J.

Elihay
E nglish translation: C arol Sutherland\ Susan F o g g

Speaking Arabic
A Course in Conversational
Eastern (Palestinian) Arabic

B ook 1
Lessons 1-15

Second edition

Minerva Publishing House

2011
M inerva Publishing House

^P.O.B 7023 Jerusalem 91070, Israel

w ww .speaking-arabic.com

C opyright © 2009 by J. Elihay

R eprinted (with corrections) 2011

All rights reserved by the publisher

ISBN 978-965-7397-16-9
Contents
Preface [1]
Abbreviations and Symbols [7]
Lesson i 1
Lesson 2 8
Lesson 3 13
Lesson 4 18
Lesson 5 24
Lesson 6 31
Lesson 7 39
Lesson 8 46
Lesson 9 53
Lesson 10 62
Lesson 11 69
Lesson 12 76
Lesson 13 84
Lesson 14 91
Lesson 15 98
Appendix 106
Key to the Exercises 111
Vocabulary and Rules 125
 Preface
This series o f books is designed to provide a practical grounding in the
colloquial Palestinian dialect o f Arabic. The course addresses learners who are
not content with a superficial knowledge o f the language, but wish to speak
fluently and understand what they hear. With this in mind, we have tried to
present a broad general survey o f the dialect’s grammar, sentence structure and
word forms, as well as a comprehensive vocabulary. From basic word lists in
Book 1 we move on to a more widely ranging vocabulary in Books 2 ,3 and 4.
Potential students o f Arabic will naturally ask themselves: “Why devote so
much time to the colloquial language? And what is ft anyway - some kind o f
slang?” Perhaps they will say to themselves, “I want to leam proper Arabic, not
something that’s spoken in the street!” This obliges us to describe the special
dual nature o f the Arabic language.

W hat is colloquial A rabic?

Colloquial Arabic is the everyday language spoken by all Arabs all the time - in
the home, at work, out shopping, etc. It is different from w ritten literary Arabic,
which is used in books, newspapers and even in family letters, and from the
official Arabic heard on the radio and TV and in public lectures and speeches.
To help clarify this point: When two well-educated people are engaged in
everyday conversation - not in front o f the microphone or at an official
symposium - they will speak colloquial Arabic. On the other hand, a child
writing to his or her parents will do so in written / literary (i.e., non-colloquial)
Arabic.
The, written and colloquial forms o f Arabic are two different varieties o f the
same language. One could almost say that they are two different languages. If
you want to talk to Arabs, it’s a good idea to learn the spoken - colloquial -
form as a separate language with its own individual characteristics. Colloquial
Arabic should never be regarded as a “sloppy” or “corrupt” form o f the written
language that can be improvised at random by leaving o ff a few word endings.
Nonetheless, written and colloquial Arabic do have a great deal in common,
including a large shared vocabulary. The degree o f kinship becomes clearer the
more one learns o f both. At first glance, however, it is the differences that are
more apparent, and these include:
- Everyday words in the spoken language which don’t exist in the written
version, and vice versa.
- Words common to both languages, but pronounced differently in each.
- Differences in the conjugation o f the verb.
- Differing sentence structures and rules o f pronunciation.

in
Colloquial Arabic is nonetheless influenced by literary Arabic (this will be
explained in Book 2), and some people speak a mixture o f the two, especially
when discussing abstract, technical or official topics, or in television interviews,
when they want to adopt a more formal tone and use a higher register of
language. This varies from one person to another, and some highly educated
people will stick to colloquial speech throughout an interview, or start o ff with a
couple o f sentences in the literary language before switching to colloquial.

This is why it is important for you to begin by thoroughly learning colloquial

Arabic as it is used in everyday conversation between native speakers. In Books
3 and 4 we shall use recordings from radio and television to help you make the
acquaintance of what is known as “ educated Arabic,” which is a combination o f
literary and colloquial.

Palestinian A rabic
Throughout the Arab world people speak their local dialects, which vary from
country to country. An Egyptian visiting Morocco, for example, will be unable
to understand the local people when they speak to one another, though he may
be able to identify the odd word here and there.

The colloquial Arabic taught in this book is uniquely Palestinian; however, the
Palestinian dialect very closely resembles those o f Lebanon and Syria, and it is
spoken in Jordan, too, because o f the large number o f Palestinians who live
there. Here and there throughout this course w e shall point out similarities
between the Palestinian dialect and its near neighbors.

The Palestinian dialect itself is not uniform, and different varieties o f it are
heard in different parts o f the country. People in towns speak differently from
those in rural areas; Galileans speak slightly differently from Jerusalemites. In
tiiis book we have chosen to teach the u rb a n dialect, while indicating the minor
differences in usage between the Galilee region (Nazareth, Haifa, etc.) and
Jerusalem. Apart from a few words and phrases there is very little dialectal
difference between the north and south o f the country, and learners will soon
grow accustomed to the speech o f the area*they live in. If you speak the urban
dialect taught in this book - with the correct pronunciation, o f course - all
Arabs will understand you. The individual idiosyncrasies o f particular villages
or regions (the villages along the Lebanese border, for example, or in the Gaza
Strip) can easily be learned through spending time in these areas. The fmal
lesson in the course (Book 4, Lesson 50) is devoted to a study o f the differences
between Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian Arabic.

[2]
Lesson stru ctu re

All the lessons are constructed more or less along the following lines:
1. Presentation o f th e m ain topic o f the lesson (the conjugation o f a particular
verb, a certain type o f sentence structure, etc.) The idea is to help you focus on
this specific issue while reading the text.
2. A vocabulary list o f the new words that appear in the text. These lists will
help you with the exercises provided at the end o f each lesson.

3. A conversation or story in Arabic, with a parallel translation into English.

This text is designed to provide “real life” examples o f the material and
vocabulary presented in the lesson, and it is accompanied by footnotes
containing explanations or related material that will help you remember a
particular word or better understand its meaning. If you feel that you are
drowning in an excess o f new information you can ignore the footnotes if you
prefer, especially the first time you go over the material.

4. The text is followed by explanations that explore the conclusions to be

drawn from it and explain relevant rules by means o f examples, summaries,
tables, etc.

5. At the end o f each lesson there are exercises that will enable you to practice
the newly-learned material.

- First exercise: “Translate into English” - this gives you the opportunity to
try to understand sentences in Arabic that make use o f the words you have
learned in that lesson (and in previous ones, too).

- “Complete the sentence” : this exercise, too, requires you to understand

sentences in Arabic, and to show that you do so by filling in the missing
words.
- Final exercise: ‘T ranslate into Arabic” - translation from English to
Arabic, using the new vocabulary and applying the rules you have just
learned. This is the most difficult and important o f the exercises, as it will
help you to make active use o f what you have learned. Apart from enabling
you to understan d the sentences, the exercises will also teach you to
express yourself using the Arabic words and expressions you have acquired
so far.
Note: This course is designed, first and foremost, to give students a practical
knowledge o f the rules o f the language, to instill instinctive linguistic reactions
and to enable learners to construct sentences, move smoothly between tenses

[3]
and from negative to affirmative, conjugate all verbs competently in every
conceivable situation, etc. While learning these skills students will also acquire
a basic vocabulary, but - in Book 1 at least - the emphasis is not on learning as
many words as possible, as new words can be obtained from the dictionary or
by asking a native speaker. Such sources o f information, however, will not
provide learners with the skills they need to express themselves freely (after all,
if you buy a piano you won’t be able to play it properly straight away, no matter
how many explanations about notes and rhythm you may hear. Long hours o f
practicing scales are required before the theory “comes out through the
fingers”).
How to use this course
First of all - please note that one o f our lessons is not the equivalent o f an
hour’s study in the classroom. Rather, it is a study unit that can be spread out
over a longer period o f time (two or three days or more).
We recommend the following method o f study, which can be adapted to suit
everyone as long as you stick to a number o f basic principles:

a) Read the beginning o f the lesson so you can see what’s on the agenda and
what new things you’re about to discover. You can skip the V ocabulary list
and go straight to the C onversation. Go back and look at the vocabulary
whenever you are doubtful about the meaning o f a word or want to check its
plural form.

b) Read the text silently to yourself while listening to the recording. At this
stage you should try only to understand what you are hearing (you can
glance at the English translation). After you’ve listened to the text - or to
part o f it, if it’s divided into a number o f sections - do the same thing over
% again, but this time repeat each sentence out loud, trying to imitate the
readers* pronunciation and intonation. You can repeat a sentence several
times, beating out the rhythm o f the stressed syllables on the table.
c) Go over the E xplanations that follow the text. Read out loud the
examples they contain, especially the sentences that appear inside the
boxes, as these summarize the rules you have just learned.

d) Go back to the text, read the English silently to yourself and try to
translate it back into Arabic - i.e., try to reconstruct the Arabic text without
looking at the left-hand column. This will show you all the things you didn’t
notice on first reading. You can do this while listening to the recording, with
your finger on the pause button: after you say a sentence, release the button
and the reader will tell you what you should have said.

[4]
 If you’ve got the sentence right you’ll feel validated and encouraged. And if
you’ve made a mistake, you’ll hear it corrected at once and realize what
you’ve forgotten or what you didn’t understand on the previous reading.

e) At this point you’re ready to do the exercises. This doesn’t mean that you
have to do them all at once without taking a short break (or even a long
one....) As w e’ve already said, you can spend two or three days on a single
lesson. On the second day it’s a good idea to review the text and the
explanations so as to refresh your memory before you start on the exercises.

Remember: It’s better to learn in short, frequent bursts than spend a long time
on a single lesson. In other words, it’s better to devote 15 minutes a day (or,
better still, twice a day) to the course rather than two consecutive hours once a
week. Success lies in the number o f “doses” o f the course you take - a daily
dose is best!
A little more advice
There’s no need to toil over each lesson until you’re familiar with every single
word and detail. It’s better to move on to the next lesson and discover new
things. You can always go back and re-read anything you’ve learned and
partially forgottea In any case, doing the exercises, which contain words not
just from the current lesson but from earlier ones, too, will mean you have to
look back at earlier material or use the index at the back o f the book.

Don’t worry too much about “rules” and theory. There’s no need to learn rules
and explanations o ff by heart. Repeating a sentence like “When a word that
ends in a consonant precedes a word that begins with two consonants, a helping
vowel is inserted before the second word\ " won’t help you much when you
want to speak! The explanations are provided to satisfy your curiosity and so
that you’ll understand 1) w hat’s happening and 2) when it happens, and why.
The dry theoretical formulation o f each rule is followed by a number o f
examples that illustrate how it operates. If you repeat these examples out loud,
you will most likely manage to internalize the rule. If you can’t take it all in at
once, don’t worry: every lesson, apart from providing new material, goes back
over rules from previous lessons, and illustrates their use once again in new
sentences. This means that material not absorbed in one lesson will sink in with
time, thanks to constant repetition.

The correct pronunciation

As this is a spoken language, proper pronunciation o f the words and sentences is
crucial. The accent in which a particular language is spoken is like the color o f

[5]
a person’s hair or eyes - in other words, it’s part o f the “personality” o f the
language. Sloppy pronunciation is like ignoring what is special about a person.
And there’s another reason why you should make the effort: incorrect
pronunciation o f Arabic can sometimes cause serious misunderstandings. So do
your very best to pronounce the language correctly.

Don’t say: “It’s impossible, I ’ll never manage it.” An accent isn’t something
you can get right first time. It’s something you’ll acquire only after prolonged
effort. You will find yourself suddenly able to produce some o f the sounds after
hearing them in a fresh context (in a new phrase, for example) or when
pronounced clearly by a specific speaker; others will require daily practice to
accustom the throat or the tongue to the production o f new sounds, just as
unpracticed fingers require training on the strings o f a guitar. All this takes time
and prolonged e ffo rt

R ecordings
Each book is accompanied by a recording o f the text o f the conversations,
together with examples from the explanations and comments, where necessary.
The readers are native speakers o f Arabic from Galilee and the Jerusalem area -
men, women and children.

