Learn about a high-frequency phrase
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Egypt’s monetary unit is the Egyptian pound. |
| Denominations include coins for 5, 10, 25, 50 piastres and bills for 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 Egyptian pounds. Egyptian pounds is abbreviated as L.E. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Let’s say some prices in Egyptian Arabic. It won’t be too difficult. Let’s start with 1 pound. |
| geneeh |
| (slow) geneeh. |
| geneeh. |
| جنيه |
| 15 pounds will sound like this: |
| ḫamastaashar geneeh. The word geneeh is never used in its plural form in Egyptian Arabic when it is used as a quantifier, so just use it the way it is, and put the number you want before it. |
| Let’s break that down: |
| (slow) ḫamastaashar geneeh. |
| ḫamastaashar geneeh. |
| خمستاشر جنيه |
| ・ |
| If you go up to hundreds or thousands, just try to remember our previous lessons about counting. |
| We’ve already learned that “a hundred” in Egyptian Arabic is meyya. |
| 230 pounds is meteen w talateen geneeh. |
| (slow) meteen w talateen geneeh. |
| meteen w talateen geneeh. |
| ميتين وتلاتين جنيه |
| meteen means two hundred. It has a different form from 300 to 900. |
| So 300 is tolto meyya, 400 is robʿo meyya and so on. |
| Note how all the vowels in the word before meyya turn into o. |
| ・ |
| “A thousand” in Egyptian Arabic is |
| alf. |
| (slow) alf. |
| alf. |
| ألف |
| For 2000 , we’ll put een at the end of alf. So 2000 is alfeen. |
| Now for a slightly more complicated number, “5420 pounds”: ḫamastalaaf w robʿomeyya w ʿeshreen geneeh. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) ḫamastalaaf w robʿomeyya w ʿeshreen geneeh. |
| Once more: |
| ḫamastalaaf w robʿomeyya w ʿeshreen geneeh. |
| خمستالاف ربعمية و عشرين جنيه |
| ・ |
| The prices in Egypt also include the piastres units, for example 5 piastres and 50 piastres, which is half a pound. In Egyptian Arabic, “5.5 pounds” sounds like this: |
| ḫamsa geneeh w nos. |
| (slow) ḫamsa geneeh w nos. |
| ḫamsa geneeh w nos. |
| ḫamsa geneeh means “5 pounds” |
| and nos means “half”. |
| Altogether, it’s |
| ḫamsa geneeh w nos. |
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