Egyptian Arabic Lesson 14How long have you been in Egypt?

Vocabulary

Classical Arabic

period of time

long time

practice

teacher

student

someone

no one

opportunity

Pleased to meet you

idea

carabi faii

mudda mudad

zamaan

tadriib

mudarris mudarrisiin

tilmiiz talamiiz

add

maaddi

fura fura

fura saciida

fikra afkaar

Other Nouns

!

(have you been)

how long, how much

a few

like, about

ago, since

your health!

during

indeed

Good Grief! Wow!

baaalak

add eeh

kaam

zayy

min

salamtak

xilaal

ficlan

ya salaam!

Other Words

to meet (trans)

to meet (intrans)

to be absent

to try

to be quiet

to speak to

to fall

aabil yiaabil

itaabil yitaabil

aab yiiib

aawil yiaawil

sikit yuskut

kallim yikallim

wiic yuuac

Verbs

Expressions and Proverbs

!

.

.

.

If the cat is absent, play on, mouse! (When the cat is away, the mouse will play.)

We brought up the life story of the cat, and it came hopping. (Speak of the devil.)

We were quiet to him and he entered with his donkey. (We gave him an inch and he took a mile.)

e camel and what is carried. (e whole kit andcaboodle.)

in aab ilu, ilcab ya faar!

gibna siirit ilu, ga yinu.

sikitnaalu daxal biimaaru.

aal ilgamal bima amal.

Adjectives

absent

sorry

near; soon

free, empty (not busy)

reasonable

aayib aybiin

aasif asfiin

urayyib urayyibiin

faai

macuul

Animals

animal

dog

cat

mouse, rat

donkey

camel

water buffalo

cow

horse

ayawaan ayawanaat

kalb kilaab

ua ua

faar firaan

umaar imiir

gamal gimaal

gamuusa gawamiis

baara baar baaraat

uaan iina

See more animals in Language Notes

Dialogue AssignmentA. Write a dialogue in which the characters find out how long each other have been in a place, how long they have been married,how long they have been studying here, etc., and how long the intend to stay.

B. Review talking about your daily schedule with a partner by pretending to call him/her on the phone and telling all about what you did yesterday in detail. en hear about his/her day, and make an appointment to do something together today.

C. Ask a partner the following questions. Come up with a fictional setting for each question, and good answers that fit that setting.

How long have you been in America?

How long have you been married?

How long will you stay in California?

How long have you been studying Arabic?

How long will you stay at this university?

Drills1. Replace the verb with (the meaning remains the same). en translate the sentences into English. Example: Prompt: . Answer: . e doctor is (usually) here in themorning.

. .

. .

2. Repeat drill 1 in the negative. Example: Prompt: . Answer: . e doctor is not (usually) here inthe morning.

3. Add in the past tense to the following sentences and then translate them into English. Make necessary changes. Example: Prompt: . Answer: . I started getting up really early.

. .

. .

4. Add the verb to stay (keep on doing) to the following sentences to form new ones. Translate your new sentences into English. Example: Prompt: . Answer: . He kept watching television all day.

a ekam ot brev eht retfa noitamrofni erom ddA .sbrev esnet tneserp gniwollof eht ot yrt ot gnidda yb secnetnes esnet tsap ekaM .5.ecnetnes etelpmoc . :rewsnA :tpmorP :elpmaxE

. .

. .

.

yrassecen gnikam ,tnorf eht ot trap denilrednu eht gnivom yb secnetnes tnemmoc cipot ot secnetnes gniwollof eht egnahC .7.segnahc tsal ti daer I ,koob siht rof sA( . :rewsnA . :tpmorP :elpmaxE ).raey

.tcejbo on ekat sbrev evitisnartni taht rebmemeR .rewsna tcerroc eht esoohC .6 . :rewsnA . ) ( :tpmorP :elpmaxE

. ) ( . ) (

. ) ( . ) (

. ) ( . ) (

. .

.

. .

.nossel eht fo txet cisab eht ot detaler snoitseuq gniwollof eht rewsnA .8

Old Lesson Review9. (lesson 6) Numbers with nouns. Remember that numbers 3 10 take a short form when preceding a noun. Answer the questions honestly. Write out numbers in script. Example: Prompt: Answer: .

()

()

10. (lesson 7) Belonging to: Change the noun with a pronoun ending or second term of iaafa to an equivalent bitaac phrase. For example, sabburtak would become issabbuura btactak. Remember that the first noun must be definite.

EA 14 Language Notes

1. Idiomatic usages of the verb e verb baa yiba has a number of idiomatic usages. Its original meaning in fua is to remain, stay, but it has cometo mean to become, to be in Egyptian Arabic, even though it retains a portion of the original meaning as well. Idiomatic usages of this verb include:

a. e use of the invariant form as an adverb meaning something like then, as in excuse me now then.

b. e use of the unconjugated form along with the preposition li- to refer to how long a person has been in a place or howlong they have been doing something. ere are several examples of this in the text for this lesson, for example: A literal translation of this sentence would be something like it has remained for you how long in Egypt, but of course it simply means how long have you been in Egypt. Despite the latter translation, it is important to notice that although you is the subject of the English sentence, it is not the subject of the Arabic sentence, which has an abstract impersonal subject. is is why the verb is never conjugated in this construction, no matter who the sentence is referring to. Rather the pronounending on the end of the preposition li- changes. us:

Notice that this construction can be followed by a prepositional phrase ( ), an adjective or participle (), or a present tense verb with bi- ( ) to indicate how long the person 1) has been in that place, or 2) has had that attribute, or 3) has been doing that activity.

c. e verb is also often used to mean to be, become, as in:

In this usage it is a fully conjugated verb. In these examples is used like the verb . ese two verbs are ofteninterchangeable.

d. Related to c above, is used as a helping verb to indicate that an activity has started:

How long has she been in Egypt?