Although the recordings do not contain everything printed in the book, all the
conversations are there, together with exam ples from the explanations that
precede and follow them. All examples that figure in the recordings are marked
in the margin with the sign ■.
S tru ctu re o f the recorded lessons: musical excerpt on the Arab flute (nhy)
f l f three notes the nam e (and beginning) o f th e lesson
0 two notes conversation
S one note explanations

[6]
 Abbreviations and symbols
active part active participle: doing / having done
adj adjective
adv adverb
attached pron attached pronoun: -ni, -ak, -na, -kom...
coll collective noun
construct the construct state
cp comparative adjective, adjective (e.g., bigger). When such an adjective
is placed before the noun it denotes the superlative (biggest).
forfem feminine.
fsing feminine singular
fpl feminine plural
G Galilee
in s.a. in some areas
intrans intransitive
J Jerusalem
lit Literally
m or raasc masculine
m pi masculine plural
m sing masculine singular
m/f masculine / feminine
n noun
passive part passive participle: written, done, etc.
Pi plural
prep preposition
pron pronoun
subj subjunctive, i.e., the present-future tense without b-.
trans transitive
links two words, to indicate that they have to be pronounced together;
in this respect they may be viewed as a single unit:
wardJ-wa lad is pronounced as wa-ral-wa-lad (behind the boy);
suftjtalr = suf-tek-tir (I've seen a lot)
’inteJkblr = ’in-tek-bTr (you mare big/old)
+ with the addition of (the word or suffix following this sign).

[7]
plus-or-minus, i.e., with-or-without (the word that follows). That is
to say, the word that follows this symbol may be added or left
out without any change of meaning - both versions are acceptable.
is equal to ...
different from
becomes... / changes into... / the result of this combination is... e.g.,
w a r a + -ha —►w a re -h a .

precedes an alternative form

The word preceding this symbol is used in Galilee, the word
following it is used in Jerusalem: ’issa // halqSt (now) =
’issa in Galilee, halqet in Jerusalem.
Square brackets are used for a variety of purposes:
a) After a noun in Arabic the plural form of the same noun is given
in square brackets. As the plural forms vary greatly, the singular and
plural forms for each noun should be learned together, e.g., madrase
[madflres] (school); b6t [byflt] (house).
b) The 3rd person masculine singular subj.form of the verb is given in
square brackets, immediately after the corresponding form in the past
tense, e.g., [iSflf] to see Literally he saw [that he may see].
c) Within the English translation of an Arabic text, square brackets
enclose one or several words in English which are not represented in the
Arabic, but which are necessary to complete the text in English, e.g.,
m u S ^ m n lh = [That's] not good!

These symbols enclose the literal English translation of an Arabic

sentence when the corresponding idiomatic English expression contains
words different from those used in Arabic. The reader should not be
disconcerted by the rather odd forms of English sometimes used in these
literal translations: they are intehded to imitate the structure and content
of the Arabic sentence as closely as possible, in order to help the reader
understand every word in it. See examples p. 19.
The hyphen is used to distinguish between the various sections of the
Arabic words, e.g., k a ta b -h a (he wrote it), so that the reader can
understand their construction (in this case, verb + attached pronoun)
and pronounce them properly: d arash a might be misread as da-ra-sha
with the English sh sound, whereas d aras-h a makes things clearer.
 # This sign is reminiscent of the sharp sign in musical notation. Just as the
sharp sign in music indicates a rise in pitch, so, in this course, this
sign indicates a rise in the style of the conversation, i.e., a higher
register of speech. It is used to indicate educated speech, speech
above the level of everyday conversation, and words borrowed from
literary Arabic.

The alphabet - the consonants

This section can be read as a preliminary to study, in order to obtain an overall picture
of the sounds and how they should be pronounced. It is also intended for later reference,
as required.

The Arabic alphabetical order is (from left to right)

* 1 O
c t i i J j u* j*
— b t t j b i) d d r z s §

> J?
t t 3 4 J f
0 • j
C f k 1 m n h w
5 <1 t ? g q y

In this pronunciation guide the letters are arranged in the order of the letters of the
English alphabet, so as to make them easy to look up. Note, however, one exception: the
c, which has no English equivalent, appears here as the first letter of the alphabet.

c A guttural sound produced from the very bottom of the throat, e.g., maci
(with me), kacke (cake).Goats say mfic.

The glottal stop (known in Arabic as “hamza”). This is the sound made by a
speaker of English just before beginning to say a word that begins with a vowel:
it is the little explosion of air that precedes the pronunciation of words like
enough, altogether, onward, ox I owe you ( ’ay ’ow yu). In certain dialects of
English this sound can occur in the middle of a word, as in the Cockney or
Glasgow pronunciation of bottle. In Arabic the glottal stop can appear anywhere
in the word t at the beginning, in the middle or at the end - and it is always
clearly heard, e.g., btis’al = btis-’al (you ask); m in’ (from what?), jarl* =
ja - rl-’e (courageous)', never bti -sal or m i-naish or jari.

[9]
a See Vowels below.
b As in English, e.g., bflb (door)
d As in English, e.g., dflyman (always).
d The English voiced th, as in they, wither. This sound is rarely heard in urban
speech, where it is usually replaced by a -d or a -z.
hfida (rural), hada (urban) = this (one).
daki (rural), zaki (urban) = clever; intelligent.
d An emphatic d sound, pronounced with the tip of the tongue pressed against the
upper teeth and the back of the tongue touching the palate, e.g., <kiltet (I stayed).
e See Vowels below
f As in English, e.g., flit! (come in!)
g To the English ear this sounds rather like a uvular Parisian r, or the sound
produced when starting to gargle, e.g., g&li (dear, expensive).
h As in English. In Arabic, however, a h sound can occur in final position, e.g.,
blsbah (he is similar), in which a h sound can clearly be heard at the end of the
word
k The same as h above, but practically silent. Used only at the end of a word:
tarakQ h [they left him).
h A strongly emphatic h produced by expelling the air through a narrowed throat,
e.g., mab&H (place, room). Reminiscent of the sound of a dog panting.
5 The ch sound of the Scots word loch, the Welsh bach or the German Nacht. e.g.,
fyMdi (he left; he let).
ii See Vowels below.
j In urban speech this is pronounced like the zh of Zhivago, the French j of joli,
Jacques, and the sound in the middle of the word pleasure. In rural speech it is
the same as the English j o f jump, jolly,^ e.g., jUb il-jarfde (he brought the
newspaper).
k As in English, e.g., kam fln
1 This is the “clear” English 1 of words like lean, light and of French words like
ville. Occasionally the -1- may be emphatic, as in the word ’a ll a h (Allah). This
emphatic 1 is pronounced like the “dark” English 1 of words like fall, milk.
m As in English
n As in English, e.g., ’insfln (man, human being).

[1 0 ]
O See Vowels below.

p As this consonant does not exist in Arabic, most foreign loan-words are
pronounced with a b instead of a p: blastik (plastic). Occasionally, however,
the original p is heard, e.g., jlpp (jeep).
q In urban speech (e.g., in Jerusalem, Haifa, etc.), this letter is pronounced like
consonantal \ i.e., as a glottal stop or catch that clearly divides one syllable from
the next: baqar (cattle) is pronounced ba’ar; ii-qalb (the heart) is
pronounced il-’alb; maqltlb (upside down) is pronounced ina’-lflb. The
Druze say q as in literary Arabic, while the Bedouin say g (bagar; il-galb).
These variations are worth remembering, as an understanding of them will help
you interpret the different types of speech you may encounter. Students
themselves should, however, stick to the urban pronunciation.
Note: Since q is pronounced like \ when you hear the sounds ’ar, *im,
remember that when you consult a dictionary you may have to look under both
’ar and qar, ’im and qim in order to find the right word.
q Certain words borrowed from literary Arabic are pronounced with a q even
by urban speakers, e.g., muslqa (music), maqale ([newspaper] article), etc.
The q is produced by making a k sound as far back in the throat as possible.
Like the emphatics, the q affects the surrounding vowels, making them “dark”.
See below, under S.
r A rolled r, as in Scots bum, Italian Roma
S As in English simple, master, less.
$ An emphatic s sound, pronounced with the tip of the tongue behind the lower
teeth and the middle of the tongue touching the palate. When pronouncing this
and the other emphatics, the tongue is kept low and spread out so that it feels
“thick” and fills the mouth. Emphatic consonants affect the quality of the
surrounding vowels, pushing them further back in the mouth and making them
“dark” (i.e., a rather than a - see below, in Vowels). This works in reverse, too:
if you can manage to pronounce a back a rather than a front a after your
emphatics, they will sound much more convincing, even when you don't get the
consonants themselves quite right.
§ English shy as in sherry, sham
t As in English.
t The English unvoiced th, as in thing, thought. This sound is rarely heard
in urban speech, and is used only in words borrowed from literary Arabic,
e.g., taqafe (education, culture), tiqa (trust, faith).

[in
t An emphatic / sound, pronounced with the tip o f the tongue pressed against the
upper teeth and the back of the tongue touching the palate.
U See Vowels below.
w As in English.
y As in English. Note that when -y follows a vowel, the two sounds are
pronounced separately, i.e., -ay rhymes with my, not with bay.
z As in English.
? An emphatic z sound, pronounced with the tip of the tongue behind the lower
teeth and the back of the tongue touching the palate, e.g., z a b e t (officer).

T he vowels
In order to indicate the numerous and varied vowels of spoken Arabic, we have adopted
the following method of transcription:
a A “front” a resembling the Lancashire pronunciation of the word cat, the French
papa, and the German satt, e.g., ja m a l (camel), kfltab (he wrote).
Bold a is the same sound stressed, and 9 is the same but longer.
a A “back” a - the ah sound of the English car or the French tine, but short, e.g.,
talab (he requested), mara<J (illness). This is the “dark” a often heard before
or after an emphatic consonant or an r (see above, under §). 11 is the same, but
longer.
e A short eh sound, as in the English egg, send, led. e.g., waled (father; parent),
Ijfltem (ring).
e Same as the above, or even shorter. This vowel is not part o f the word as
' such, but is popped in between two consonants to make pronunciation
easier. It can never be stressed.
Examples: ’ib cn (son), b tlk ^ b ll (you write).
e A very long eh sound, somewhere between the English met and meet.
It resembles a long French e or the German Mehl, Seele, e.g., wCnak (where
are you?), Santfin (fvw years).
i A short / sound, as in English bit, miss. e.g., b int (daughter; girl), 'ism a k
(your name).
I A long ee sound, as in English meet, feet, e.g., mudlr (manager), Salim
(a first name).
O A short vowel somewhere between the oh of from and the oo of hook, like the
French bientdt, or the German Stroh, e.g., hobb (love) is pronounced as

[12]
 something between hobb and hoobb; in ban&t-kom {your daughters), -kom
is a sound between intercom and -koom.
0 A short oh sound. This vowel functions like e above, e.g., duh°r (noon),
sug°l-na (our work), btum °rqu / btum r°qu {you pass by).

6 The same sound as 'o' above, but longer. The Arabic word lfln (color) sounds
like the French cone, faune, or the German Lohn.
U A short oo as in the English word roof, e.g., muftSfr (key).
Q A longer oo as in lose, loot or the exclamation cool
For example, flit! (come in!).

Stress
The stressed vowel is indicated by a bold character, e.g., madrase (school), mafrallo
(his place). You must bear in mind that a stressed syllable is not necessarily a long
syllable, zalame (human being / person) is composed of three short syllables, the first
of which is stressed.
Long vowels are indicated by a line over the top of the vowel, e.g., bftb (door),
kamfln (also), w6n (where).
Getting vowel length and stress right is very important, as both contribute greatly to the
rhythm of the sentence, and help ensure that you will be understood.

[13]
id-darsl il-’awwal
The First Lesson <the lesson the first>
Let’s begin by getting to know a few words, then we’ll dive straight into a simple
conversation. After you’ve read it we can summarize what you’ve learned from it.

Vocabulary
min who? $a,$u what?
wSn where? hOn here
bint daughter, girl bet house
’ana I mil, muS not, [is] not
’fl / ’aywa yes la’ no
nacam yes hilu beautiful
hal- this, these; that, those (used before both m and f nouns)
hada this/thatm kblr big
hay / hadi this/thatf saken lives / living"1(in a place)
’inte (’intaJ) youmsing sakne lives / livingf (in a place)
’inti youfsi“8 kaman also, too, as well; else
il- / 1- the mudlr manager, boss
u- / w- and fi in, inside; at
ya / ya oh...! hey...! used before the name or title of the person
you’re talking to, as in Oh George, could you tell me...)

Conversation_________
- min hada? - Who [is] that"1?
- hada Jorj, il-mudlr. - That [is] George, the manager.
- u-mln hay? - And who’s thatf [with him]?
- hay Maryam binto. - That’s Maryam, his daughter._
- hay bint il-mudlr? - ’a . - That’s the manager’s daughter? - Yes.
- sQ hada? - hada bet. - What’s that? - That’s a house.
- b€t min? - Whose house <housc [of] who>?

