A Lesson in Arabic: Simple Dialogue

Today we have a video lesson! It isn't too long, and you may get a bit of a laugh out of my friends and I doing the dialogue at the end.  I surprised them shortly before I filmed to let them know they would be pretending they know Arabic.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

The previous post I mention in the video can be found here.

Special thanks to Kelly and Amanda for their amazing acting skills and looking like they knew what they were doing.

A Lesson in Arabic: Useful Words and Phrases

After people ask me about the language, they usually want to know some words and phrases.

My roommate's personal favorites are habibi (my darling) and telling people when I am fii al-hamam (in the bathroom).

I made you a chart of a few useful words and phrases. I included the English, Transliteration, and Arabic of each word or phrase.

English	Transliteration	Arabic
Hello.	Ahlan or Marhaba	اهلا  or  مرحبا
How are you?	Kayfa Halouk/Halouki.	كيف حلك؟
My name is…	Ismi…	اسمي
What is your name?	Ma ismouk/ismouki?	ما اسمَك
Nice to meet you.	Tasharuffna	تشرّفنا
Thank you.	Shokran	شكرا
Congratulations!	Mabrook	مبارك
I’m sorry.	Aasif.	آسف
I don’t understand.	La afham.	لا أفهم
Yes	Na’am.	نعم
No	La.	لا
Goodbye.	Ma-Salaama	مع السلامة
Happy Birthday!	‘Aed Meelad S’aed	عيد ميلاد سعيد
My darling	Habibi/Habibiti	حبيبي
Life	Hayat	حياة

Some pronouns that would be good to know are:

English	Transliteration	Arabic
I	Ana	أنا
You (singular masculine)	Anta	أنتَ
You (singular feminine)	Anti	أنتِ
He	Huwa	هو
She	Heya	هي
You (dual male or female)	Antuma	أنتُما
They (dual male or female)	Huma	هُما
We	Nahnu	نحن
You (plural masculine)	Antum	أنتُم
You (plural feminine)	Antun	أنتُن
They (plural masculine)	Hum	هُم
They (plural feminine)	Hun	هُن

Here are some question words you can check out as well. For this I put the English then the transliteration.

When?	Meta?
Where?	Ayna?
How?	Kayfa?
Why?	Leematha?
What?	Ma? or Matha?
Who?	Men?

Some more things you should know about Arabic words:

1. You address males and females differently. For example, in 'How are you?' you ask a man using 'halouk' and a female using 'halouki.'  Words that end in -i are used for women and no vowel or -a is for men.
2. In the present tense, the verb 'to be' is not used, it is understood.  So if I want to say 'I am American', I would say 'Ana Amrikaya' (literally translated to 'I American').
3. There are two words for 'what'. 'Ma' is used for questions without verbs and 'Matha' is used for questions with verbs.
4. Plural pronouns are used in the masculine form if there is one or more man in the situation. Dual pronouns are used for 2 people and plural pronouns are used for 3 or more people.
5. Transliterations with a 'u' like 'hum' is pronounced like a long 'o' in English. Ex. 'hum' is pronounced like the English 'whom.'

Some additional resources for you are:
Arabic Phrases and Expressions
Learn Arabic with Maha

I leave you with a video from Maha about Arabic Pronouns.

If there is anything you would like to know that I forgot or did not include, let me know.

A Lesson in Arabic: Dialects

Ahlan Sadeeki.

Before we begin the lesson on words and phrases, I want to talk about dialects.

There are many Arabic dialects.  While many may be similar, others are very different.  There is Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as well as colloquial dialects.

I am familiar with MSA and Egyptian dialects as well some some Moroccan and Tunisian.

The map shows the breakdown of dialects in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Map of Dialects - Click to enlarge

Note that Egyptian Arabic is more popular than this map shows.  From what I have learned, as well as other students studying this area, Egyptian Arabic and MSA are the most widely understood dialects.

MSA is used for reading and writing and in formal situations such
 as the news or  the Quran.  It is typically understood, but isn't really helpful for conversations.

It is suggested you learn a dialect as well as MSA.  The dialect will help you converse and MSA will help with reading and writing.

Keep in mind, if you talk in a different dialect it may be understood, but you aren't necessarily going to be answered in the same dialect.

Many dialects were influenced by other languages in the area.  Moroccan Arabic, for example, was influenced by Spanish, French, and Berber.

I found this interesting blog post from a couple years ago where one person talked about their experiences with different dialects in the Middle East.  It gives you a good first hand perspective.

The websites Importance of Languages provides some useful pages about MSA and where to find certain dialects.

Another resource you can use is by YouTube user, LearnArabicwithMaha. In this video she explains Standard Arabic and Dialects.

Now that you have a better understanding of the dialects, in the next post I will teach some useful words and phrases. Many of the words I will teach you will be in Modern Standard Arabic, but I have still heard them used in conversations (such as yes and no).

If there is anything in particular you would like to learn, let me know.