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Introductions
EA1 Main Dialogue: Listen online
Vocabulary اﳌﻔﺮدات
Greetings
اﻫﻼ وﺳﻬﻼ hello, welcome ’ahlan wisahlan
Drills
1. Practice counting from one to five aloud in Arabic (waa˙id, itneen, talaata, and so forth). Do it 5 times at least.
A. .أﻫﻼ ’ahlan.
B. .أﻫﻼ ﺑﻴﮑﻲ ’ahlan biiki.
A. ﻣﲔ ﻫﻮ؟ miin huwwa?
B. .ﻫﻮ ﺟﻮرج huwwa George.
A. ﻫﻮ ﻣﻨﲔ؟ huwwa mineen?
B. .ﻣﺶ ﻋﺎرف miš caarif.
A. .اﻟﺴﻼم ﻋﻠﻴﮑﻢ issalaamu caleekum.
B. .وﻋﻠﻴﮑﻢ اﻟﺴﻼم wicaleekum issalaam.
Questions
1. Is speaker “A” male or female? How do you know?
2. What about speaker “B”? How do you know?
3. List all the ways you know to determine gender.
Fuß˙a section
1. Fuß˙a or caamiyya? ( اﻟﻔﺼﺤﻰor )اﻟﻌﺎﻣﻴﺔ
Standard Arabic (fuß˙a: )اﻟﻔﺼﺤﻰand Colloquial Egyptian Arabic ( caamiyya: )اﻟﻌﺎﻣﻴﺔshare many words. Sometimes these
shared words are pronounced exactly the same in the two languages, and sometimes there are slight differences. e words
are usually written the same. ere are a certain number of words, however, that are either strongly marked as fuß˙a only or
as caamiyya only. It is not a huge problem because people will understand you if you use a fuß˙a only word when speaking
colloquial, and vice versa, but you should gradually come to feel which words are appropriate in which contexts. To help
you do this, we will provide a list of the vocabulary in each lesson that will indicate which of the words you have leaned are
purely colloquial. Here is the list for this lesson:
َﻣ ْﻦman ﻣﲔmiin
ِﻣ ْﻦ َأ ْﻳ َﻦmin ’ayna ﻣﻨﲔmineen
ﺲَ ﻟَ ْﻴlaysa ﻣﺶmiš
e Language Notes in each lesson are designed to answer basic questions you might have about the language and the ma-
terial being presented. Please understand, however, that understanding the grammar is not the most important thing you
are trying to accomplish. Understanding the language itself is much more important. to do that, you need to spend most of
your time working with actual text, reading, speaking, and listening. e grammatical explanations, however, will be of use
as you learn how the language works.
1. Equational Sentences
Although Arabic has a “to be” verb, it is not usually used in the present tense. You might want to think of it as a “Me-Tarzan,
You-Jane” language. Arabists refer to such “verbless” sentences as E S since they establish some kind
of equivalence between the subject and the predicate. In such sentences, the subject generally comes first and is followed
immediately by the predicate. When translating such sentences into English, a form of the “to be” verb must be used,
depending on the subject: is, are, am. For example:
hiyya Ø Linda
She is Linda
John Ø †aalib
John is a student
’ana Ø kariim
I am Kariim
2. Agreement
English has a distinction between masculine and feminine in the third person (he/she) but not in the second person (you-
m/f ). Arabic, on the other hand, distinguishes masculine and feminine in both the second and third persons. is means
that you need to be careful to note the gender of the person you are addressing and use the pronoun that is appropriate: ’inta
for males and ’inti for females. In the few cases where you do not know the gender of the person you are addressing, use the
“default” masculine form. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs also show a masculine/feminine distinction and must agree with
whatever they refer to. In this lesson, for example, we have the form caarif ‘know’ for males and carfa for females: huwwa caarif
but hiyya carfa. Likewise, a male student is †aalib, while a female student is †aaliba. Note also the separate greetings when
speaking to males or females.