1. Why not il-dars? You’ll find out why in Lesson 2.

wflhad 1
Lesson 1

- b£t Jdij, b6t il-mudlr. -[It’s] George the manager’s house

<[the] house-of George, the house-of the manager>
- min saken fi hal-bet Who lives in that house?
- J8rj saken h5n fi btto. - George lives there <here> in his house.
- nfln kaman saken fi bSto? - Who else <who also> lives in his house?
- Maryam kaman sakne hon. - Maryam lives there <here> too.

<n
f'in te saken h6n T j

krv— & LJ
hada beti.

The next day George is standing alone in fro n t o f his house:

- ya JOrj, Maryam —Hello, George <oh George>, is Maryam
fi betak? at home <Maryam in your house>?
- la’, Maryam ’issa2 / halqet —No, Maryam’s not here at the moment
mus h6n. <Maryam now not here>.
- hal-betJkblr3! —It’s a big house <this house big>.
- ’a, ckblr u-hilu. —Yes, big and very nice <beautifut>.
- ya JOrj, hada betak? —George, [is] that your house?
- nacam hada beti. —Yes, that’s my house.
- betak hilu w-ekblr kaman. —It’s a nice house, and big, too
<your house is beautiful and big too>
hada betJjdld? Is it a new house <this is a new house>?

2. In Galilee the word ’issa is used for now, while in Jerusalem people say halqet. In
Lesson 6 we’ll learn a word that’s used all over the country.
3. il-b6t + kblr = il-bCtwekbIr. A helping vowel is added here between the final -t of
the word bet and the -kb at the beginning of the word kblr. When exactly does this
happen? We’ll find out in the next lesson.

2 tnfin
 Lesson 1

- ’aywa, u-inte, w5n b€tak? —Yes. And where do you live?

<and you, where’s your house>
- ’ana? beti fi hefa. - Me <I>? My home’s in Haifa.
- ’intaJ saken fi hBfa? — Do you live <you live> in Haifa?
- ’aywa, ’ana sfiken fi hefa. - Yes, 1 live in Haifa.
- hCfa madlne kbTre - Haifa’s a big town, and it*s beautiful, too
u-hilwe kamfin. <and beautiful too>.
- tayyeb, bikaffi. —OK <good>, that’s enough.*123

Explanations
1. The verb to be
Let’s start with some good news: you don't have to learn the presen t tense o f
the verb to be in Arabic, because it doesn't exist (though it does exist in the past
and future tenses). Instead o f saying, as you would in English, T h a t’s good, I'm
here\ What s that? or You 're tired’ in Arabic you just say That good9 1 here,
What that? and You tired. If you take another look at the conversation above
you’ll see that the sentence hfifa m adlne kblre <Haifa town big> translates into
English as Haifa's a big town.

2. The indefinite article

There is no indefinite article in Arabic:
b€t = house /a house b€twekblr = a big house

3. Masculine and feminine

In Arabic, objects, as well as people, can be either masculine or feminine.
Nouns ending in -e (m adlne) are feminine, and both the adjective and some
verbal forms change to agree with a feminine noun by adding -e:
kblr + -e = k blref (big)
hilu +-e = h ilw ef (beautiful, nice)
silken + -e = sflknef (live, living). Note that the -e between the -k and the -n
drops when the feminine ending is added. W e'll explain later why this happens.

N ote: There is no need for you to memorize explanations like the one above, as
they are provided merely to satisfy your curiosity. With practice you will find
that all the grammatical peculiarities described above become second nature.

I talate 3
Lesson 1

4. The adjective
In Arabic the adjective is placed a fte r the noun:
b6twejdld a new house
madTne kblre a big town

5. The personal pronouns

Note that the second person (you) has both a masculine and a feminine form:
I ’an a
you ’inte, or ’inta
fang
you ’inti
he huwwe, hfl
she hiyye, hi

6. The attached pronouns

If you look at the conversation again, you’ll see that the word my is expressed in
Arabic by adding -i to the end o f a word: b eti means my house. Your, his and
her are expressed in the same way. Note that your has two forms, one for
addressing a male, the other for addressing a female. The following are the
appropriate suffixes:
my -i
y o u r"5*8 -ak
yourf5ing -ek
his -o
her -ha

7. Negation
The word la* means no (JOij silken hOn? - la ’!).
T he w o rd m us / m is means not.
Do you live here? - ’inte sfiken h5n?
No, I don 7 (= do not) live here. - la’, ’ana mu$ sflken h5n.
Is the manager's house beautiful? - bet il-mudir hilu?
No, the manager s house isn 7 - la ’, bet il-mudir mi$ Juki.
(= is not) beautiful.
Note: Because Arabic has no present tense o f the verb to be, muS / mi§ often
translates into English as am not, isn 't or aren't. It can also mean don 't or
doesn 7.

4 ’arbca / ’arbaca
 Lesson 1

Note: Although la ’ can nearly always be translated as no and mu§ / m is as not,

there are a few exceptions to this, e.g.,
’an a la ’! = l ’m not <lno>\
The basic rule is that mu§ / mi§ is used to negate a noun (not a child), an
adjective (not nice), an adverb (not quickly) or a pronoun (not you), while l a ’
usually stands alone or, as in the example above, with just one other word.

8. Possessives
English expresses the possessive by using the word o f or by adding the suffixes
s ot s ’ (the house o f the prince / the prince s house; the p rin ces9house). Arabic
has no special words or suffixes to express possession: it simply puts the noun
denoting the thing possessed immediately in front o f the noun denoting the
possessor:
b et JOij George ’s house
b et il-m udlr the manager’s house <[the] house [of] the managed
Note that when the definite article is used in this possessive construction it
appears only before the second o f th e tw o nouns.

9. Q u e stio n s

English often reverses the order o f words or adds the word do / does to turn a
statement into a question:
That's (that is) your house —►Is that your house?
Colloquial Arabic doesn't do this. It relies on the intonation o f the voice to
indicate whether a sentence is a statement or a question:
hfida bfiti That’s <that> my house.
hfida b€tak? Is that your house <that [is] your house>?
’a n a Sflken fl tlSfa I live in Haifa.
’in te sfiken fi (lfifa? Do you live in Haifa?

10. P ro n u n c ia tio n

A s w e said in the Preface, it is v e ry im p o rtan t to try to pro n o u n ce A rabic

properly from th e outset. In th is lesson, y ou should p ay special attention
to the follow ing p oints:
A long v o w el is indicated b y a line o v e r th e to p o f th e vow el:
sfiken is pronounced s a - k e n and n o t sa-ken.

f)amse 5
 Lesson 1

Be sure to distinguish between a and a

■ ’a =£ ’ay w a - tay y e b * sfiken (s e e p a g e [12])

Take care to ensure that doubled consonants really do sound double: in the word
*issa the -s is doubled, i.e., longer and louder. Listen to the recording to hear
exactly how it should sound Practice by pronouncing English combinations
such as Miss Soames, got time, bed down.

Now would be a good time to reread the lesson or listen to the recording, before
you move on to the exercises

Exercises

A. Translate into English:

1. hfida b€t_ejdld u-hfida kamfin betJ^jdld.
2. min sfiken fi betak?
*3. ’inte kamfin silken hen?
4. hfida muS^ekblr.
5. min kamfin sfiken hOn?
B. Complete the sentences:
(Replace the English words with the appropriate expression in Arabic):

6. ’inte sfiken fi hefa? ’ana (too) sfiken fi hefa.

7. JOij fi betak? - (No), Jflij (isn’t) fi beti.
8. hfida (is new)? - (No), hfida mu§ (new).
9. binto (lives) fi bet^ejdld, u-bintak (also) sfikne (in a new house).

6 sitte
 Lesson 1

C. Translate into Arabic:

10.1 live at the manager’s house.
11. Youf,in* don’t live here.
12. The house isn’t nice.
13. Who’s that1*”8?
14. Isn’t that your” daughter <this not your daughter>?
15. No, that’s not my daughter.
16. Maryam, where’s your daughter?
17. The boss isn’t at yourmsin8 house.
18. This is a beautiful town.
19. His daughter isn't beautiful.
20. That’s not new!

To make sure you’ve got everything right, look up the Key to the Exercises on
page 111.
Don’t be content with just writing out the exercises! Read your translations out
loud - after you’ve corrected them, of course!

sabca 7
 id-dars it-tani
2
The Second Lesson <the lesson the second>
In this lesson we shall extend the use o f the suffixes -i, -ak, -ek, -o and -ha,
which we studied in the first lesson. These suffixes can be added to prepositions
(with, at the home of> etc.); they can also be attached to the word wCn (where):
wCnak means Where [are] y o u l

Vocabulary1
klf how? bass only; but
cind / cand at, by (as in how’s by you?); at the home of
cindi I have, I’ve got; at my house, at home
cindak youmhave, you’ve got; at your house, at home
fth there is, there are
ma fl-§ there isn’t, there aren’t walad boy, child
mfl f!h / fi§§ there isn’t, there aren’t yacni that’s to say
kull every, each; all sugel//sugof work, job
bfil situation, state mabsuf1 pleased, feeling well
ma?bfltm right, true ja r neighbor
’i§i thing, something ma$$ri money

Conversation____________________________________________
- $abah il-IjCr, ya JOrj. - Good morning, <moming of goodness>, George!
% —sabah in-nttr, ya Fahlm. —Good morning, <inorningof light>, Fahim!
- k lf tlillak? —How are you <how [is] you situation>?
- ’alia isallmak1
234 - Fine, thank you < God save you>.
klf ’Inte? How are you <bow you>?
- mabsQf, il-hamdi-lla —Fine <feeling well> thank you <praise to God>.
- u -k lf §U&lak? - And how’s work <your work>?

1. Not all new words used in the Conversation appear in this list, as their meaning will
be clear from the translation provided on the opposite side of the page.
2. See pp. [10] and [11] for the proper pronunciation of the letters g and §.
3. This will be explained later. To a woman one says ’o lla isallm ek.
Note the difference in pronunciation between a-a and a-a.
4. This is a contraction of the literary Arabic expression il-ham du lillih <praise to God>.

8 tamfinye
 Lesson 2

- y a cni5... il-ydm i5-§ugolhek. - So-so... These days work’s... like that

<today work’s... thus>.
fth sugol yacni6, I mean, I’ve got work <it means there is work>
bass ma fiss ma$firi. but I haven’t got any money
< but there’s no money>.
- ma?b(lt, hek id-dinyawl-y5m. - That’s right, that’s the way things are these
days < thus [is] the world today>.
- u-klf cindak? - And how are things with you <how at you>?
- ’ana? cindi Sugol u-SugLemnlh - Me? I’ve got a job, and a good job [too].
- cindak bet kamfln u-kull ’isi, - You've got a house, too, and everything.
hada mnlh. u-klf That’s good. And how’s
jarak ’abu Yfisef? your neighbor, Abu Yusef?
- jfiri? hQ kam Sn cindo - My neighbor? He's got <he too there is
Sugol u -m a§ d ri. at him> work - and money, too.
- bass ’ana ma cindl-s u-cindi - But I haven't! And I ’ve got
ulad - walad u-bint (binet)7 children - a boy and a girl.
- w6n il-binct? - Where’s the girl?
- binti? hiyye fij-bfit halqCt. - My daughter? She’s at home now.
- u-wBn il-walad? - And where’s the boy?
- il-walad kaman fU-bfct. - The boy's at home <in the house>, too.

Explanations

Let’s classify the new thing? w e've discovered in this chapter:

1. The definite article il- and its various forms

We’ll start by following the adventures o f the word il-, which means the.
T. The i- drops whenever il- follows a word ending in a vowel:
il-bet —> fiJ-b C t / fU l-b€t (in the house; at home)
il-yOm —►h u w w e fi tl§fawl-y6m (He’s in Haifa today).

5. yacni generally means that’s to say..., [1] mean..., but here it's used to mean so-so
or [it] could be better.
6. That’s right, the syllable yac is unstressed here. Just accept this as a fact for the
present (it has to'do with the overall intonation of the sentence). You will come
across other similar cases which will be explained at the end of this book.
7. Why have we sometimes written bint and sometimes bin^, sometimes Sugl and
at other times §Ug°l? You’ll find the explanation in the next lesson.

tisca 9
 2. In this lesson w e've seen that il- can change in other ways, too:
il- + n u r = in-nGr
il- + dinya = id-dinya
(like id-dars in the title of each lesson in this book)
il- + Sugol = i$-$ugol

Conclusion: the -1 o f il- sometimes turns into the letter that follows it.
However, this doesn’t always happen:
- It occurs only before the letters d, 4 d; t, t, t ; n; s, $, z, ?, s; r.
These are called the “sun letters” because sun - Sams - is one o f the words
before which il- changes its form.
Note: Some people change the form o f il- before the letter j-, too, so you will
hear both il-jiir and ij-jfir.
How can you remember which letters make il- change its form? There’s no
need to memorize the list above.8 It's enough to know that the phenomenon
exists and to read all the lessons out loud. As you come across more and
more examples you will find that, with the help o f a few exercises, you start
to make the necessary changes automatically.
T he definite article in English a n d in A rabic: Arabic sometimes uses the
definite article where English doesn’t* When we make a generalization in
English, such as children go to sc h o o l we don’t put the definite article the
before either n oua In Arabic, however, we have to say the children go to the
school even when we’re speaking generally, with no specific children in mind.

