Learn how to ask "We're looking for someone/something"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Mehdi: مساء الخير |
| Munia: Munia here. Newbie Series Lesson 4 - “Who are you all?” Hello and welcome to the ArabicPod101.com, where we study modern Arabic in a fun, educational format. |
| Mehdi: So brush up on the Arabic that you started learning long ago or start learning today. And join us for this lesson of ArabicPod101.com. |
| Munia: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Last time we looked at basic self-introduction. We learned how to ask someone “What’s your name” and how to answer it. |
| Mehdi: The focus of this lesson is to try to find someone or something you’ve lost. |
| Munia: Together we will learn how to say things such as “I’m looking for my friend” or “I’m looking for my purse”. Also, we will learn how to ask a group of people “Who are you?” |
| Mehdi: This conversation takes place at a party. |
| Munia: Bob and his friends from New York are looking for Ali. Good thing Leila is there to help them. |
| Mehdi: They will be speaking casual Arabic. |
| Munia: Drastically improve your pronunciation with the voice recording tool in the Premium Learning Center. Record your voice with the click of a button and play back what you record just as easily. This tool is the perfect complement to the line by line audio. Now, let’s listen to today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bob: عفوا، نحن نبحث عن علي |
| Leila: إنّه هناك. من أنتم؟ |
| Bob: نحن أصدقاؤه من نيويورك. |
| Munia: Once again. This time slowly. |
| Bob: عَفْوًا، نَحْنُ نَبْحَثُ عَنْ عَلِي |
| Leila: إِنَّهُ هُنَاكْ. مَنْ أَنْتُمْ؟ |
| Bob: نَحْنُ أَصْدِقَاؤُهْ مِنْ نْيُويُورْكْ |
| Munia: This time, with the translation. |
| Bob: عفوا، نحن نبحث عن علي |
| Munia: Excuse me, we’re looking for Ali. |
| Leila: إنّه هناك. من أنتم؟ |
| Munia: Oh, he’s over there. Who are you all? |
| Bob: نحن أصدقاؤه من نيويورك |
| Munia: We’re his friends from New York. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Munia: Just like Bob in this conversation, speaking some Arabic can help you find you friend. |
| Mehdi: And a good way to avoid taking someone by surprise is to say عفوا when you first approach them. |
| Munia: That’s right. عفوا or “Excuse me” is an important expression you should use when you’re about to ask someone you don’t know some information. Especially like in Bob’s case, if you’re a foreigner, people will be a little more surprised if you start talking to them terrific Arabic without any warning. |
| Mehdi: So saying عفوا sort of prepares them to what you are about to say, all in Arabic. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Munia: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. عفوا |
| Mehdi: Excuse me. |
| Munia: عَفْوًا |
| Munia: نحن |
| Mehdi: We. |
| Munia: نَحْنُ |
| Munia: أنتم |
| Mehdi: You. |
| Munia: أَنْتُمْ |
| Munia: نبحث |
| Mehdi: We’re looking for. |
| Munia: نَبْحَثُ |
| Munia: أبحث |
| Mehdi: I’m looking for. |
| Munia: أَبْحَثُ |
| Munia: بحث |
| Mehdi: To look for. |
| Munia: بَحَثَ |
| Munia: إنّه |
| Mehdi: He is. |
| Munia: إِنَّهُ |
| Munia: هناك |
| Mehdi: There. |
| Munia: هُنَاكْ |
| Munia: من |
| Mehdi: Who. |
| Munia: مَنْ |
| Munia: أصدقاؤه |
| Mehdi: His friends. |
| Munia: أَصْدِقَاؤُهْ |
| Munia: نبحث عن علي |
| Mehdi: We’re looking for Ali. |
| Munia: نَبْحَثُ عَنْ عَلِي |
| Munia: نبحث عن المحطّة |
| Mehdi: We’re looking for the station. |
| Munia: نَبْحَثُ عَنِ المَحَطَّة |
| Munia: أبحث عن حقيبتي |
| Mehdi: I’m looking for my bag. |
| Munia: أَبْحَثُ عَنْ حَقِيبَتِي |
| Munia: من أنتم؟ |
| Mehdi: Who are you? – in the plural form. |
| Munia: مَنْ أَنْتُمْ؟ |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Munia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Mehdi: The first word we’ll look at is عفوا. |
| Munia: عفوا is a very useful expression that means “excuse me” and also “sorry”. You can use it in a variety of context such as when you want to ask someone information, when you want to call the wait staff or when you bump into someone and you want to apologize, you simply say عفوا |
| Mehdi: Next, let’s look at the phrase نحن أصدقاؤه من نيويورك . It literally means “We’re his friends from New York”. |
| Munia: The word أصدقاؤه means “his friends”, and if you take it out of the sentence, it becomes نحن من “New York”. The first word, نحن , means… |
| Mehdi: We. |
| Munia: The second word من is… |
| Mehdi: From. |
| Munia: نحن من New York. You could replace New York with other cities and even countries and say… |
| Mehdi: نحن من مصر |
| Munia: We’re from Egypt. |
| Mehdi: Or نحن من فرنسا |
| Munia: We’re from France. We learned in a previous lesson that the pronoun “I” is أنا in Arabic. All you have to do now is replace نحن with أنا and say where you’re from. Mehdi, can you give us an example, please? |
| Mehdi: Sure. أنا من الدّار البيضاء |
| Munia: I’m from Casa Blanca. |
| Mehdi: The last word we would like to look at is من |
| Munia: It means “who”. In the dialogue, من أنتم؟ literally means “who you all” or “who are you all?”. It is very common in Arabic to see entire phrases and sentences with no verbs at all. |
| Mehdi: You can also say من أَنْتْ؟ |
| Munia: Who are you? – when addressing a man. |
| Mehdi: من أَنْتِ؟ |
| Munia: Who are you? - when addressing a woman. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Mehdi: Grammar point. |
| Munia: Today, we would like to show you how to use the verb “to look for” to make sentences in the present continuous. |
| Mehdi: The verb “to look for” in Arabic is بحث |
| Munia: Let’s see where this appears in the conversation. The first line, نحن نبحث عن علي |
| Mehdi: We’re looking for Ali. |
