Learn about Arabic news broadcasts
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 16 - Understanding Arabic News Broadcasts Becky Here. |
| Nora: السلام عليكم. I'm Nora. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn some common grammatical structures and phrases used in spoken media. |
| Nora: For example, using the particle قد before a verb. |
| Becky: This conversation takes place in the car and mostly involves a broadcast from the radio. In this scenario, Mohammed and his mother are in the car while a news announcement comes on the radio. |
| Nora: The conversation is between Mohammed and his mother. A News Broadcaster on the radio is reporting a story. |
| Becky: The speaker is a professional journalist, so the broadcaster will be using formal Modern Standard Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| محمد : ماما ممكن بعد ازنك تفتحى الراديو ؟ |
| الأم : طبعا. |
| المذيع : لقد أعلن المسؤلون بالحكومة ان مصر قد قبلت الدعوة لحضور مؤتمرا دولياً عن مشاكل البيئة .فى الماضى كانت الحكومة تنتقد بشدة لغضها الطرف عن المشاكل البيئية ولكنهم بدأوا التحدث عن تلك المشاكل الى الجمهور علانيةً. سيعقد المؤتمر الدولى عن مشاكل البيئة فى ريو دى جانيرو عاصمة البرازيل فى نهاية العام الجارى . |
| محمد : الأخبار دى حلوة. انا شايف ان المشاكل البيئية مهمة جداً. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| محمد : ماما ممكن بعد ازنك تفتحى الراديو ؟ |
| الأم : طبعا. |
| المذيع : لقد أعلن المسؤلون بالحكومة ان مصر قد قبلت الدعوة لحضور مؤتمرا دولياً عن مشاكل البيئة .فى الماضى كانت الحكومة تنتقد بشدة لغضها الطرف عن المشاكل البيئية ولكنهم بدأوا التحدث عن تلك المشاكل الى الجمهور علانيةً. سيعقد المؤتمر الدولى عن مشاكل البيئة فى ريو دى جانيرو عاصمة البرازيل فى نهاية العام الجارى . |
| محمد : الأخبار دى حلوة. انا شايف ان المشاكل البيئية مهمة جداً. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Mohammed: Mom, can you please turn on the radio? |
| Mother: Sure. |
| News Broadcaster: Government officials have announced that Egypt has accepted an invitation to attend a global conference on environmental issues. In the past, the government has been criticized for turning a blind eye to environmental issues but they have started to talk about these issues in public. The global conference on environmental issues will be held in Rio de Janeiro, capital of Brazil at the end of this year. |
| Mohammed: That is good news. I think environmental issues are very important. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Nora, is News Radio still popular in Egypt? |
| Nora: It is! For example, it’s very often played in cabs and cars in Egypt. |
| Becky: Is the news always spoken in Standard Arabic? |
| Nora: Not always. Actually, it’s interesting to hear the differences between local news shows, which are usually in the colloquial Arabic of the region, and international news broadcasts, which are in modern standard, formal Arabic. |
| Becky: Can you recommend any good broadcasters? |
| Nora: BBC Arabiyya is a great source for news in Arabic and can be streamed live online or on your mobile phone. For Egyptian national radio channels, you can check 88.7 FM Radio Masr. |
| Becky: Thanks for those tips. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nora: أعلن [natural native speed] |
| Becky: (he) announced |
| Nora: أعلن[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: أعلن [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: الدعوة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: the invitation |
| Nora: الدعوة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: الدعوة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: البيئة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: environment |
| Nora: البيئة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: البيئة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: تنتقد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: (it) was criticized |
| Nora: تنتقد[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: تنتقد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: غض الطرف [natural native speed] |
| Becky: turning a blind eye |
| Nora: غض الطرف[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: غض الطرف [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: مشاكل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: problems |
| Nora: مشاكل[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: مشاكل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: سياسة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: policy |
| Nora: سياسة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: سياسة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: عاصمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: capital (city) |
| Nora: عاصمة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: عاصمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.... |
| Nora: طبعاً [natural native speed] |
| Becky: of course (in Egyptian Arabic) |
| Nora: طبعاً[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: طبعاً [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: أعلن |
| Becky: meaning "announced" |
| Nora: This past tense verb comes from the root علن, which means "public". For the present tense version of the verb, you would drop the alif, because it’s not part of the root. It can also be translated as "declared". |
| Becky: This term is used when talking about press conferences or formal announcements, and is almost never used in an informal context. Nora, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. أعلنت الشركة إفلاسها. |
| Becky: ..which means "The company declared bankruptcy." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: مشاكل البيئة |
| Becky: meaning "environmental problems" |
| Nora: The first word مشاكل is the plural form of "problem" which is مشكلة in singular form. The second word starts with ال because this phrase is an idafa, which is an addition form, and ends in a ة because it’s an adjective modifying an inanimate plural noun. بيئة means “environment.” |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. مشاكل البيئة خطيرة و مهملة. |