8. For anyone who does want to try to memorize the list: as a rule, the consonants that
cause il- to change are dentals, which are pronounced with the tip of the tongue
touching the top teeth (d,t,n), sibilants (s,z,s) and the letter r.

casara 10
 Lesson 2

2. H elping vowels
Let’s go back to another peculiarity o f colloquial Arabic which we encountered
in the first lesson: il-bet-ekblr / il-b£twekblr
When a word ending in a consonant is followed by a w ord th a t begins w ith
two consonants (b £ t + k b lr ) , a helping e sound is added before the second
word. For example:
mi§ + kblr —> m iS^ekblr (not large)
kam&n + mnlti ~ > k am an weninlh (also good, good too)

Explanations 1 and 2 can be summed up neatly in the following table:

il-bCt id-dars
fij-b e t fLd-dars
il-b€t_ekblr

Don’t w orry! There’s no need for you to try to memorize all this. These are
simply explanations that describe what you’re seeing (and hearing), so as to
satisfy your curiosity. Very soon this will all seem perfectly natural and
familiar. Just repeat the examples in the above ta b le ... u-bikaffi._____________

3. The plural form in Arabic

The word w alad (boy) becomes ’awlftd910in the plural. In Arabic the plural can
assume a large number of different forms: for every w ord you learn you have to
memorize the plural form, too.... There’s no help for it, but it's not as difficult as it
sounds, because certain types of singular and plural tend to go together. In this
book we provide the plural form of each word in square brackets. Here is the first
list:
bSt [byOt] house j«r □irfin] neighbor
dars [drOs] lesson walad fawlad] boy
bint [ban&t] girl; daughter mabsQt [mabsutln]1 pleased, feeling well

4. There isn’t / There aren’t... I haven’t got....

We’ve seen from the text that there is / there are, I have got can be turned into
there isn 7 / there aren ’t, I haven 7 got by the addition o f m a .. .s:
there is, there are fth there isn 7, there aren ’t m a ft-$
I have got cindi I haven’t got m a cindI-§

9. You may also hear the forms ul&d, ewlid (with il-: il-ulfid, 1-ewlfld)
10. The word m absfit shows us that some words can be made plural by the addition of
the suffix -In rather than by changing the internal form of the'word.

ibd«ce-s 11
 Lesson 2

But when cind means at or a t the house of, it is negated by using mi§ / muS.
For example, compare:
I ’ve got a house cindi b€t
I haven 7got a house ma cindI-§ bet
Maryam‘s at my house Maryam cindi
Maryam’s not at my house Maryam mus cindi
I haven 7got [any] money ma cindl-s ma$ari
1 haven 7got the money il-ma$ari m uscindi
<the "money’s not at me / 1 don’t have it here with me>.

Exercises
A. Translate into English:
1. jfiricindo ulfid 5. bintak cind-ha ma$firi
2. ’awlfldi cind jfirak 6. YQsefcindo walad
3. ma cindI-§ bint / binet 7. il-walad cind Yfisef
4. cindi bass walad.
B. Complete the sentences:
8. y5 Maryam (how are you)? 13 ..il-yflm (there’s no) rfidyo.
9. ’ana (not) mabsOt il-yom 14. (Where’s) Maryam, u-Yflsef(where’she)?
10. il-jiran (at yourms,nBhouse)? 15. huwwe (at work).
11. la’, il-jirfin (aren’t) cindi 16. YOsef (has got) ulfid.
12. sQ fib (on the radio)wl-yOm? 17. la’, YOsef ma cindO-§ (children).

x C. Translate into Arabic:

18. W here are yourm/fl,,n8 neighbors?
19. The boy’s not at my house.
20. W here’s yourfsU18 neighbors' house?
2 1 .1 haven’t got a lesson today.
22. It’s not true.
23. I’ve got money, too <1 too, I’ve got money>.
24. You’vem4,08 got a beautiful house, too <you too, you’ve got a beautiful house>.
25. W here's the money? Haven’t you” smg got it?
26. No, the money’s at home.
27. The neighbors have got the money.
2 8 . 1 haven't got a radio. There’s a radio at the neighbors’ [house].

12 tncteS
id-dars it-talet

The Third Lesson <the lesson the third>

W e’ve already learned the singular forms o f both the personal pronouns ’ana,
’inte, ’inti, hu w w e, hiyye and the possessive pronouns -i, -ak, -ek, -o, -ha.
Now it’s time to learn their plural forms.
we ’Uma our -na
you** ’intu your -kom J
-ku°
they h um m eJ their -horn
henne0 -hen
Urban speech uses the same word for both masculine and feminine in all these
plural forms. Where two different forms are given for the same person, these
represent regional variants, e.g.,
bet-horn - their house (in Jerusalemite speech)
b€t-hen = their house (in Galilean speech)
In the coming lessons both forms will be given side by side. The Galilee form
will appear first, then the Jerusalem form will be given after a double slash. A
single slash, on the other hand, will be used to indicate two alternative forms o f
the same word. For examples see the vocabulary list and text below.

Vocabulary
hada this™, this one; that tacban [-to] tired, tired out
hay / hadi thisf; that ma§gHl [-In] busy
hadfll these; those §ocb / soccb hard, difficult
bal­ this; that; these; those mabsflt min pleased with
(used before a noun)
der [dUr]1 house ktlr very, much, many
min from, out of saknfn (they) live / living
batfile unemployment hallaq2 now

1. This is another word for house, and, like b€t , which you learned in the first lesson, it
is also commonly used. However, unlike bCt (which is masculine), dor is feminine, and
so we say hfldi dar^ekblre {That's a big house).
2. hallaq (pronounced halla’), is another word for now, used in Jerusalem and
understood in Galilee. It’s the word used in Lebanon and Syria.

talattace§ 13
Lesson 3

Conversation________________
- ’ihna fi bet-na u-intu - We’re at our house and you’re
fi bet-ku // b5t-kom. at your house.
- min hadfll? - Who are they <those>?
- hadOl ulald il-jiron. - Those are the neighbors* children.
- w5n ulfid-kuG ’intu? - Where are your own children
<your-children you>?
- ulfid-na barra mac ulad il-jirftn. - Our children are outside with the
neighbors* children.
- il-jiron saknln mac ulfid-homJ - The neighbors live with their
fi hal-bfit / fi had-dor. children in that house.
- hada b€t il-jiron? - Is that the neighbors’ house?
- ’aywa. -Y e s .
- bet-hom hilu ktlr! - Their house is very nice!
- ma?bflt, henne - Yes it is <True>. They’re pleased
mabsutln min hal-bfit. with the house <from this house>.

- ya Jflij, §G fib jdld? - What’s new, George, <oh George,

what is there new>?
- ya bablbi, ’ana maSgdljsktlr, —Man <my dear>, I*m very busy
u-ta^Gn min sugli. and tired out from work <from my work>.

14 ’arbactace§
 Lesson 3

- Suglak s a ceb? - Is your work hard?

- y a cn i ... m is $aceb, bass - Well... not hard, but
fih §uglwcktlr u-binti there’s a lot of work, and my daughter’s
k a m in ta cb an e m i haS-sug<>l. tired out from this work, too.
- ’intu ta cbam n bass f t h Sugol, —You’re tired, but you’ve got work
u -h ad a mnUi! <there is work> and that's good!
•-r m azbO t, b a t a le n ia fi-S§ —True, there’s no unemployment
u -h ad a *i§i ninth. and that’s a good thing.

Explanations

1. This (m/f)..., these...; that..., those...

You may already have noticed that the word hal- (which can be used in the
masculine or the feminine, the singular or the plural) behaves like the definite
article il- when it appears before the “sun letters” mentioned in Lesson 2.
il-+ S ugol = iS-Sugol the work
hal- + Sugol = haS-Sugol this work
This means that we also say h ad -d ars (this lesson), h ar-rad y o (this radio), has-
slnam a (this cinema) and han-n&s (these people).
The word hal- is a shortened form o f h&da + il-.
Instead o f saying hal-bCt (this house), we can say hfidawl-b et or il-bet
hada, and they will all mean the same thing. In the same way, we can say:
h a d ij - b i n t / il-bint h a d i - instead o f hal-bint
hadOl in-nas / in-nds hadGl - instead o f han-nfis
For our own use, w e’ll stick to the shortest form, but you’d do well to
familiarize yourself with the other forms, too, as you’ll hear them used by
native speakers.

2. Bint, binet
In both this lesson and the previous one w e’ve come across words that have two
different forms: sometimes binet and sometimes bint, sometimes Sugol and
sometimes Sugl (as in Suglak). The “official” forms are b int and sugl, but the
, addition o f a helping vowel (e, o) makes them easier to pronounce, especially at
^ the end o f a sentence: v
I w fcnil-binet? (Where's the girl?) cind ak Sugol? (Have you got a job?)

1 l)amestaces 15
 Lesson 3

These helping vowels are unnecessary when these words are followed by the
endings -i, -ak, -ek, -o. Nor are they used before the definite article il-. This
means that we say:
binti Suglak b in tjl-jira n §ugLil-bet
my daughter your work the neighbors’daughter
housework
(work-of the house)
The same form is used before a word that begins with two consonants, such as
ktlr, kblr, m nlh - see Lesson 2, E xplanations 2 for a description o f the
helping vowel inserted before the following word - because in this case the
easiest way to pronounce the combination is:
b in t_ ek b lre not bin^t k b lre
§ u g L ektTr not Sugol k tl r

■ This can be summarized in a table:

binet Sugol
bintii suglek
bintjil-jirfin §ugljl-bet
bintwekblre SugLcktfr

As we already suggested in te sso n 2, it's enough just to understand the

explanations: there’s no need to\make an effort to memorize them. Repeat the
above table out loud. With time you will find it seems more natural to
pronounce these words in accordance with the rules above rather than just “any
old how.”

3. Stress
I f you've been wondering where the stress falls in Arabic words, you’ll be glad
to know that there are clearly defined rules for this, the first o f which is:
If the word contains a long syllable (marked by a line over the vowel), then that
syllable is stressed, e.g.,
■ sfiken ta^S n e kam&n

Exercises___________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. ’ana ta^fin il-y6m.
2. ’inte mus ta ^ a n , i§-§ug<>l hBn muS saceb.

16 sittaCe§
 Lesson 3

3. i§-§ugol hada s a ^ jfc tlr.

4. hiyye t a ^ a n e k tir m in §ug<>l-ha.
5. M aryam , ’inti maSgule h allaq ?
6. l a ’, ’a n a m is m asgttle.
7. wSn saknln ew ladak ?
8. henne saknln fi h£fa.
9. f t h s u g ^ fi foCfa?
10. n a cam , fih s u g L ek tI r.
11. ’inti, Suglek $ aceb?
12. ’ayw a, u-inte suglak _ em m h.

B. Complete the sentences:

13. h u w w e (is pleased) m in Suglak.
14. hiyye mu§ m a b sflta 3 m in (yourmsiB8 work).
15. m in (that girl)? m us (the manager's daughter)?
16. fth hOn (people), h um m e jiro n k o m ?
17. (No), hum m e (not) jirfin-na.
18. hada Sugl (good).
19. il-w alad ([is] outside) m ac il-binet.
C. Translate into Arabic:
20. Where do your children live?
21. At their house
22. And those <people>, where do [they] live?
23. Not in that house.
24. A te your (pi) neighbors pleased with my work?
25. Very pleased pl!
26. Aren’t our children outside <Our children aren’t outside>?
No, they’re at home <in the house>.
27. No, they’re at the neighbors’ house now.
28. My neighbors are pleased with <pleased from> the radio —I’m not <1 no>!
29. This lesson’s difficult, I’m tired.
30. OK, that’s enough!

