
| .بالتوفيق في امتحانات اخر السنة. |
| بابا بيبعتلك حبه و سلامه . ماما |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Nadia: I received an email from my mother! |
| (in the email) |
| Dear Nadia, Greetings from Sharm el-Sheikh! |
| The beach is beautiful and the weather is perfect. |
| We snorkeled yesterday and saw many fish. |
| Maybe the whole family will take a vacation this summer to Sharm el-Sheikh. |
| You will love it here. |
| How is school? |
| Good luck on your final exams (lit. year’s end exams) |
| Your father sends his love. Best regards, Mom |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Whether you are traveling or living in the Arab world, take the time to share your experiences with your friends and family back home by sending an email or a text message! |
| Nora: That’s right! In this day and age, most people have smartphones or laptops or both... |
| Becky: ...which makes it easier for us to communicate our thoughts and experiences. |
| Nora: Right. If you are writing in Arabic, you could use the word habibi for male or habibti for female meaning "dear" or "beloved" when you’re sending an email to people close to you, like friends and family. |
| Becky: What if you're sending an email or a message to someone who’s not very close to you? |
| Nora: just start the email with "Hi" and their name. In Arabic “hi” is هاي |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nora: الإيميل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: email |
| Nora: الإيميل[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: الإيميل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: تحيات [natural native speed] |
| Becky: regards |
| Nora: تحيات[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: تحيات [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: الجو [natural native speed] |
| Becky: weather |
| Nora: الجو[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: الجو [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: العيلة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: (the) family |
| Nora: العيلة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: العيلة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: المدرسة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: (the) school |
| Nora: المدرسة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: المدرسة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: بالتوفيق [natural native speed] |
| Becky: best of luck, good luck |
| Nora: بالتوفيق[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: بالتوفيق [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: اخر السنة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: end of the year |
| Nora: اخر السنة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: اخر السنة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Nora: يحب [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to like, to love |
| Nora: يحب[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: يحب [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.. |
| Nora: اخر السنة |
| Becky: meaning "end of the year". This phrase is in a common grammar structure that is very useful in Arabic. |
| Nora: It is called الإضافة. Two nouns are joined together to make a phrase by using ال as a connector at the beginning of the second word. The first word آخِر means "last” or “end," the ال can be translated as "of the," and سَنَة means “year.” |
| Becky: This kind of construction can also be translated in a possessive way, for example - "year's end." You can use this as a phrase, but this structure can be applied to many other phrases too. |
| Nora: This specific phrase was used in the expression emtehan akher el sana إمتحان آخر السَنَة which means “final exam.” |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. عملت إيه في إمتحانات آخر السنة؟ |
| Becky: ..which means "How did your final exams go?" |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: تحيات |
| Becky: meaning "Regards" |
| Nora: This noun comes from the root يحيي which means "to salute" or "to nod," so it makes sense that the noun translates to “regards,” or “salutations.” |
| Becky: This word is a bit formal and will most likely be used by older people or in some formal situations. Younger generations don't use this word as often. |
| Nora: Instead, you could use the word ysallem يسلم when you’re talking to friends and close people. For example بابا بيسلم عليك |
| Becky: meaning "Dad says hi (to you)" Nora, can you give us an example using the first word, more formal? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. تحياتي لكل العيلة. |
| Becky: .. which means "My regards to the whole family." |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: بالتوفيق |
| Becky: meaning "best of luck, good luck". The structure of this word literally translates to "with the luck" |
| Nora: In fact, it is ب+ال+توفيق |
