Learn about the Arabic root system
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 21 - What Have You Been Up To Lately in Egypt? Becky Here. |
| Nora: السلام عليكم. I'm Nora. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn more about the verb root system. This conversation takes place over the telephone when Nadia, who is in college, calls home to talk to her family. |
| Nora: It's between Nadia and her brother, Mohammed. |
| Becky: The speakers are family, so they will be using informal Egyptian Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| نادية : ازيك عامل ايه ؟ |
| محمد : كويِس. بس انتى واحشانى أوى . يومك كان عامل ازاى النهاردة ؟ |
| نادية : مكانش حلو أَوي . قعدت اذاكر امبارِح بالليل لحد وقت متأخر , و بعدين راحت عليا نومة النهاردة . رحت الجامعة متأخر وكمان اتكعبلت و وقعت الكتب بتاعتي اُدام الناس كلها ! كنت محرجة جداً. |
| محمد : يانهار ابيض ! أكيد وشك احمرّ. |
| نادية : اه , احمرّ جداً. كل الناس ضحكت ما عدا الدكتور اصله جدّ أوى . |
| محمد : هو كل الدكاترة عندكوا جد كدة ؟ انا خايف ان الجامعة ماتكنش ممتعة زى المدرسة . |
| نادية : لأ , الجامعة ممتعة ! ساعات بيبقى عندك شغل كتير تعمله بس ممكن تدرس عن اى موضوع انت عايزة. |
| محمد : انت بتدرسى طب . ده مش موضوع فيه متعة خالص . |
| نادية : فى الحقيقة انا لسة ماقولتش لبابا بس انا قررت ادرس موسيقى مش طب . |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| نادية : ازيك عامل ايه ؟ |
| محمد : كويِس. بس انتى واحشانى أوى . يومك كان عامل ازاى النهاردة ؟ |
| نادية : مكانش حلو أَوي . قعدت اذاكر امبارِح بالليل لحد وقت متأخر , و بعدين راحت عليا نومة النهاردة . رحت الجامعة متأخر وكمان اتكعبلت و وقعت الكتب بتاعتي اُدام الناس كلها ! كنت محرجة جداً. |
| محمد : يانهار ابيض ! أكيد وشك احمرّ. |
| نادية : اه , احمرّ جداً. كل الناس ضحكت ما عدا الدكتور اصله جدّ أوى . |
| محمد : هو كل الدكاترة عندكوا جد كدة ؟ انا خايف ان الجامعة ماتكنش ممتعة زى المدرسة . |
| نادية : لأ , الجامعة ممتعة ! ساعات بيبقى عندك شغل كتير تعمله بس ممكن تدرس عن اى موضوع انت عايزة. |
| محمد : انت بتدرسى طب . ده مش موضوع فيه متعة خالص . |
| نادية : فى الحقيقة انا لسة ماقولتش لبابا بس انا قررت ادرس موسيقى مش طب . |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Nadia: Hi ! How are you? |
| Mohammed: Hi! I am good, but I miss you very much. How was your day? |
| Nadia: It was not very good. I studied last night until very late, then I overslept this morning. I was late to school and then to make things worse I tripped and dropped my books in front of everyone! I was so embarrassed! |
| Mohammed: Oh no, I bet you turned red! |
| Nadia: Yes, very red. Everyone laughed except the Professor. He is very serious. |
| Mohammed: Are all your professors serious? I am afraid that college will not be as fun as high school. |
| Nadia: No, it is fun! Sometimes you have a lot of school work but you can learn about any topic you want! |
| Mohammed: You are studying medicine. That is not a fun subject. |
| Nadia: Actually, I have not told Dad yet but I decided to study music, not medicine. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Nora, can you tell us something about higher education in Egypt? |
| Nora: Well, about thirty percent of college-aged Egyptians enroll in an institution for higher education and of those who enroll, about fifty percent graduate. |
| Becky: That seems quite low. |
| Nora: Yes, that is probably because of a strict examination system. On the other hand, public higher education is free in Egypt, so Egyptian students only have to pay registration fees. |
| Becky: Are there also private institutes? |
| Nora: There are, but private education is much more expensive. |
| Becky: I see. What is the most widely used language in school? Are lessons held in Standard Arabic? |
| Nora: Oh no, most university professors give lectures in Egyptian Arabic , despite the fact that textbooks are either in English or in Modern standard Arabic, depending on the major |
| Becky: Listeners, this is why it's important to master at least one dialect. Nora, what are the main universities in Egypt? |
| Nora: The major public universities include Cairo University, Alexandria University, Ain Shams University, and the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar University, while the American University in Cairo and Université Française d'Égypte are some of the leading private universities. |
| Becky: Can you suggest a useful expression or word in Arabic related to this topic? |
| Nora: Sure thing! If you are talking with a student you may want to ask what his or her major is, إيه تخصصك؟ |
| Becky: Meaning “What’s your major?” Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nora: واحشانى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I miss you |
| Nora: واحشانى[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: واحشانى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: متاخر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: late |
| Nora: متاخر[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: متاخر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: راحت عليَا نومة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I overslept |
| Nora: راحت عليَا نومة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: راحت عليَا نومة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: زاد الطين بلة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: (it) made things worse |
| Nora: زاد الطين بلة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: زاد الطين بلة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: اتكعبلت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: (I) tripped |