3. Why is the feminine ending here a not e l We’ll explain soon.

sabacta Ces 17
id-dars ir-robec
4
The Fourth Lesson
It’s time to discover new ways to use the suffixes -i, -ak, -ek, -o ... (i.e., the
attached personal pronouns) and the negative suffix which “attracts” the
stress and moves it to the end o f the word:

b id d -' a prefix that expresses desire, need, wanting

bidd-i Iw a n ^ (m a) bidctt-3 don't want
I don
bidd-ak (m a) bidd-ak-3 2 youm don 7 want
b idd-ek (m a) bidd-kl-s12 you don 7 want
bidd-o (m a) bidd6-§ he doesn 7 want
As mentioned in Lesson 2, these personal pronouns can also be attached to
prepositions such as m ac (with), m in§£n / ca3fin (for, for the sake of) or m itl /
m itel (like). Examples:
m a ci = with me, m in§£nek = fo r y o u , m itlo = like him

Vocabulary
*e§? what (like §u) w a q t / w aqet time
w illa or il-h aq q 3 rightness, the truth
’i b n - / ’iben son ktflb [kutoh/kutob] book
’ah la u -sah la welcome4 m a d ra se [m adSres] school
m a § a ri money Sfiter [SatrTn] clever, smart, bright
sa tra cleverf, smartf em bflreh / embSreh yesterday
kibrlt matches d a fta r [daf£ter] notebook, exercise book

*
1. You may sometimes also hear baddi, baddak. This pronunciation is common in
Lebanon and in northern Galilee along the Lebanese border, in Fassuta, Tarshiha and
elsewhere. The form bidd- is used throughotit the rest of the country.
2. Note: -ek turns into -kl before the negative suffix -s. The same thing can happen
with -ak: some people say bid-kfl-§ instead of biddak-§ (you don 7 want), especially in
the Galilee region.
3. Remember that in towns q is not pronounced as an emphatic but as a glottal stop, i.e.,
the little explosion of air that precedes the pronunciation of a word that begins with a
vowel (like enough). The word halqfit is pronounced h a l...’£ t So how do you
pronounce haqqo (his right)! Listen to the recording: ha... (the a sound breaks off
suddenly) -o = ha’-’o. How do you pronounce haqq on its own? It’s quite easy: you
just do the same thing but leave out the -o. Try to pronounce h a” e.

18 tamantaCes
 Lesson 4

C o n v e rsa tio n

- m asa wM)£r. - Good evening <evening of-goodness>!

- m asa^n-nflr, ’ah lan u -sah lan !4 - Good evening <evening of 1ight>, welcome!
- ’ah lan flk5! —And the same to you <welcome to you>!
- tfa d d a l6 tilt, §u biddak, - Please come in. What do you want,
ya l)ayyi7? my friend <my brother>?
- biddi m innak *i§i zglr: fi-§§ —I need a little something from you. I haven't
clndi kibrTt fi-l-bCt, got any matches at home <there are not at me
fib cindak? in the house>; have you got any?
- ’a , m aclum , tfcuJdol! —Yes, of course. Here you are <please>!
bik affi? biddak kam fln Is that enough? Do you need anything else
’isi ti n i? <also another thing>?
- salam tak6 —No, thanks <[just] your health>.
- k lf ’ib n ak it-tflni fi-l-m adrase? - How's your second son [doing] at school?
- em njh, il-ham du-lilla. kamfrn —Fine, thank heavens <praise to God>.
il-bin^t fi-l-m adrase, bass k u ll The girl's at school, too. But it all costs
h ad a biddo m a$5ri! <all that needs> money!
- m insan ’Ss il-m a$ ari —What costs money <for what the money>,
ya ^ a y y i7? my friend?
- m in§an il-kutob w-id-daffcter, - Books <for the books> and exercise books.
kull y o m ^ ek t& b ^ jd ld u -k a m a n Every day a new book, another exercise book,
d a fta r u -kam an d a fta r, then another one <and also an ex.book...>
mu§ m um ken! It’s impossible!
- bass ’in ta m a b su f min - But you're pleased with the school, and
il-m adrase u-m in 1-ewlad? with the children?

4. The expression *ahla u-sahla is less formal than 'ahlan wa-sahlan, which is
borrowed from literary Arabic. It means, literally, a family and a plain, i.e., may our
house be like your family home and like a level plain on which you can walk easily and
safely. The word ’ahel means family, and sahel means plain, i.e., a safe flat place.
5. The word flk (you may sometimes also hear bTk) means in you, at youm; explanations
later.
6. This will be explained later.
7. This is a Lebanese and Galilean expression.

tisctta^S 19
Lesson 4

- k tlr m a b s u t m in-hom (-hen). - Very pleased with them.

- 6s b id d ak ’a k ta r m in h£k? - What more do you want
<what do you want more than thus>?
- il-h aq q m a ca k ! —You *re right <rightness is with you>!

- id-dars hfida hay y en 8 w illa s a ^ b ? - Is this lesson easy or difficult?

- y a cn i ... mu§ $acb-ektlr. —Well... not very difficult.
- y a cni, h ay y en m itI-id-dars —You mean it’s as easy as the first
il-’aw w al? lesson <it means: easy like the f.l.>?
k u ll si9 biddo w aqet. Everything takes <needs> time.
’inte tacbfln? Are your tired?
- il-yOm la ’, muS m itl-em bareh. —Not today <today no>! Not
like yesterday.

h al-w alad sfiterwektlr! That boy’s very bright! There’s

fi-sS m itlo fi-l-m adrase. no-one [else] like him in the school.
- m ins a n n u n hal-kutob ? - Who are these books for < for whom>?
minSftno w illa minSfinak? For him or for you?
- minSftnL - For me.

Explanations

1. The word m in + attached pronouns, and other matters

The word m in becomes m inn- before the suffixes -i, -ak, -ek, -o: m inni,
m in n a k .... Before the other endings in this paradigm, which begin with a
consonant, it doesn’t change and remains m in- (without doubling o f the -n):
m in-ha, m in-na, m in -k o m (-k u °) m in-hom (-hen°)

8. In Galilee you are more likely to hear hwayyen / chwayyen.

9. This is another form of the word *iSi and it means exactly the same thing.

20 ci3rln
 Lesson 4

- The Arabic for more than is ’a k ta r m in, and more than that is expressed by
the Arabic phrase ’a k ta r m in h€k <more than thus>.
- And how do we pronounce m in + ktflbak (from your hook)l
m inwektsbak, o f course.

2. The definite article (again)

The definite article il- also requires a helping vowel before words that begin
with two consonants. Sometimes it even “ loses its head”, drops the i- altogether,
and turns into 1- / l-e
the book il- + ktflb —►il-ek ta b / I-ektab
the big... il- + kb lr —* l-ekblr
the big book = l-ektftb l-ek blr
When hal- is followed by a word that starts with two consonants a helping
vowel is inserted:
this book ~ hal-ek ti b
In Lesson 2, Explanations 1, we saw what happens to the definite article before
the “sun letters”. When a sun letter is immediately followed by another
consonant\ you have the choice o f two different pronunciations, e.g.,
the little... = il- + zg lr —► iz-zgir / l-ezglr

- A couple o f final comments on the definite article: note that when a noun is
followed by an adjective, the definite article is repeated:
il-b5t il-bilu the beautiful house
il-w alad iz-zgir the little boy
When the definite article is not repeated in a phrase like those in the examples
above, the phrase turns into a complete sentence with a different meaning:
il- bet frilu The house [is] beautiful.
il-w alad wezg tr The boy [is] small.

T o su m u p :
il-bet hilu the house is beautiful
il-bfit il-hilu the beautiful house
il-b€t_ekblr the house is big
il-b€t l-ekb lr the big house
hal-w alad this boy
hal-ektab this book

w&bad u -ci§rtn 21
(one and twenty)
 Lesson 4

3. Words that begin with two consonants - a summary

Words like ktab, m nlb, m bereh:
1) At the beginning o f a sentence and afte r a word ending in a consonant,
these words take an initiale- to facilitate pronunciation:
- emnlh! m inwek tab o m itL em b5reh
— Well! from his book like yesterday
2) When these words appear after a vowel (after a word ending in a vowel)
this e- is unnecessary.
bet-na k blr b5t-na f ih e f a k b l r suglo m nlh
our house is big our house in Haifa is big his work is good

4. W hat? = su ? ’5 s ?
Normally it doesn’t matter which o f these two words you use, as they both
mean the same thing. However, after a preposition, the word ’5§ is much more
usual:
*inte m a b s u t m in *5§? cala ’5§ ? m in§an ’5s ?
What are you pleased about? on what? Whatfor?

Take care to pronounce the glottal stop ' clearly.

D on't say minesh or minshanesh - say minshan... ’esh.

Exercises____________________________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. hal-ektab^em m h
t 2. wSn il-bSt ij-jdld (il-b5t I-ejdld)?
3. bintak bid(d)-ha 10 ma$firi.
4. bid(d)nfl-s dafliter, kull wflhed cindo daftar, bikaffl.
bidna10 basskutob.
5. cind-kom (-ku) kutob? 7
6. la’, ma cind-na-s (cin-na-§10).
B . Complete the sentences (add a helping vowel where necessary):
Examples:
wSndaftarak? but w5n ktabak —> w6nwektabak?
minSandarsi but min§an drQsi —> minSan^edrQsi

22 tnSn u-ci§rtn
7. binti kblre.
8. binto kamlln kblre.
9. biddiktftb.
10. blddi kamlln ktftb.
11. Sugli mnlb.
12. ma?bOt, suglak mnlb.
13. hadaktlr!
14. la’, hflda muS ktlr.
C. Translate into Arabic:
- When you write this exercise, underline the vowel o f the stressed syllable, or
indicate it with the sign < .
< <
biddo / biddo-S
15. He lives with his son in the new house.
16. What does she need (want) money for <for what she needs money>?
17. Who’s right? <with whom is the rightness> - I’m right!
18. I'm not pleased with youm
19. That boy’s got <has got> books and exercise books, and that’s enough for school
<for the school>.
20. Does your1"8”4 daughter want another (kam lln) book? No, she doesn’t <want>.
21. Do youpl want work or money?
22. We don’t want money, we want work!10
23. There's a big school here.
24. You’ve “ *“8 got more money than me <you've got money more than me>.
25. This is for me.
26. Yes, this is for youf8"4.
27. He’s got more money than all the neighbors.
28.1 don’t have time now.
29. I’ve only got a little book.
30. I'm tired m! - From what <tired from what>?

10. bidd-ha, bidd-na, cInd-na - Don’t put too much effort into trying to pronounce
the doubled consonants here, as what people actually say is bid-ha, bidna, cin-na.

In Arabic we say one a n d twenty, two a n d twenty, three a n d tw enty.....

like the nursery rhyme: “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.** talite U-Ci5lfn 23
 id-dars il-t)ames
5
T he F ifth L esso n
Today w e’re going to tackle the verb. First o f all w e’ll explore it through the
texts below, then we’ll draw conclusions about it in the Explanations.

Vocabulary
’ul)t sister ’im m (also ’u m m ) mother
lftzem must <necessary> k u rsi [ k a r o s i] 1 chair
mu§ l&zem must not < not necessaiy> ta cfll comem!
bacd5n afterwards, later ja rfd e [jarilyed] newspaper
balaS(-m a) don’t...! (used in negative commands)
ca§an for, because of; in order to la-hffn (to) here
m arT dmsing ill, sick, patient hunflk there
mort<lafsinB ill, sick, patient k w ay y cs good, well
doktOr doctor §w ayy a little

Conversation_________________
- y a Y u sef, ta ca l la-h5n! —Yusef, come here <to hcre>!
-S H fib, y a b fib a ? —What is it, Dad <oh Dad>?
- rQh, jib id-dokt5r min§Sn ’u!)tak . —Go and get <bring> the doctor
for your sister.
- §fl? h iyye m a rtlet ? - What, is she ill?
%- la ’, mu§ m arftja, bass - No, not ill, just not
mu§ m absQ ta §wayy. feeling well.
roll qaw fim la-cind id-doktOr, Go to the doctor’s straight away
qOl la-d-doktflr: [and] tell the doctor,
tacal la-cindna (cin-na), 1 “Come to our house,
M ary am m u s m a b su fa . Maryam’s not feeling well.”
- tay y eb . -O K .

—w 5n id-doktOr? —Where’s the doctor?

