Learn how to use Arabic agent nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 24 - Which Profession Should You Choose in Egypt? Becky Here. |
| Nora: السلام عليكم. I'm Nora. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn Agent nouns in Egyptian Arabic. This conversation takes place at home after Nadia tells her family that she decided to become a musician, not a doctor. |
| Nora: It's between Nadia's Mother, Father, and younger brother, Mohammed. |
| Becky: The speakers are family, so they will be using informal Egyptian Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| الأب : الخبر دة فاجئنى من نادية ! انا كنت فاكر ان فكرة انها ماتبقاش دكتورة دى فكرة بعيدة جدا . |
| الأم : لو هى نفذت رغباتك , مش هتبقى سعيدة . |
| الأب: دة صحيح , بس لازم حد فى عيلتنا يطلع دكتور ! محمد ؟ |
| محمد : هاه , يمكن . لازم اتخرج من الثانوية العامَة الأول . عندى وقت كتير عشان أقرر فية . ممكن أطلع ظابط بوليس او عسكري أو.. |
| الأم : إيه الشغلانات الخطر دي! ماتخاطرش بحياتك فى حياتك المهنية . |
| الأب: صح , لو بقيت دكتور هايبقى إختيار أءمن . |
| محمد : ماشى ماشى , هاخللى الموضوع دة فى دماغى . |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| الأب : الخبر دة فاجئنى من نادية ! انا كنت فاكر ان فكرة انها ماتبقاش دكتورة دى فكرة بعيدة جدا . |
| الأم : لو هى نفذت رغباتك , مش هتبقى سعيدة . |
| الأب: دة صحيح , بس لازم حد فى عيلتنا يطلع دكتور ! محمد ؟ |
| محمد : هاه , يمكن . لازم اتخرج من الثانوية العامَة الأول . عندى وقت كتير عشان أقرر فية . ممكن أطلع ظابط بوليس او عسكري أو.. |
| الأم : إيه الشغلانات الخطر دي! ماتخاطرش بحياتك فى حياتك المهنية . |
| الأب: صح , لو بقيت دكتور هايبقى إختيار أءمن . |
| محمد : ماشى ماشى , هاخللى الموضوع دة فى دماغى . |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Father: That is surprising news from Nadia! I considered it a very far out idea that she would not be a doctor. |
| Mother: If she were to submit to your wishes, then she would not be happy. |
| Father: That is true, but someone in our family has to become a doctor! Mohammed? |
| Mohammed: Hah, maybe. I must graduate high school, first. I have lots of time to decide. Maybe I will be a police officer or a soldier or... |
| Mother: Those are all dangerous professions! Do not risk your life in your career. |
| Father: Yes, being a doctor is a safer choice. |
| Mohammed: Ok, ok. I will keep that in mind. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Nora, what are the most common educational and professional choices made by young Egyptians? |
| Nora: Actually, statistics about university acceptance and employment rates show that youth are under enormous pressure. Overpopulation makes finding work difficult in Egypt. Because of that, many youth start working in a career that is unrelated to what they studied at university, which was rare to see until recently. |
| Becky: That’s common in many other countries as well... |
| Nora: Yeah, and in Egypt the market is saturated, particularly with engineers and doctors, because many people pursue these occupations in the hopes of making better money and achieving a better lifestyle. |
| Becky: Those are difficult majors... |
| Nora: Another interesting thing about Egyptian culture is that a man is expected to have a job, a car, and a house of their own if they want to ask for a girl's hand in marriage. |
| Becky: That must make it quite stressful to be a young man in Egypt, unless you have very rich parents! |
| Nora: Definitely! For example, renting a house is definitely out of the question. تمليك meaning “owned” and إيجار meaning “rented” are words frequently used when speaking about this topic! |
| Becky: That’s interesting! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nora: فاكر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: thinking (wrongly) |
| Nora: فاكر[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: فاكر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: نفذت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: she submitted/did as she was told |
| Nora: نفذت[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: نفذت [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: ظابط بوليس [natural native speed] |
| Becky: police officer |
| Nora: ظابط بوليس[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: ظابط بوليس [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: عسكري [natural native speed] |
| Becky: soldier |
| Nora: عسكري[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: عسكري [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: اتخرج [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I graduate |
| Nora: اتخرج[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: اتخرج [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: خطر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: dangerous |
| Nora: خطر[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: خطر [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: حياتك المهنية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: your career |
| Nora: حياتك المهنية[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: حياتك المهنية [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: ماشي [natural native speed] |
| Becky: okay |
| Nora: ماشي[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: ماشي [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Nora: أءمن [natural native speed] |
| Becky: safer |
| Nora: أءمن[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: أءمن [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Last we have.. |
| Nora: أطلع [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I become (used with professions) |
| Nora: أطلع[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nora: أطلع [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: فاكر |
| Becky: meaning "thinking wrongly" |
| Nora: The root verb of this word is فكر which means "to think". |
| Becky: The problem with this keyword is that it can mean two different things according to what comes after it. |
