Learn how to understand directions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 11 - Getting Directions in Arabic. Becky Here. |
| Nora: السلام عليكم. I'm Nora. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to conjugate imperative verbs and negative imperatives. This conversation takes place on the street. Mohammed's Mother gives him instructions for the day and directions for running errands. |
| Nora: It's between Mohammed and his Mother. |
| Becky: The speakers are family, so they will be using informal Egyptian Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| محمد : صباح الخير يا ماما . ممكن أروح لبيت صاحبي النهاردة ؟ |
| الأم : لأ . انت هتبقي مشغول النهاردة . معندكش وقت للعب. |
| محمد : عندي ايه اعملو النهاردة ؟ |
| الأم : هتروح محل الكتب. |
| محمد : ممكن اختار أي كتاب ؟ |
| الأم : لأ , لازم تبقي قصة حقيقية . مفيش قصص خرافية ! |
| محمد : ماشي , بس انا نسيت ازاي اروح لمحل الكتب . ممكن تفكريني ؟ |
| الأم : خش يمين عند الشارع الجاي بعد كدة بعد تلات عمارات خش شمال عند شارع يوسف الجندي . |
| محمد : ماشي , ممكن صاحبي ييجي معايا ؟ |
| الأم : ماشي مفيش مشكلة . خلي بالك و انت بتعدي الشارع ! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| محمد : صباح الخير يا ماما . ممكن أروح لبيت صاحبي النهاردة ؟ |
| الأم : لأ . انت هتبقي مشغول النهاردة . معندكش وقت للعب. |
| محمد : عندي ايه اعملو النهاردة ؟ |
| الأم : هتروح محل الكتب. |
| محمد : ممكن اختار أي كتاب ؟ |
| الأم : لأ , لازم تبقي قصة حقيقية . مفيش قصص خرافية ! |
| محمد : ماشي , بس انا نسيت ازاي اروح لمحل الكتب . ممكن تفكريني ؟ |
| الأم : خش يمين عند الشارع الجاي بعد كدة بعد تلات عمارات خش شمال عند شارع يوسف الجندي . |
| محمد : ماشي , ممكن صاحبي ييجي معايا ؟ |
| الأم : ماشي مفيش مشكلة . خلي بالك و انت بتعدي الشارع ! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Mohammed: Good morning, Mom. Can I go to my friend's house today? |
| Mother: No, you will be busy today. You do not have time to play. |
| Mohammed: What do I have to do? |
| Mother: You need to go to the book store. |
| Mohammed: Can I choose any book? |
| Mother: No, it must be a true story. No fairy tales! |
| Mohammed: Ok, but I forget how to get to the book store. Can you remind me? |
| Mother: Take a right at the next street then in three blocks, take a left on Yusef al-Gindy Street. |
| Mohammed: Ok, but can my friend come with me? |
| Mother: Yes, that’s no problem. Be careful crossing the street! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Nora, which are the most common types of transportation in the Arab world? |
| Nora: Actually walking is a common means of transportation in many parts of the Arab world, so be sure to study the basic vocabulary words related to walking directions. |
| Becky: Also, wear comfortable shoes! |
| Nora: Definitely! It’s best when navigating a city on foot to travel with a friend or in a group, especially if you’re a woman. |
| Becky: What about traffic in the cities? |
| Nora: Traffic rules and norms vary throughout the region, but in many major cities it is common to cross the street without waiting at a crosswalk. |
| Becky: Be careful and exercise extreme caution, because cars are not likely to stop for pedestrians. Do not run or stop unexpectedly in the street; instead, you should wait until traffic allows and walk at a steady brisk pace across the street. Nora, please give us the most basic direction words. |
| Nora: First we have يمين |
| Becky: meaning "Right” |
| Nora: next is شمال |
| Becky: “left” |
| Nora: next is على طول |
| Becky: which means “straight" Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nora: صباح الخير [natural native speed] |
| Becky: good morning |
| Nora: صباح الخير[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: صباح الخير [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: ممكن [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Can I...? |
| Nora: ممكن[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: ممكن [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: النهاردة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: today (Egyptian Arabic) |
| Nora: النهاردة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: النهاردة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: مشغول [natural native speed] |
| Becky: busy |
| Nora: مشغول[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: مشغول [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: محل الكتب [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bookstore |
| Nora: محل الكتب[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: محل الكتب [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: اختار [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to choose |
| Nora: اختار[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: اختار [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: قصة حقيقية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: true story |
| Nora: قصة حقيقية[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: قصة حقيقية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: قصص خرافية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: fairy tales |
| Nora: قصص خرافية[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: قصص خرافية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Nora: نسيت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I forgot |
| Nora: نسيت[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: نسيت [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: محل الكتب |
| Becky: meaning "bookstore" |