- h a y y flh 0 / h a y y o J. - Here he is.12

1. This word is feminine in Galilee, masculine in Jerusalem (and elsewhere).

2. This will be explained on page 69.

24 ’arbac u-ci§rtn
- tfad<Jal3 ya say y ed ElySs, flit! —Please come in, Mr. Elias.
klfhalak? How are you <how is your condition?
- il-tiam dilla, k lf hftlak ’in te? —Thank God. How’s yourself,
u -k lf hal bintak? and how's your daughter?
- y a cni, ta cftl §Qf ’in ta —So-so. Come and see for yourself
u-qul-li k lf hfll-ha. <come, see, you> and tell me how she is.
-w 6 n -h a ? —Where is she?
- hOn, fi-l-’Oda. —Here, in her room <in the room>.
tfa d d a l flit! Please come in!

Don’t worry, Maryam will get better soon, but the vocabulary we’ve learned so far is
insufficient to tell you about it.

- ya M aryam , ta cali! rQhi jlb i —Maryam, come here! 4

k u rsi min&ln ’im m ek. Go and get a chair for your mother.
- wCn il-jartde? —Where’s the newspaper?
ca-l-k ursi (cala J - k u r s i) ? On the chair?
- la ’, yim ken ca-t-tflw le. —No. It may be on the table
<it’s possible on the table>.
- la ca -l-k u rsi w ala ca-t-tfiw le. —[It’s] neither on the chair nor on the table.5
- m a cal£§ (m a cales§). —Never mind.6
(Yusef:)
- biddak ajlb jaifd e —Do you want me to get a newspaper
m in cind il-jiran ? from the neighbors’ <from at the n.>?
- ’ayw a, h§ y fik ra kw ayyse. —Yes, that's a good idea.
- biddi artlb ’issa / halqCt —I’ll go <1 want that I go> now [and]
’ajib-lak hal-jarfde. get you the paper <that I bring you this p.>.
- la ’, balfi$-m a trflti ’issa, —No, don’t go now.
betrfiti b acd5n. Go later <you will go Iater>.

3. You’ve been invited to do something (to sit down, have a drink, take something, join
in something) - what do you reply? We won’t tell you just yet.
4. Note the feminine ending-/ of the verb.
5. To say neither nor, we don’t use m us / mi§, but la ... w a -la ...
(or la ... w a-la...) instead.
6. This will be explained later.

Ijamse u-ci§rtn 25
Lesson 5

- embala7, barOti ’issa. —No, I’ll go now.

(biddo irflh ’issa ca§fin (He wants to go now because

biddo iSQfewlfld il-jirfin) he wants to see the neighbors' children.)

- ta y y eb , rfib, bass qaw fim ! - Fine, go, but quickly!

E x p la n a tio n s

1. T h e v e rb
Let’s see what new things we’ve learned today:
rfih go™! jib bring™
a - r f lb ( ’a-) that I go a -jlb ( ’a-) that I bring
ba-rOb l go m i go ba- j i b I b rin g /I’ll bring

mb g0m! jlb i bringf

t-rtlh / et-rtth thatyoumgo t- jlb i / et-jlb i that y o il bring
b e t-m h you™ go f you ’ll go b et-jib i ypu bring /you ’ll bring

Here, for the first time, we are meeting three different tenses and moods o f the
verb: the imperative, the subjunctive and the present-future. English speakers
sometimes find it hard to understand exactly what th e 41‘subjunctive mood” is. At
this point w e’ll make do with a partial explanation:

7. m b ala (em bala) means yes it is / yes I will!, etc., or no, on the contrary, and it is
used in response to a negative sentence (in this case: don t go now....) in order to correct
or contradict what has just been said, e.g.,
—bidd6-§ irGh? - Doesn Vhe want to go?
— em bala ! - Yes, he does!

26 sitte u-ci§rtn
 Lesson 5

A verb in the subjunctive follows lfizem ([it is] necessary that) and verbs that
express a desire, a wish or an intention, such as biddi ( / want).
biddi a§Qf / want to see <1 want that I see>
bid d ak ^ et-S u f Youm*,ne want to see <you want that you see>
laze m 'a -jib / must bring. .. < [I] must that I bring>

Note: English, too, has a subjunctive mood, though today it is not always used.
You can hear it in sentences like “I insist that he leave0 (not “that he leaves0).

- ajfb, t-jTb, i-s u f are all verbs in the subjunctive.

- To form the present-future tense we simply add the prefix b- to the verb
in the subjunctive: b-ajlb, b-etjlb, b-i§Q f.

W e'll learn the various uses o f the present-future tense gradually as we

progress, and we’ll come back a number o f times to discuss the issue o f tenses
and verbal moods.

2. And what if she sees, brings, etc?

Fihst o f all, let’s sum things up:
a jlb that I bring b a jlb I bring/I'll bring
tjlb that youmbring b etjlb youmbring /you 'll bring
tjlb i thatyouf bring betjlbi you{ bring /you 'll bring
ijlb that he bring b ijib he brings /h e ’l l bring
And-let’s add:
tjlb that she bring b et-jib she brings/she 'll bring

W orth noting: The third person feminine singular form (she) is identical with
the second person masculine form (youm) in both the subjunctive and the
present-future. W e’ll come back to this later.

3. Bring to, say to

In expressions such as bring to..., say to... / tell (somebody)..., the Arabic
preposition 1- / la is used:
id-doktOr the doctor
qGl la-d-doktdr! Tell the doctor!
’immak your mother
qQl la-’immak Tell your mother!

sabca u-ci$itn 27
 Lesson 5

And before the suffixes -i, -ak, -o, etc.,

q u l-li - b aqul-lak Tell m e ! - M tell y o u m
b ajib -lak r i l bring you <to you>...
biddi aq u l-lak 1 want to scty to y o u /to tell you
lazem aq ul-lek I must tellyouf

Note:
When -li, -laic, etc. are added to a verb that ends in a consonant, the
combination o f the two consonants (a q u H a k , jib -li) causes the long vowel
that precedes them to become short -u - —> -u -, -I- —* -i- :
■ baqfll —►b aq u l-lak
(long) (short)
b ijib —► b ijib-lak

4. Go to, travel to
The preposition 1- is used before certain specific words to indicate movement
towards:
’inte cindo You ’re at his house <youTe at him / by him>
rtlb la-cindo Go to his house <go to at him / by him>!
h u w w e hu n ak He's there
ru b la-hunak! Go there <go to there>!

In most cases, however, before a noun, movem ent from place to place is
indicated by the preposition cala / cala (or just ca-) whose basic meaning is on.
And so, in order to say go to (before a noun), we’ll use cala:
h u w w e s a k e n f ib c f e He lives in Haifa.
birflh cala he fa He goes to Haifa.
Or, for a change:
■ h u m m e saknln fi n ab les They live in Nablus.
b iru b u cala rib a They travel to Jericho.
*inta saken fU -l)alTl? Do you live in Hebron?
biddi aru b ca-l-balll I want to go to Hebron.
1-ewlad fU -m a d ra s e The children are at school.
ru h ca-l-m adrase Go to school/the school!
’im m ak fiwl-bet Your mother’s at home / in the house.
flit ca-l-b6t Go <enter> into the house!

28 tam a n y e u -ci§ iln

 Lesson 5

Exercises____________________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. ya M aryam , lf iz e m jjtb i kursi.
2. b iddak ajib k am an ku rsi?
3. la \ mus lazem!
4. ta ca l la-cin(d)-na m ac *ul)tak.
5. cindo sugL enmIh u-kull yOm bijib m a$firi ca-l-b5t.
6. b id d ek ^ trtlh i / m a bid(d)kl-$wetrahi?
7. em bala! biddi arOh m a ^ .
8. ’a n a k a m in biddi ajib m a^ S ri la -’im m i.

B. Complete:
* = necessity, intention: use the subjunctive (without the prefix b-)
** = a fact in the present or future: use the present-future (with the prefix b-)
9. He’s got to get <[it is] necessary that he bring> the doctor.
lazem * id-dokt5r.
ID. Now he gets / he’ll get (bring) the paper.
’fssa ** il-jarlde.
11. He’s got to see the school <[it is necessary that] he see>.
lazem * it-madrase.
12. He wants to go to the neighbors’ <to by the neighbors^
biddo * la-cind il-jiro n .

tisca u-ci§nn 29
 Lesson 5

13. H e’ll go to school tomorrow ctomorrow he’ll go to the school>

b u k ra ** ca-l-m adrase.
14. Why do you want to go there <why do you want that you go to there>?
les8 b id d a l^ * la-hunfik?
15. Do youf want to see your daughter?
b i d d e n * bintek?
16. You’ll see your daughter tomorrow ctomonw you’ll see...>.
bukra9 ** bintek.
C. Translate into Arabic:
17. Yusef, go to your mother / your mother’s!
- Come into the house, Mura (mfima) <oh Mum, enter into....
18. I’ve got to go to school now. Tomorrow I’ll go to school.
19. Do you mmg want to see my daughter? She’s not at home.
20. Maryam, do you want to go to school with us (macna) <with us to the school>?
-N o , I’ll go later.
21. Why? - Because (li’anno) I’m busy.
22. Hey boy, you mustn’t go into the neighbors’ house <it mustn’t [be] that you enter
into the house of the ncighbors>.
23. He’s right! (see page 20).
24. I don’t want to go to school <to the school>. I want to go to Haifa.
25. OK, gomm& to Haifa with your sister <with your sister to Haifa> and bring me
back a newspaper cbring me a newspaper from there>.
26. He mustn’t see <it must not that he see> that on the table.

%A nd th e final exercise:
Read out loud: “I want to see, you want to see.......
■ biddi agflf- biddak^tSaf- biddek^tSQfi - biddo i§Qf
biddl-s aSQf- biddak-gwet§Qf- bi(j(d)kl-§wet§fifi - biddO-s j s u f

If you were chuffing away like a steam bngine when you read the second line,
try repeating the exercise with the verb flit, ju st for a change: biddi afllt or with
the verb jib : biddl-s ajlb.

8. No problem understanding this: 1- + *£§ 15§ {for what - why).

9. This is a new word for us. Now we can say: embCretl, lf-yOm u -b u k ra .

30 talatln
 id-dars is-sades
6
The Sixth Lesson
Today we’re going to complete the paradigm o f the verb in the imperative and
the present-future by adding the plural forms:
■ flitu Come in! / Go in!
t-fu tu that you go in (intention, command)
lfiz e m jn flitu You must go in
bid(d)kom ^^tfH tu1 Do you want to go in?
’issa / halqSt b itfu tu You’ll come / go in now.
lf lz e m jfiltu They must come / go in.
h a lq S t/h a lla q biftltu They’ll come / go in now.

The prefix for I ( I s1 person singular) is a- (as we saw in the previous lesson),
while for we (1st person plural) it is n-:
liizeil^ en -jlb We must bring
b id (d)na_n-jlb We want to bring / We’re going to bring
(= bidna^njlb)
b-enjlb // m-^njlb G We bring*2

L In Galilee people say: bid-kuwtfd tu .

2 Ih Galilee, Lebanon and Syria, people add m-c instead of t>-e before n-.

wflhad u-talatln 31
Lesson 6

Vocabulary
il-quds ('quds) Jerusalem ’Cmta (w inta0) when?
in-n a§ re Nazareth b u k ra tomorrow 4
cam m paternal uncle b a cd / b a ced after
’ab san better zur visit!
qab^l before i-zfir that he visit
qabel-m a before + verb kQn be!
li’an n o (la’inno) because i-kttn that he be
b a tta / casSn so that mfit! die!5
b e ty a r 3 old [man] i-mQt that he die
[b ety ariy y e] d ay m an always

Conversation__________________
- y a MOsa, ’Cmta biddak^etrfib - Musa, when do you want to go
ca-l-q u d s? -1C§? to Jerusalem? - Why?
- li’a n n o bid d i aru b m a cak. - Because I want to go with you.
- ’ah lan w a-sah lan 6 (*ahla u-sahla)! - You’re welcome [to come with me].
barflb b u k ra ’in § a lla 7. I’m going tomorrow, God willing.
biddi a$Qf cam m i hunfik. I want to see my uncle there.
- cam m ak sSken fi-l-quds? - Does your uncle live in Jerusalem?
- ’fi, m in zam iin. d aym an - Yes, for a long time [now]. He always
biqul-li: lazem wetzQr tells me: You’ve got to visit
cam m ak il-^etyfir qabel-m a^im flt. your old uncle before he dies

3. Some people pronounce this word el)ty ar, and, after the definite article il-,
l-eljtyar, like l-ek ta b (see Lesson 4, Explanations 2).
4. bukra does not always mean tomorrow in the narrow sense of the English word;
rather, it means not today. In our text, however, bukra often actually does mean
tomorrow (God willing...).
5. Obviously, this form is rarely used. It is, however, the “basic form” of the verb.
6. When one person expresses a request or intention that depends on the agreement of
another, this formula is used to convey an affirmative response.
7. Literally, i f God wants. In literary Arabic: ’in §fi’ ’allfih. In colloquial Arabic God
(Allah) is pronounced ’alia. In everyday speech in insalla usually means I hope /
Let's hope.