| Nora: اتكعبلت[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: اتكعبلت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: محرجة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: embarrassed |
| Nora: محرجة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: محرجة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: بس [natural native speed] |
| Becky: but, only |
| Nora: بس[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: بس [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: ممتعة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: fun, entertaining |
| Nora: ممتعة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: ممتعة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Last we have.. |
| Nora: موسيقى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: music |
| Nora: موسيقى[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: موسيقى [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: راحت عليَا نومة |
| Becky: meaning "I overslept" |
| Nora: This expression is an idiom, so it can’t be taken literally! The first word literally means "it went", the second word means "on me", and the last one means "one sleep". |
| Becky: If you take the meaning literally it won't make any sense, so you have to memorize the expression as it is. But is it possible to use this phrase in reference to a person other than yourself? |
| Nora: To change the subject to "we" or "she" for example, you only have to conjugate the middle word عليا and leave the other two as they are. "we" would be علينا , and "she" would be عليها, and so on. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. راحت عليا نومه إمبارح عشان نمت متأخر. |
| Becky: .. which means "I overslept yesterday because I stayed up late." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: زاد الطين بلة |
| Becky: meaning "it made things worse". Listeners, this one is an idiom that will not make sense if taken literally. |
| Nora: Right, the first word zad means "to increase", the second one means "mud" and the third one means "moisture". This is an Arabic saying that has been used since ancient times in Egypt and Andalusia. |
| Becky: It is used when talking about something that is bad in itself, but has been made even worse by someone’s actions. |
| Nora: Exactly. The correct pronunciation of the last word "balla" is actually bella in Standard Arabic, but Egyptians say balla and that has become the common pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. إللي زاد الطين بلة إني كنت عيان. |
| Becky: .. which means "What made things worse was the fact that I was sick." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about the Arabic root system. |
| Nora: The large majority of Arabic words are built around three root letters. |
| Becky: These root letters are what you will find in the dictionary when you look up a word. |
| Nora: Any word with an Arabic origin has three root letters, except for a rarely used small group of verbs that have a four-letter root, which we won’t be introducing in this series. |
| Becky: To form different words out of the stem, we add vowels and consonants to the root letters. Each Arabic root can theoretically be transformed into one of fifteen possible verb forms. |
| Nora: That's right. These forms are called الأوزان, al-awzaan. |
| Becky: In these final lessons, we will focus mostly on verb forms. |
| Nora: To start though, let’s work on identifying the three-letter root for some words, not only verbs, but also nouns. |
| Becky: Ok, let’s take a look at something really common. |
| Nora: let’s consider the root ع م ل |
| Becky: meaning “make” in Egyptian Arabic. |
| Nora: We can see the same three letters, ع ,م ,ل in other words such as م ع م ول |
| Becky: meaning "made" - the past participle is an adjective here |
| Nora: ت ع م ل |
| Becky: "You make" |
| Nora: ع ا م ل |
| Becky: "Worker/maker" |
| Nora: Another three-letter root is س م ح |
| Becky: meaning “allow” |
| Nora: We can see the same three letters س ,م ,ح in other words such as م س م وح |
| Becky: meaning “allowed” |
| Nora: أ س م ح |
| Becky: "I allow" |
| Nora: س ا مِ ح |
| Becky: "The person who allows". Something that will help you identify root verb letters from conjugation letters in a conjugated verb is knowing all the possible added conjugation letters. You can find the complete list in the lesson notes. |
| Nora: Now, these letters can happen to be root letters as well, so make sure they’re not part of the root by memorizing the most common verb forms. |
| Becky:You will find that identifying the root and becoming familiar with common structures, will make learning new Standard Arabic and Egyptian Arabic vocabulary easier. |
| Nora: Right, because the system is the same, but the forms are different. Try to group words with common roots together as you study! |
| Becky: Let’s make an example. |
| Nora: Ok, let's consider the root K T B ك ت ب |
| Becky:meaning “write” |
| Nora: you can find it not only in the verb كتب katab |
| Becky: “to write” |
| Nora: but also in مكتب maktab |
| Becky: “office” |
| Nora: مكتبة maktaba |
| Becky: “library” |
| Nora: كتاب ketaab |
| Becky: “book” |
| Nora: كاتب kaateb |
| Becky: “writer”. Let’s also give a sentence with these words |
| Nora: الكاتِب دَه كَتَب الكِتاب دَه! |
| Becky: "This writer wrote that book!" |
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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