She has been here two years.

We have been in this city for five days.

He has been reading the Ahram for two hours.

Ive only been married for three months.

.

. .

.

. !

.

at would be my husband.

Dont be angry!

He will become an engineer, if God wills.

. .

I started seeing him every day.

We started speaking Arabic in class.

e. e negative of when used with another verb means to no longer do that verb. For example:

. .

.

He no longer visits us at all.

I dont love you anymore.

He no longer comes to the university every day.

f. e imperative form iba is combined with a second imperative to mean something like: why dont you _______? Forexample:

. Why dont you come visit us?

2. Use of e verb acad yucud normally means to sit. However, it is also used to mean to stay, as in to stay in a place. In thislatter usage it is often used with a second verb, to indicate that the person kept on doing something for a long time:

. .

He kept talking on the phone for three hours.

I kept watching television all morning.

3. Use of ere are a number of verbs that can take a second verb directly. In fua, many of these verbs would take the subordinatingparticle an, but in collloquial they simply take the verb directly. Compare, for example, the use of colloquial + verb, with the fua + + verb. e verb to try is similar. In fua it is followed by while in colloquial it takesthe second verb directly, as the follwoing exampoles show:

. He tried to speak Arabic.

4. Topic CommentIt is very common in Arabic to begin sentences with a noun that is not the subject of the sentence to give that noun some kind of special prominence. In English we accomplish the same thing with a structure like: As for...., well... (As for John, well we didnt contact him yesterday like we had intended to.) Note that John in the example sentence is actually the object of the verb to contact, but it is brought out to the front of the sentence to give it special focus, to say that the sentence is somehow about him. In Egyptian Arabic, any noun can be made the topic of the sentence simply by bringing it to the front of the sentence. A pronoun referring to that noun is left in the sentence where the topic would have appeared. In the text for this lesson, for example, we have the sentence: I, my husband is an Egyptian. e word I is not the subject, but is ratherthe topic, the focus of the sentence. It was brought to the front, but the suffix pronoun -i my was left behind so we couldtell what part it played in the sentence. Other examples of topic comment sentences include:

. Colloquial Fua

. .

.

(As for) at book, I read it last year.

(As for) at building, I attended a great concert in it.

e boy, I met him in Lebanon, and the girl, I met her in Egypt.

5. Form II-V, III-VI comparisone Arabic verb forms II and V are closely connected to each other, as are III and VI. Formally, Form V is formed from FormII with the addition of an it- prefix, and VI is formed from III with the same prefix. In meaning, Form V usually meansabout the same as Form II, but is less transitive. Form VI is often the reciprocal of Form III. is means that where FormII and III often take obligatory objects, Forms V and VI will take no object at all, or will take an object only when preceded by a preposition, or will take a different kind of object, usually less personal. To understand this, we will look at the verbs (Form II) and (Form V). must take an object which refers to the person spoken to: I spoke to theprofessor, Hell speak to me tomorrow. It is as if the preposition to were built into the verb . is is not truefor the Form V counterpart . Here, if you want to refer to the person spoken to, a preposition must be used: , or , and . e form may take an object, but it cannot be a person; it can only be thename of a language: .

A similar relationship can be observed with the Form III and the Form VI . must take an object: I met the girl at the restaurant, hell meet her tomorrow. e Form VI either doesnt take an object at allwhen it has a plural subject: well meet tomorrow (reciprocal meaning), or the object must go with a preposition: he met with the professor in his office.

Recognizing the relationships between forms of verbs with identical roots will help you build your vocabulary much faster and easier.

6. More AnimalsHere are some more animlas to learn and play with.

7. Verb Form VIOn the next page is the complete conjugation of a typical form VI verb.

monkey

snake

giraffe

elephant

lion

tiger

fox

ird uruud

ticbaan tacabiin

zaraafa zaraaif

fiil afyaal

asad usuud

nimr numuur

taclab tacaalib

Imperative PronounPerfectPlain Imperfectbi- Imperfecta- Imperfect

itaabil

itabli

itablu

huwwa

hiyya

inta

inti

ana

humma

intu

ina

itaabil

itablit

itabilt

itabilti

itabilt

itablu

itabiltu

itabilna

yitaabil

titaabil

titaabil

titabli

ataabil

yitablu

titablu

nitaabil

biyitaabil

bititaabil

bititaabil

bititabli

bataabil

biyitablu

bititablu

binitaabil

ayitaabil

atitaabil

atitaabil

atitabli

ataabil

ayitablu

atitablu

anitaabil

Verbal Noun

Active Participle

muabla (III)

mitaabil

Imperative PronounPerfectPlain Imperfectbi- Imperfecta- Imperfect