32 tn£n u-talatln
 Lesson 6

- yih! qadd£S cumro? —Oh! How old is he <how-much his age>?

- tis^n8 sane // sine. —Ninety <ninety years>.
- ya salSm! mi$ qafil9! —Wow <oh peace>! That's a good age
<not a little>.
enSalla101ma bimut-$ Let's hope <if God wills> he won’t die
qabel-ma^trQb ca-l-quds. before you go to Jerusalem!
- ca$ftn hek biddi artih bukra. —That's why <because of thus> I want to go
tomorrow.
- tayyeb, bukra m^nrQh sawa. —OK, tomorrow we'll go together.

(They went, and found the uncle in excellent health)

- ta ca l qaw fim , lazem ^enruji —Come quickly, we’ve got to go

<it must that we go>
ca -l-m a b a tta . to the bus stop.
- frh b a ? 11 b a cd w«swayy. There’s a bus soon <after a bit>.
lfizemLenkOn fi foSfa We’ve got to be in Haifa
qab lwis-s3ca tisca, before nine o'clock <before the hour nine>,
u - b a ^ e n barQlj ca-n-nS sre (-ra ) and afterwards I’ll go to Nazareth.
- qaddSs is-seca hallaq? —What time is it <how much is the hour> now?
- sab ca tamfim. —Seven [o’clock] precisely.
- cindna w a q ^ t,12 —We’ve got time.
bidna bass It takes only <we want only>
nu$$ sCca m in hOn la-foefa. half an hour from here to Haifa
- m acale$$. ’ah san wenrQh. ’issa —It doesn’t matter. We should go
<better we go> now

8. Note that the noun being counted here (sane) appears in the singular (in Arabic we
say ninety year, not ninety years). We'll learn the rules for counting soon.
9. qaHl = a little, not a lot. That's very little or That ’s not very much at all -
hflda q a l l l j k t l r
10. See footnote 7.
11. This word is, of course, borrowed from English, but its plural form is very Arabic:
[bd$Gt]. See below Explanations 1, Pronunciation problems.
12. It's hard to say w a q t (w a ’t), and so we add an e sound (as in b in t—►b in e t) and
say w aqet instead. However, w aq t + il = w aq t_ il, e.g., w a q t_ id -d ars (during the
lesson). The same thing happens in the expression w a q tw% tlr (a long time, a lot o f
time) - see p. 15 Explanations 2.

talflte u-talatln (tlfite u-tlatln) 33

 Lesson 6

hatta^nSuf ’iza13 fih bfi§ tfini. so that we can see if there’s another bus.
- tayyeb, bidna^mHh ’issa - OK, let’s go <we*ll go> now,
hattawtkun mabsflt. to please you <so that you’ll be pleased>.

Now we can summarize the subjunctive and present-future verbal forms in the
following tables:

To bring
subj pres-fiit subj pres-fut

7 a-jlb b -a-jlb we n-jlb b-enjTb / m-enjlb

msing
you t-jlb* b-et-jlb* you m/f pl t-jlbu b-et-jlbu
fsing
you t-jlbi b-et-jlbi
he i-jlb b-i-jlb they lWfpl i-jlbu b-i-jlbu

she t-jlb* b-et-jlb*

7 0 * 0 we
If you find
msing
you you this table puzzling,
fsing
you t— i just ignore it!

he 0 0 -u they

she - 0

* * Yes, the forms for youmsmg and she are identical, though the context generally helps to
show which is meant; for example:
■ bariih macak la-cind 'immak 77/ go with you to your mother s [house],
hattajtkun mabsQt “ to plkase you <so that you’ll be pleased °*>.
h atta jk u n mabsuta - to please her <so that she’ll be pleased f>
However, things are not always quite so clear-cut, and you may well hear conversations
like the following:

13. As in English, ’iza is used both jn conditional sentences {if you want =’iza
biddak) and to express a question after a verb: 77/ see if there s [any] money - biddi
aSG f’iza Aft m a$flri.

34 *arbca u-talatln
 (...) 77/ phone to-morrow morning
battajkfln fi-l-b6t. so that you 'll/she 'll be at home.
- m in? hiyye (w illa ’an a )? - Who? Her (or me)?
Or the speaker may take care to be more explicit:
fcatta ’inte tkfln fi-l-bet. so that you ’ll be at home.

Explanations
1. Pronunciation problems
1) First o f all, there is no need to pronounce every doubled consonant that is not
followed by a vowel exactly as written, as in such cases the doubling is not
■always heard For example, you will often hear bidd-na, b id d k o m pronounced
as bidna, b id k o m A similar phenomenon can be observed in the word cindna:
the d is sometimes dropped, and you will hear cin-na instead.
2) Why does the word b im d t (with a long oo sound) become bim ut-S (with a
short u sound) when the negative suffix -3 is added? Perhaps you have already
guessed. As in the case o f qQl —►qul-li, here, too, the vowels I / O shortens
when -s is added: bijlb —> bijib-3. Nonetheless, you will sometimes hear
people say m a bijib-3 (he doesn 7 bring).
3) Note the difference in pronunciation between the words b a s and b a ss (bus
and only; enough! / stop f)
ba§ is pronounced with a long “dark” aah sound produced at the back o f the
mouth (rather like the aah sound we make when we yawn). 5 is like s in
English, but “fuller” and less sibilant.
bass is pronounced with a short “open” a (produced further forward in the
mouth than the aah described above); s is just like the English s , but as it is
doubled here you have to hold it for twice the usual length o f time. Perhaps
the following illustration will help: b fififi§ ( b c x § ) ^ bassss.

2. The subjunctive
The subjunctive mood, which we used after biddi and lflzem, is also used after
’ahsan, q a b el-m a, h a tta and casftn / cala-§£n (in the sense o f in order to / so
that).
’ajisanwetruh q abel-m awtrflh hattaw trflh
You’d better go before you go so that you go
<[it*s] better [that] you go>
Lesson 6

3. T h e tw o d iffe re n t m e a n in g s o f cas3 n b e fo re a v e rb
You will most probably already have noticed that the word ca59n (cala-§9n)
has two meanings:
- in order to / s o that, followed by a verb in the subjunctive.
- because, followed by a verb in the appropriate tense (past or present-future).

cas9n irufo m acak so that he 'll go with you (intention)

ca sa n b iru b ca-l-m ad rase because he goes to school (fact)

4. J e r u s a le m
In Arabic Jerusalem is referred to as “The Holy [City],” i.e., il-quds,
pronounced with either a glottal stop (') or with a throaty back q sound, as in
literary Arabic. You will hear people say il-q u d s / il-quds ( ’u d s) / il-qod^s.

5. T h e v a rio u s m e a n in g s o f kam 9n
We have already seen that kam iin means also /to o /a s well and another
- When kam iin means also or too, it is usually placed after the word it refers
to, as in English:
’an a kam iin I, too / me too
il-yOm kam iin today also / today too
- When kam iin means more or another (in the sense o f “an additional”), it is
usually placed before the word it refers to:
kamftn! more!
kam fln w ab ad another one <an additional one>
k am an m a rra again <an additional time>
kamanwektnb another <an a d d itio n a l book

36
 Lesson 6

Note that kam fln cannot always be used to translate the English word another.
If you want to say another one in the sense o f a different onet you can’t use
kamfln. This will be explained on page 67, E xplanations 3.

Exercises__________________ '________________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. fflt ’inte, ’a n a b afu t bacdfln.
2. il-w alad m a biddfl-S ifut.
3. em bala, b i d d o j f i lt m ac ’ul)to.
4. hallaq b irtth la-cind cam m o ^aUl. b id d ak wetruh ’inte kam fln?
5. la ’, h allaq ’a n a maSgOl / maSgflle, b a rd h b ukra.
6 . 1-ewlfld bid (d )h o m iriibu ca-s-slnam a.
7. ’iza b itru b ’inte, ’ana b a ru b m acak.

B. Complete the sentences

(Replace the English words with the appropriate expression in Arabic):

8. ’iza b is u f hfida, b ik u n m ab su t,
U-’inti, ’iza (your see) hflda, (you’ll be pleased).
9. b u k ra 1-ewlfld bikOnu m absufln li’a n n o m a-ft-S m adrase.
(I, too) bakfln m a b sd t (because there’s no lesson).
10. Y d s e f sflken fi-n-N flsre, u -M ary am (lives in Jerusalem).
11. biddi arflh ca-n -N a$ re u-hiyye bid -h a (to go to Jerusalem).
12. b u k ra b aru b kam fln m a rra . - ta y y e b jib -li (another one).
13. b u k ra lflzem ^enrQh ca-l-m adrase, (and today as well)!

C. Translate into Arabic:

14. You"1don’t have to go <it is not necessary that you go> now. You’ll go tomorrow.
15. We’ve got to leave here <it is necessary [that] we go from here> to please him <so
that [he] will be pleased>.
16. You"1should go and see him now <better you go to at him (....)> because he’s ill.
17/Bring"1 the radio here so that the neighbors don’t get upset <so that the neighbors
will be pleased>.
18. If you"1bring the radio, they'll be pleased.
19. You"1mustn’t bring <it must not be [that] you bring> the book here.

37
Lesson 6

20. He doesn't want to go to Jerusalem <on Jerusalem^ he wants to go with us to

Haifa.
21. Do youm want to go to Nazareth?
22. Yes. My son is at school <in the school> in Nazareth.
23. If he goes in, I’ll go in with him.

This evening, before you go to bed, repeat the following forms out loud:

biddi artih (ma)biddf-s arflh

b id d a ^ e trO b (ma) biddak-s^etruh
biddek^etrfitii (ma) bidkl-§wetriihi
biddo irub (ma) biddO-§wirOh
bidna^enrflh (ma) bidnft-S^enrQh
b id k o n u e triitiu (ma) bidkom-§_etrflhu
bidku^trtlhuG (ma) bidkuswetrubu°
bidhom^irOhu (ma) bidhom-swirOhu
bidhen^irObu0 (ma) bidhen(ne)s iruhu0

You may have noticed that a is not always preceded by a glottal stop ( ’). This is
because the glottal stop weakens and vanishes when it follows a vowel, and so
we have written [biddi ’aiUh -»] b id d i arO b and [u -’ihna—►] u-ibna, etc.
More about this at the end o f this book, p. 110.

38
id-dars is-s3bec
7
The Seventh Lesson
Let’s extend our possibilities further: we have seen that -ak, -ek, -o, -na, etc.,
are i,ised:
After a preposition: cind-ak, min§fln-o, m a ^ n a
After a noun (as a possessive pronoun): ’ibn-ak, bint-o, jirfin -k o m

These suffixes can also be used to express the direct object o f a verb (you, him
us, them). Here are a few examples
bazQ r-ak 1 visit you
bizflr-na He visits us
lazemwetjib-o You must bring him / it
lfizemwetjtb-ha You must bring her / it
bidnawnzflr-hom //-hen We want to visit them
The suffixes used to express a direct object in cases like these have exactly the
same form as the attached pronouns we learned earlier - with one exception!
In the Is* person singular we don’t say b iz u r-i but, instead, b izu r-n i (he visits
me).
ja r - a k bizilr-ak Your neighbor visits you
jfir-i bizUr-ni My neighbor visits me

39
Lesson 7

Vocabulary
’a b ( ’ab b ) father * a $ (’a M ) [ ’i$w e] brother
’a b u father-of ’at)u brother-of
’a b u y my father1 ’a^Qy my brother
qul tell! ’u ^ t [bawflt] sister
zlh move! § am sf sun
bfib door Ion [’alw an] color, shade
zalam e man, guy ’i l l i / i l l i that, which, who, whom
b u s u k le t12 bicycle b o rra outside, outdoors
’inn / ’in n o 3 that (conjunction) ju w w a inside, indoors
’a z ra q blue m u ^ tfir [m aljatlr] village headman, mukhtar
’a h m a r red ja m b / tm dd next to, beside
’a b y a d white m a tb a b kitchen
’ay y a / ’ay y which? (used before a noun)
’ay y a w a b a d 4 which one m u fla b [m afatlh ] key

Conversation_______________
- il-m ul}tSr b iddo i§ufek. —The mukhtar wants to see you.
- u -an a kam fln biddi aSflfo. —And I want to see him, too.
- ’iza hek, lazem ^etzO ro. —If so <if thus>, you'll have to pay him a visit
<it is necessary that you visit him>.
- ’a h san inno3 hfi iztir-ni —It would be better if he came to see me
<better that he visit me>!
d ay m an b iq u l: biddi a z u rk o m He’s always saying “I want to visit you
fib e t-k o m l-ejdld. in your new house."
- hek^em nih: b iru h lacind in-nfls —Good idea <thus [is] good>! He'll go to [see]
u-bizQ r-hom [fi byiit-hom ]. people, and visit them [in their homes].
- h ek lftzem! —That’s the way it should be
<thus [it is] necessary>.