| Becky: You can use this anytime you want to wish someone good luck, just like the English phrase. |
| Nora: This expression is very common, so feel free to use it with anyone, even if not in writing. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Yea. For example, you can say.. بالتوفيق في دراستك. |
| Becky: .. which means "Good luck with your studies!" |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to write an email describing your vacation. |
| Nora: We will talk about how to describe what you did and what you saw using the past tense in Egyptian Arabic. For example, عملنا سنوركلينج (غوص) امبارح و شفنا اسماك كتيرة جدا |
| Becky: Meaning “We went snorkeling yesterday and saw lots of fish.” The past tense is the most regular tense in Arabic and all other forms are derived from it. Let’s review it. |
| Nora: Sure, let’s consider the verb عام |
| Becky:meaning “to swim.” Nora will say the Arabic word and I will give the translation. |
| Nora: أنا عُمت |
| Becky: “I swam” |
| Nora: انت عُمت |
| Becky: “you swam” for a male |
| Nora: انتي عُمتي |
| Becky: “you swam” for a female |
| Nora: هو عام |
| Becky: “he swam” |
| Nora: هي عامت |
| Becky: “she swam” |
| Nora: احنا عُمنا |
| Becky: “we swam” |
| Nora: انتو عُمتو |
| Becky: “you swam” plural |
| Nora: هم عَامو |
| Becky: “they swam” |
| Nora: Please notice that in Egyptian Arabic, there isn’t a dual form for adjectives and verbs or a feminine plural. |
| Becky: In the dialogue, Nadia's mother lists multiple activities that she did with Nadia's father on vacation. Let's learn some new verbs, practice conjugation, and break down an easy sentence structure you can use to list multiple activities. |
| Nora: Nadia's mother wrote, عملنا سنوركلينج امبارح و شفنا اسماك كتيرة جدا |
| Becky: Which means "We went snorkeling yesterday and saw a lot of fish." The first action is "we went snorkeling." |
| Nora: In Arabic, the verb عمل is used in this phrase, which means "to make" or "to perform," instead of the verb "to go" like in English. |
| Becky: This is a very common construction for Egyptian Arabic verb phrases, like "to go snorkeling," that do not have a traditional one-word Arabic verb. |
| Nora: The suffix نا- is used for both verbs in this sentence because Nadia's mom is using the "we" conjugation. |
| Becky: The second action is "we saw a lot of fish." |
| Nora: The verb يشوف is "to see" and it’s followed by the plural form of “fish” (اسماك). She uses two adjectives to express that there were a lot of fish. كتيرة means "many" and جدا is a word that means "very," which is used in this case for extra emphasis. |
| Becky: Can you tell us more about the word meaning “very”? |
| Nora: جدا can be used after any adjective to increase the quantitative or qualitative degree of the adjective just like the word أوي “awii” that we learned in a previous lesson. For example,كتاب كبير means "big book" whereas كتاب كبير جدا means "really big book." |
| Becky: The sentence structure for describing multiple activities is simple. |
| Nora: Just use و meaning “and” to connect the verb phrases and don't forget to conjugate all the verbs so the listener knows who the subject is! |
| Becky: This might seem repetitive because we usually only use a pronoun once in English with a list of actions, but in Arabic if you forget to conjugate all the verbs in the list, it might confuse the listener. It might translate to "we snorkeled and he saw a lot of fish," instead of "we snorkeled and saw a lot of fish." We will discuss this topic in more detail in lesson 20. |
| Nora: One last thing to note about describing events in the past is where in the sentence you can insert a word that describes time. |
| Becky: For example, Nadia's mom wrote, "we went snorkeling yesterday." |
| Nora: The word for “yesterday” in Egyptian Arabic is امبارح and she inserted it at the end of the first verb phrase. |
| Becky: Just like in English, the placement of the word describing time can go before or after any verb phrase, depending on your intended emphasis. Nora, can you give us other words related to time? |
| Nora: yeah, for example اِلنَهارده |
| Becky: Which means “today” |
| Nora: إمبارِح بالليل |
| Becky: “last night” |
| Nora: or also وأنا صغيَّرة |
| Becky: meaning “during my childhood” |
| Nora: Here is a sentence |
| وأنا صغيرة سافِرت أستراليا و شفت كانجارو |
| Becky:“When I was little, I travelled to Australia and saw a Kangaroo.” |
| Nora: Another one is |
| الأسبوع اللي فات سافرت إيطاليا و أكلت بيتزا. |
| Becky: "Last week I travelled to Italy and ate pizza." |
| Nora: الأسبوع اللي فات قابلت صحابي و لعبت كورة |
| Becky: “Last week I met up with my friends and played soccer.” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Be sure to check the lesson notes for more examples and information. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Nora: باي باي |
Comments
Hide