| Becky: .. which means "Environmental problems are urgent and neglected. Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: تنتقد |
| Becky: meaning "was criticized" |
| Nora:This word comes from the root نقد which means “criticism”. It is conjugated in the feminine third person form because in the dialogue it refers to the government (الحكومة) which is a feminine noun. |
| Becky: Are there other verbs from the same root? |
| Nora: Well, it’s interesting to compare this word to other verbs from the same root. In the most basic form - form 1 - it is نقّد which means “to criticize someone or something.” By adding a ت between the first and second letter of the root, we get form 8, which makes the verb reflexive. So, the word انتقد means to be criticized or to receive criticism depending on something as small as a letter or a vowelling difference. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. تُنتَقَد الحكومة الحالية بشدة |
| Becky: .. which means "The current government is being severely criticized." |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn what to expect in Arabic news broadcasts. |
| Nora: Let’s remember that most news sources in Egypt are published in formal Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic, especially print media. However, some local TV and radio programs are in Egyptian Arabic. |
| Becky: The news we have in this lesson is in Modern Standard Arabic, so this lesson will focus on Modern Standard Arabic expressions used in the news anywhere in the Arab world, not just Egypt. There are some vocabulary and structures that are common in media that are worth learning. |
| Nora: In previous lessons, we have learned that Arabic sentences can start with either the subject OR the verb, unlike in English, where the subject is always before the verb. |
| Becky: This verb-first structure is common in the media. |
| Nora: It’s also common in media to see the particle قد or لقد , which serves a special function, before a verb. |
| Becky: Can you break this structure down for us? |
| Nora: Sure thing, أعلن (ʾaʿlan) is the verb that means "announced" in its simple past tense, or perfective, form. If the particle قد comes before the verb, we have قد أعلن qad ʾaʿlan, which means "has announced". Note that the particle قَدْ does not literally mean "have” or “has," but it achieves a similar purpose when it comes before a perfective verb. It usually comes after a و in the middle of a sentence. If the particle لقد comes before the verb, we have لقد أعلن laqad ʾaʿlan which means "indeed has announced". It’s common to add the particle la (ل) to qad (قد) for emphasis. |
| Becky: And it is usually used at the beginning of a sentence. Listeners, this structure is not used in common Egyptian conversation, but you will definitely hear it and read it in the news. |
| Nora: Exactly. Now that we know how the particles قد and لقد are used to alter the meaning of verbs at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence, let’s focus on the structure of the rest of the sentence. |
| Becky: Let’s give an example. |
| Nora: For example, لقد أعلن المسؤلون بالحكومة ان |
| Becky: “Government officials have announced that…” |
| Nora: First is the particle لقد which can be translated as “indeed has”, then the perfective verb أعلن which means “announced”, then the subject of the sentence المسؤلون بالحكومة meaning “government officials”, and finally the verb particle ان , which can be translated as "that". |
| Becky: Certain verbs in Arabic require certain particles to be attached to them to create a complete sentence. |
| Nora: For example, considering a masculine subject, such as الرئيس, meaning “the president” we can have, تحدث + عن |
| Becky: meaning “talked about” |
| Nora:Or قرر + أن |
| Becky: “decided that”. |
| Nora: Another is فكر + في |
| Becky: Meaning “thought about”. When the verb comes before the subject, the subject is inserted in between the verb and the verb particle. If the subject comes first, then the verb particle is placed immediately after the verb. |
| Nora: Let’s see the same sentence in both cases. First أعلن الرئيس إنه سيسافر إلى أوروبا |
| Becky: Here the verb is before the subject and the meaning is "The president has announced that he will travel to Europe." |
| Nora: When the subject is before the verb, the same sentence will sound like الرئيس أعلن إنه سيسافر إلى أوروبا |
| Becky: This also means "The president has announced that he will travel to Europe" |
| Nora: Let's look at another example of a phrase that uses the particle قد to show that it does not always come at the beginning of a sentence. مصر قد قبلت الدعوة - OR قَد قَبِلَت مصر الدَعوة. |
| Becky: Both mean “Egypt has accepted the invitation.” |
| Nora: Note that the قد must be before the verb in this structure. |
| Becky: The subject can come either before or after that. This structure requires that the verb be conjugated for the gender, tense, and number. |
| Nora: In this case, since “Egypt” is a feminine singular noun, the verb قبل meaning “accepted” is conjugated as قبلت or literally “she accepted”. Just make sure the second formula قَد قَبِلَت مصر الدَعوة. is in the middle of a sentence as we said earlier, because قد can not come at the beginning of a sentence. |
| Becky: To sum this lesson up, let’s give another couple of examples |
| Nora: Sure!لَقَد أَعلَنَت مِصر إستِقلالَها مِن بريطانيا سَنَةْ ١٩٢٢ |
| Becky: "Egypt declared independence from Britain in 1922." |
| Nora: .تم إلغاء المؤتمر الأمس بسبب الأوضاع الأمنية .و قَد تَقَرَّرَ أَن يَنعَقِدَ المُؤتَمَر في فِبرايِر. |
| Becky: "The press conference was postponed because of the security situation and it was decided that the conference will be held in February." |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Remember that you can check the lesson notes for more examples and information. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Nora: مع السلامة |
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