| Munia: نحن is the pronoun “we”. It is followed by نبحث , which is a conjugated for بحث , that means “are looking for”. Together, نحن نبحث means “we’re looking for”. |
| Mehdi: Actually, even without using the pronoun “we”, نحن , the conjugated verb نبحث means “we’re looking for,” |
| Munia: So you can say either نحن نبحث or simply نبحث . They both mean the same thing. Now, just like in English we say “to look for something”, in Arabic we say “to look on something or someone”. |
| Mehdi: In the dialogue we say نحن نبحث عن علي. Literally “We’re looking on Ali”. |
| Munia: We can replace Ali by the word for station, for example, and say “We’re looking for the station”. In Arabic, this is نحن نبحث عن المحطّة |
| Mehdi: Let’s practice how to say “I’m looking for”. And this may come in very handy in some situations. |
| Munia: The pronoun “I” in Arabic is أنا for both men and women. I’m looking for is أنا أبحث عن |
| Mehdi: For example, I’m looking for my bag. |
| Munia: أنا أبحث عن حقيبتي |
| حقيبتي means “my bag”. You can also omit the pronoun “I” in the sentence and simply say أبحث عن حقيبتي. “I’m looking for a hotel.” |
| Mehdi: أبحث عن فندق |
| Munia: Grammar simple sentences. نبحث عن علي or simply نبحث عن علي |
| Mehdi: We’re looking for Ali. |
| Munia: نبحث عن المحطّة |
| Mehdi: We’re looking for the station. |
| Munia: أنا أبحث عن ليلى |
| Mehdi: I’m looking for Leila. One last example. |
| Munia: أبحث عن حقيبتي |
| Mehdi: I’m looking for my bag, |
| Munia: That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
| Munia: Mastering Arabic one step at a time with lesson specific quizzes. To accomplish this goal, we have set up several specific quizzes with each targeting the specific skill. Together, these specific quizzes will help you master several fundamental skills… |
Comments
HideHow did you like this lesson?
Hi Tasawar,
Thank you for your comment!
Please note that romanization systems can be challenging to get used to, but that doesn’t mean they are incorrect per se. 😊
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions during your studies.
Sincerely,
Team ArabicPod101.com
Abhatu 'an mahattatu al qitar
Is this correct?
Maybe you should change romanization?
Hi Alberto!
Thank you for your message. 😊
We couldn't reproduce the issue. Did you try to click on the English and Romanization buttons on the top of the list?
Feel free to let us know if you have any questions. شكرًا لك (shukran lak, "Thank you")!
Team ArabicPod101.com
Hi, I see that some things are missing in the Vocabulary:
1) the translation of "man"
2) the romanization of some words.
KR
Alberto
Hello David N Dale,
Thanks for taking the time to write to us. 👍
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Labdhie
Team ArabicPod101.com
I paid for life membership when I initially paid, why are you trying to make me pay again? Or pay monthly fees
Hi Hamida,
Thank you for your question!
You can add words from our Dictionary, Vocabulary section of the lessons, and Vocabulary List to your Word Bank. From there, you can easily add them to your flashcards.
Additionally, I believe this article will be helpful for you:
https://support.innovativelanguage.com/hc/en-us/articles/8360572227597-Using-Flashcards
Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Ali
Team ArabicPod101.com
السلام عليكم
Is it possible for us to create our own flashcards? I've found that there is no option to make flashcards for the Moroccan vocab. Or is there?
أهلاً موسى،
وعليكم السلام!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
اسلام عليكم ؤ مساء الخير. اسمي موسى، من نحن؟ انا ابحث عن انتم.
Hi Ricardo,
Thank you for your comments! Regarding the transcriptions, the transcriptions for the dialogue are available on our website in the dialogue section. If you are referring to something else I apologize for the confusion!
For Huwa and Innahu, they are both interchangeable and both as used quite often.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
إنه or هُوَ
Which one is used more commonly?
The track for the Moroccan audio is very interesting indeed. However, the lack of transcriptions makes it awfully difficult to understand everything. I strongly suggest that you try to incorporate that, as it will make learning a lot nicer. Thank you very much and greetings from São Paulo, Brazil.
Hi Bonita,
Great question. They both mean the same thing but the nuance is slightly different. Since it's new information and your want to highlight it, I would use the "innahu hunak" version. That's the main difference really, how strongly your are relaying the information.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Hello,
Can " he is there. إنه هناك " be expressed as "هو هناك " ? What's the difference between إنه and هو ?
Thanks!
Hi Cecile,
Thank you for your questions!
afwan can mean "excuse me" or "you're welcome" depending on the context :)
This series is in Modern Standard Arabic but there is an extra sections for Moroccan Arabic.
However, this series doesn't have videos. It's a podcast.
Nora
TeamArabicPod101.com
Hello, I thought Afwan meant you're welcome and sorry is ana asef. I want to learn MSA, is it an MSA arabic class ? Thank you dear
Also can I find a video of these lessons because it's written at the end " transcription" but I don't find the video of it
Hi RealR7X,
Thank you!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
good
Hi Niko,
Thank you so much for your kind words!
udhran is used in Modern Standard Arabic only, which is one think you need to remember. For your question, udhran literally means "excuse", and you say it before you you say something to grab someone's attention. You can also say it to mean I am sorry when you bump into someone.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com