Learn how to ask "Can you speak English?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| ArabicPod101.com presents Arabic Survival Phrases. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Arabic speaking countries, with particular focus on Morocco. So join us for Arabic Survival phrases. You will be surprised at how far a little Arabic will go. |
| Now before we jump in, remember to stop by ArabicPod101.com, there you’ll find an accompanying PDF, additional learning tools in the premium learning center, and other great Arabic language learning materials. In addition, you’ll find more information in the post. And if you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
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| In today's lesson, we'll cover another extremely important phrase, "Can you speak English?" Using this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you’re speaking to doesn’t understand English, at least they’ll be able to understand what you’re asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect and that you took the effort to learn even a little bit of the language, and for these reasons and many more, we’re going to cover this phrase. |
| In Arabic, “Can you speak English?” is hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? (هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟) |
| hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? |
| Now let's hear it once again: hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? |
| The first word hall (هل) means “do” |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: hall |
| hall |
| The H sound in the word hall is different from the regular /H/, let’s hear it again. hall |
| It is followed by tatakallamu (تتكلم), which is the conjugated form of “speak” used when addressing a man. |
| Tatakallamu |
| Tatakallamu |
| This is followed by al-ʾinǧliīziyyah, which in Arabic is “English”. |
| al-ʾinǧliīziyyah |
| al-ʾinǧliīziyyah |
| So all together we have: hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? (هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟) |
| Literally, this means “Do you speak English?” |
| Now, let’s try a different language, how about “French”? |
| hall tatakallamu al-faransiyyah? (هل تتكلم الفرنسية؟) |
| “French” in Arabic is al-faransiyyah. |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: al-faransiyyah. |
| al-faransiyyah. |
| Here, just the word for "English" changes and everything else stays the same. |
| Nowadays in Morocco, English is studied at schools, so the number of speakers is increasing; however, there are still many people who don’t speak English. |
| The u sound at the end of tatakallamu (تتكلم), which means “can you speak” is what makes the verb in the masculine form. To make it into the feminine form, we use i instead of u, so if you wan to ask a woman, all you have to do is to replace u with i. |
| tatakallamu (تتكلم) becomes tatakallami (تتكلمي). That’s right! |
| “Can you speak English?” becomes hall tatakallamiī al-ʾinǧliziyah? (هل تتكلمي الإنجليزية؟) |
| Or haliّ tatakallamiī al-faransiyyah? (هل تتكلمي الفرنسية؟) for “Can you speak French?” |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out today's lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You'll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so حظ سعيد, that means "good luck" in Arabic. |
| Ok, here we go! |
| “Can you speak English?” (masculine singular) - hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? (هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟) |
| hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? (هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟) |
| hall tatakallamu al-ʾinǧliīziyyah? (هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟) |
| “Can you speak English?” (feminine singular) - hall tatakallamiī al-ʾinǧliziyah? (هل تتكلمي الإنجليزية؟) |
| hall tatakallamiī al-ʾinǧliziyah? (هل تتكلمي الإنجليزية؟) |
| hall tatakallamiī al-ʾinǧliziyah? (هل تتكلمي الإنجليزية؟) |
| All right. This is going to do it for this lesson of Arabic Survival Phrases. Remember to stop by ArabicPod101.com. There you’ll find an accompanying PDF, additional learning tools in the premium learning center, and other great Arabic language learning materials. See you soon, which in Arabic is - ilā al-liqāʾ. |
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