| Nora: This is another idafa construction, in which two words are joined by ال to make a descriptive phrase. محل means “place” or “location” and كتب means “books,” so this phrase literally translates as "shop of the books", or “bookstore.” |
| Becky: That means that there is no obvious word for "bookstore" in Egyptian Arabic, so people use the expression "shop of books" instead. |
| Nora: Right, some people also use the word maktaba مكتبة but it could be sometimes mistaken for a library or a stationery shop. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using the first word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. في محل كتب جديد فتح عندنا. |
| Becky: ..which means "There's a new bookstore that opened next to us." |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: قصة حقيقية |
| Becky: meaning "true story" |
| Nora: The first word قصة means “story” and حقيقية is the adjective meaning “truthful”. There are many words from the root حقق that are related to truth, fact, honesty, and reality. |
| Becky: This expression means that the story is not made up, but is taken from real events. Nora, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. دي أكيد مش قصة حقيقية. |
| Becky: .. which means "This can't be a true story." |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: قصص خرافية |
| Becky: meaning "fairy tales" |
| Nora: The first word is the plural form of “story”, قصص, and the second word is an adjective meaning “legendary” or “mythical”. |
| Becky: The phrase is translated to mean the same as the English phrase "fairy tales." |
| Nora: Actually, the word خرافية comes from the word خرافة which means "myth". So this expression literally means "a mythical story", or a story that is made up. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. أنا عّندي مجموعة قصص خرافية كبيرة جداً. |
| Becky: .. which means "I have a huge collection of fairy tales." |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to understand walking directions. |
| Nora: In grammar terms, the focus of this lesson is forming imperatives. |
| Becky: Let’s clarify what an imperative is first. To give an order to someone, for example "Go!", "Come!" or "Look!", you need a form called the imperative. Unfortunately, this form can also be tricky to make in Arabic, just like the present tense. Nora, could you tell us the rule for forming an imperative with the most regular verbs in Egyptian Arabic? |
| Nora: Sure, first take the present tense stem without any prefixes, like the ye- in ye-kteb, where the stem is kteb from kataba meaning “write”. If the first two letters are a consonant and a vowel, you're done. If the first two letters are consonants, put an additional alif in front. |
| Becky: Nora, please give us an example. |
| Nora: For example, start with يلعب (yel’ab) meaning “to play”, then drop the initial ye to get لعب (l’ab), then add an alif in front because the first two letters are consonants, and you get العب (‘el’ab) |
| Becky: This is the form for when you're talking to a man. If you're talking to a woman, it’s different right? |
| Nora: Right. If you're talking to a woman, you additionally need the ending -ii. If you're talking to a group, you need the ending -u. For example, العب (el’ab) becomes العبي (el’abii) for a woman or العبوا (el’abuu) for a group. |
| Becky: Let’s try with another verb, one related to directions. |
| Nora: Yes, for example “to go” which is يروح (yruuh), first we drop ي and we get روح(ruuh), the masculine imperative is روح(ruuh) and the feminine and the plural are روحي - روحوا(ruuhii - ruuhu) |
| Becky: There are some points to be noted here though, right? |
| Nora: Yes, there are two main points, First - The alif at the end of the plural form (in step 4) isn’t pronounced. Second-with hamzated verbs, which are verbs that start with an alif in the past tense form like اخد aḫad(took) and اكل akal(ate)), you remove the long alif in step 2. So the commands for these verbs are خد - خدي - خدوا (ḫod - ḫodii - ḫodu) and كل - كلي - كلوا (kol - kolii - kolu). |
| Becky: There are also a couple of irregular imperative forms in Egyptian Arabic. |
| Nora: yes, and they are the verb "to bring" جاب - يجيب (gaab - yigiib) which has the imperative form هات - هاتي - هاتوا (haat - haati - haatu) and the verb "to come" جه - يجي (geh - yiigi) which has the imperative form تعالى - تعالي - تعالوا (ta'aala - ta'aali - ta'aalu) |
| Becky: Now let’s see how to negate a command. There are two easy steps. You start out with the appropriate second-person imperfect conjugation of the verb. |
| Nora: Secondly, put ما (ma) at the beginning and ـش (š) at the end of the word. |
| Becky: What’s an example? |
| Nora: تلعب (tel’ab) meaning “you play” is - ماتلعبش (matel’abš- male) or ماتلعبيش (matel’abiiš- female) for female. The ii rule for the female conjugation still stands in this form. |
| Becky: Let’s see the same example as before, the verb “to help,” but in the negative form. |
| Nora: Let’s start with the second person تساعد (tisaa'id) meaning “you help”. We add ما andـش and we get ماتساعدش(matsa'idš), while the feminine and plural forms are ماتساعديش - ماتساعدوش (matsa'idiiš - matsa'iduuš) |
| Becky: Ok. To wrap up, let’s give some sample sentences. |
| Nora: Sure thing! |
| إكتب إسمك و رقم موبايلك. |
| Becky: "Write your name and mobile number." |
| Nora: And |
| إرجَع قَبل الساعة عشرة. |
| Becky: Meaning "Come back before 10 o'clock." |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Nora: مع السلامة |
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