| Nora: Right. Basically, if you find a full sentence after this word, it most likely means to "think wrongly". |
| Becky: And if there's only a word or a phrase after it, it will most likely mean "remember." |
| Nora: This form is a very unique Arabic word class called إسم فاعل esm faa'el, or "agent noun", which is a noun that works as a verb. |
| Becky: We will learn more about this in this lesson. Now, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. إنت فاكرإني خايفة منك؟ |
| Becky: ..which means "Do you think (wrongly) that I'm afraid of you?" |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: أطلع |
| Becky: meaning "become" |
| Nora: This verb literally means "to rise" or "to emerge". |
| Becky:When is it used? |
| Nora: It can be used when you want to say you are climbing the stairs, for example. (يطلع السلالم) But in this context, it means "to become", like for example عايز أطلع طيار - |
| Becky: meaning "I want to become a pilot." |
| Nora: You can also say أنا هطلع مترجم روايات. |
| Becky: .. which means "I will become a novel translator." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Nora: حياتك المهنية |
| Becky: meaning "your career", or literally “your professional life” |
| Nora: The first part of the first word is hayaa, which means “life”, followed by tak, which means "your". The second word means "professional or work-related". |
| Becky: So basically you could say that there isn't one word for “career” in Arabic, |
| Nora: Right. But nowadays you could also use the English word "career" just as it is. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using the Arabic word? |
| Nora: Sure. For example, you can say.. إحكيلي عن حياتك المهنية. |
| Becky: .. which means "Tell me about your career." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about Egyptian Arabic agent nouns. First, we should explain that an agent noun is a word class that exists in Egyptian Arabic but doesn’t exist in Standard Arabic. It describes an action someone is doing at the moment or a continuing state. |
| Nora: They are nouns that behave like verbs in a sentence. This form looks just like the Form 3 that we learned in a previous lesson, but of course is different in class and in meaning. |
| Becky: In case you forgot, form 3 is built on form 1 by adding an alif between the first and second radicals of the form 1 verb. Let’s see a list of the most commonly used agent nouns in Arabic. |
| Nora: First of all let’s see the one we had in this lesson, which is فاكر faaker. We learned the first usage of this verb, which is “to think wrongly”, so now let’s learn the second usage, which is where faaker, followed by a word or a phrase literally means “remembering”. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Nora: أنا فاكرك. |
| Becky: “I remember you.” |
| Nora: The agent noun form can only be used with certain verbs. |
| Becky: To recognize them, you have to consider two groups of verbs. The first is “state verbs” or “non-continuous verbs” group, meaning that the verb describes a state, not an action. |
| Nora: Aside from فكر, which means “remember”, state verbs include عرف |
| Becky: meaning “know.” Which is its agent noun? |
| Nora: عارِف. Another state verb is حَس |
| Becky: which means “feel” |
| Nora: its agent noun is حاسِس |
| Becky: When you use this form, you imply that this state is currently taking place. |
| Nora: So, for example, the next time you want to say that you know something in Egyptian, don’t say “بعرف” in the present tense form, because it’s an incorrect usage. Say “عارف” instead! |
| Becky: The agent noun’s conjugation changes depending on the gender and number of the subject. |
| Nora: Right. Let’s consider فكر, “to remember”. أنا فاكِر is the first person singular masculine. |
| Becky: and can be translated as “I remember” |
| Nora: انتي فاكرَة is the third person singular feminine. |
| Becky: and can be translated as “she remembers” |
| Nora: For the plural there is only one form فاكرين . |
| Becky: That means that this form is used for “we remember”, “you remember” plural, and “they remember”, right? |
| Nora: That’s right. |
| Becky: What if you want to make the negative form? |
| Nora: Let’s say you want to say “can’t see”. Simply add a “mesh مش” before the agent noun, مش شايف. |
| Becky: meaning “I don’t see.” or “I can’t see”. Now let’s see the second group of verbs, which are the verbs that describe an ongoing action that in turn becomes a state. This group is closest in meaning to the English gerund “-ing” form of the following verbs. Nora, what’s an example? |
| Nora:جه |
| Becky: meaning “go” |
| Nora: The agent noun is جاي |
| Becky: and can be translated as “going” |
| Nora: another example is “come” راح, and the agent noun is رايح, meaning “coming” |
| Becky: The meaning is close to the English gerund. |
| Nora: That’s right. As an example, let’s say somebody called you on the phone and asked you if you’re awake. You can say أنا صاحي. |
| Becky: meaning “I’m awake.” |
| Nora:صاحي is the agent noun of the verb صحي |
| Becky: meaning “wake” |
| Nora: Now let’s say you want to tell your friend that you and your friends are going to the party. You can say إحنا رايحين الحفلة. |
| Becky: “We’re going to the party.” |
| Nora: Please notice that رايحين, keeps the same conjugation for first, second and third person. |
| Becky: Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson about agent nouns with some sentences. |
| Nora: سامع الصوت ده؟ |
| Becky: “Can you hear that sound?” |
| Nora: أنا مش شايفه محمد. هو واقف ولا قاعد؟ |
| Becky: “I can’t see Mohamed. Is he standing or sitting?” |
| Nora: رَنا غايْبَة النَهاردَة؟ |
| Becky: “Is Rana absent today?” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Don’t forget to check the lesson notes for more examples and explanations. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Nora: مع السلامة |
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