1. This will be explained later.

2. In Jerusalem you'll hear baskal&t. In Galilee busuklSt is generally feminine.
3. Used after a verb (He says that...\ or in expressions like It's best that....
It's important that... See the Conversation and Explanations 3.
4. Note that the Arabic expression here is exactly the same as the English.

40 ’arbcIn
 Lesson 7

-y a N a $ e r! —Nasser!
~ §Q fib ya m a m a ? —What is it, Mum <what is there>?
- sQ lfin l-ek ta b illi ca-t-ta w le ? —What color is the book that's on the table?
<what [is] color-of thebook...>?
- ’a y y a k ta b biddek? fib w aftad —Which book do you want? There's
’a h m a r u-fib w afrad ’azraq . a red one <one red> and there's a blue one.
’ayya w afrad biddek? Which one do you want?
- miS hadol; 1-ektflb illi h ad d —Not those. The book that’s next to
id-daf&ter (jam b id-daf&ter). the exercise books.
tono ’a b y a d , m us hek? It's white <its color [is] white>, isn’t it?
jlb o u -zlh il-burdfty can Bring it and draw back the curtain from
i$-sUbbak the window <move the curtain from ...>
^a^en^uL cSw ayy. so that we can see a bit
- la ’, fib §am swek tl r il-yOm —No, it's very sunny
<there*s a lot of sun> today,
bidcU-S azlh il-burdfiy. I don’t want to open <move> the curtain.
- em bala, zlh-ha5 Swayy! —Come on <yes you dO>, open it
<move it> a bit.

- biddi a q u l-la k ’isi. - I want to tell you something.

- tfad d al. - Go ahead! <please [do]>.
- la-m ln il-busuklCt - Whose bicycle is that <to-whom [is] the
illi b a rr a ja m b il-bab? bicycle that > [is] outside beside the door?
- h a d a la-’aljfly. - It’s my brother’s <that [is] to-my-brother>

5. zlh-ha is usually pronounced zfy{ia (the h is assimilated into the h).

wflljad u -arb cTn 41

Lesson 7

- qul-lo: mis l&zem ikQn h5k —Tell him it shouldn't be outside

b a r r a fi-s-sam s. <it must not be> in the sun like that.
- tay y eb , b aqul-lo. sfi k am an ? —OK, I'll tell him. What next <what also>?
fth ’i$i ta n i? Is there anything else <another thing>?
- ’a yw a, q u l-li w 6n m u ftab —Yes. Tell me where the house key is. Haven’t
il-bat, mu§ m acak? you got it <[is it] not with you>?
- la ’, mu§ m a ci. —No, I haven’t got it
- m ac m in bikQn hal-m u ftab ? —Who’s got that key <with whom will be...>?
- ’ab u y b iq u l innowl-m uftab —My father says that the key’s
cind il-jira n fi-l-m atbal). at the neighbors' [house], in the kitchen.
- tay y eb , rflh jlb o q aw a m . —Fine, go and get it straight away,
u-bacd€n flit la-juw w a. then <and afterwards> come indoors!

- h az-zalam e cindo u la d wek tlr: —This man has a lot of <many> children:
’arb ac u la d u-^am «s b an at.6 four boys and five girls.
- h ad a M u n ir, wafcad m in - This is Munir, one of his children.
ew lado.
h al-w alad cindo ’il)we u -^aw at: This boy has brothers and sisters.
hadam nlb; cindo That’s good! He’s got
ta la t ’ttjw e u-^am ^s ^ aw at. three brothers and five sisters.
birQh ca-l-m ad rase m ac ^ a w a to He goes to school with his sisters
k u ll y am es-suboh, every day in the morning.
u-ab fl-hom birflh ca-§-§ugol And their father goes to work with his
m ac ew lad o l-ek b a r .7 older <big> children.
- 1-ckbfir m a b iru h u -s ca-l-m adraj ? — Don’t the older children go to school
<the big [ones] don’t go to the school> ?
- la ’, biriitiu m a0*) ca-s-sug<>l. —No, they go with him to work.
- biddi aru b azur-hom , —I want to go and visit them.
m a b id d ak -s^etsu f-h o m 'Don’t you want to see them too
’inte (-ta) k am an ? • <you don’t want to see them you also>?
™em bala, barOh m acek. —Of course I do. I'll go with you.
- ’iza hek, ’a n a k am an barflh —If that’s the case <if thus>, I'll go
m a ckom . with you, too.
- tfa d d a l. —Please do!

6. We’ll discuss what happens when a number is followed by a noun, very soon.
7. This is the plural form of k b lr.

42
 Lesson 7

Explanations

1 .1 have / I ’ve got (here with me; at home)

Take care to distinguish between:
cindak muftah? Have you got a key (somewhere or other)?
macak muftsb? Have you got a key
(on you at the moment: in your pocket, in your hand)?
il-muftflh macak? Have you got the key ( with you / in your pocket, etc.)?

2. You will see; she will see

As we have already pointed out (in Lesson 5, E xplanations 3), the Arabic form
betSflf indicates both the 2nd person masculine singular (youm8,1,8 see / will see)
and the 3rd person feminine singular {she sees /w ill see).
lazem ^etzU r ’im m ak You must visit your mother
or She must visit your mother
The sentence above is, therefore, ambiguous, and it is only the context that tells
us whether to understand it as meaning you m ust...... or she m ust........ If we
need to make things unambiguously clear, we can add the personal pronoun
before or after the verb:
'iza betSQfo ’inte Ifyouseehim...
’iza hiyye b^Sflfo i f she sees him...3

3. illi - that, who / in n o -th at

According to the V ocabulary list on page 40, the English word that translates
into Arabic as both inno and illi, according to meaning and context:
When that means which {the thing that...), we use the Arabic word illi;
Note that illi also means who in sentences like the man who brings milk
every day (see below).
When that is used as a conjunction (in expressions like he said that... or he
knows that...) the Arabic word inno is used.
A few examples will help to illustrate this:
iz-zalame illi bijib batlb kull ydm The man who brings milk every day
biqQl inno ma fi-§§ habb il-y5m. says that there is no milk today.
biqul innow1-muftab mis hon He says that the key isn 7 here
biddo^l-muftah illi fi-l-tjazSne He wants the key that’s in the cupboard

43
 Lesson 7

Exercises_________________________________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. la-m ln hal-ektflb?
2. il-m uftafr m us m a ^ .
3. §Q f! il-muft&h calawl-bab.
4. il-kursi ja m b i§-§ubbflk.
5. w €n baw fltak? - hum m e fi-l-m atbal).
6. b id d i a § flf’uljtak l-ek blre q a b lwis-sCca ca$ora.
7. cin d i su g °l m insfln-ha.
8. ta y y eb , b aq u l-lh a ( pronounce: b aqulha).
9. m a fih §am s il-yOm.
10. §fi ton il-bfi$? - ’ay y a b d s? fib bfi$ ’a h m a r u-fib b a § ’a z ra q .
11. zlh (move!) can iS-Subbftk, bid d i a § u f is-sam s.

B. Complete the sentences

(Replace the English words with the appropriate expression in Arabic):
12. §Q (the color of) il-bab?
13. SU ton (the door of the house)?
14. jib -li ja n d e (before) trflh.
15. (When) biddak^etrO h (to school)?
16. He can’t (not possible) irub h alla q (there’s no bus).

C. Translate into Arabic:

' 17. There’s a man here, he wants to see youf.
18. What does he want from me (m inni), this man?
19. He says that you’ve got the school key (on you / in your pocket).
20. T hat’s not true, the key’s on the table jn the kitchen.
21. The table that’s in the kitchen........
22. The chair’s outside in the sun.
23. The chairs at the school <that [are] in the school>.
24. Bring the newspapers that are on the table!
25. See if the bicycle is indoors or outdoors (or = w illa).
26. T hat’s enough. This lesson has tired me out <I’m tired from this lessons.

44
 Lesson 7

W h a t a b o u t th e “ s u n le tte r s ” ? (An additional exercise)

When does the -1 o f the definite article il- change into the first letter o f the word
that follows it? Take another look at Lesson 2, Explanations 1, then do the
following exercise: put the definite article il- in front o f the following words
that we have learned in lessons 1-7.

27. kursi ma$Gri towle flkra

28. mould daftar madrase nfls
29. zalame matbal) sCca dar

45
 id-dars it-tamen
--------------------------------------------------- 8
The Eighth Lesson
Now w e’re going to leave verbs o f the s u f / j i b type behind for a while and
take a look at the verb k a ta b (he w rote) in order to learn the p ast tense.
Y Ilsef k a ta b m ak tu b Yusef wrote a letter
k atab -t, ya Y flsef? What did you write, Yusef?
k atab -t il-m aktflb I wrote the letter.

§U katab-ti, ya M ary am ? What did you write, Maryam?

k atab -t id-dars. I wrote the lesson

Two com m ents:

The 1st person of the verb (I), has the same form as its 2nd person masculine,
(youm), and both are created by adding a -t to the 3rd person masculine singular
form o f the past tense: ( ’ana) k ata b -t = ( ’inte) k a ta b - t....
- Note that when this -t is added, the stress moves from the first syllable o f the
word to the second:
k a -ta b + -t —►k a -ta b -t
Here is the complete paradigm o f the verb in the past tense:
k a ta b -t o r k a ta b -t 1 I wrote k a ta b he wrote
k a ta b -t o r k a ta b -t 1 youm wrote
k atab -ti your wrote k a tb -a t she wrote
k atab -n a we wrote
k atab -tu you k a ta b u they wrote

* Note that in the paradigm above all the 3 rd person forms (he, she and they) are
arranged in a separate column, as, in the past tense, they all have som ething in
com m on that sets them apart from the 1st and 2nd persons; this “something” is
the position o f the stressed syllable:
In all the 3rd person forms (he, she, they) the stress falls on the first syllable
In all the other forms in this paradigm, the stress falls on the syllable ju st
before the suffix (-t, -ti, -na, -tu).

1. In accordance with the same rule that applies to bin t / binet. See Explanations 2
on page IS.

46
 Lesson 8

In th e p ast tense o f all the verbs the 3rd person will always differ in
some way from the 1st and the 2 persons

Vocabulary
b- with, by means of t«tlab he asked for / requested
mac with, together with2 ’al)ad he took / received / got
tfl§e fight, brawl <Jarab he hit / struck / beat
maraq he passed by maljzan [maljflzen] storeroom
tarak he left / abandoned jumca [jumac] week
qatal he killed ’usbflc [’asabf1] week
sa’al he asked (a question) j5z husband
miskln (maskln) [masakln] poor (in both senses: both unfortunate and hard up)
sakat he kept quiet / fell silent / said nothing / shut up
mawjfld present, in (as in he's in at the moment).

C o n v e rsa tio n
- ’im m i ’issa mawjQde fi - My mother’s in America at the moment
<my mother now [is] present in America>
i
’America, k a tb a t m aktflb m in She wrote a letter from there
hunfik qabel ju m ca, a week ago <before a week>,
u-al)ad-nawl-m aktflb and we got the letter this morning
il-yflm i$-$ub<>b-3 <today the moming>.
- ’an a kam fin katab^t maktflb. - I’ve written a letter, too
- k lf k a ta b t jl-m a k tflb ? - How did you write the letter
<how you wrote the letter>?
cal-m flkina w illa bil-qalam ? On the typewriter <on the maehine>
or with a pen?

2. Unlike English, Arabic distinguishes between b- (with in the sense of by means of)
and m ac (with in the sense of together with). In Arabic no one cuts with a knife, only by
means o f a knife.
3. $ub°h / §ubeh is the usual word for morning. The word*§abdb is used in
greetings such as §ab<£b in-nflr

47
Lesson 8

- b-il-qalam, ma cindl-s - With a pen. I haven’t got

mfikina (makana). a typewriter.

- Su ha$-$yfiti, §u —What’s all that shouting? What’s the

hat-tO§e, §Q fih b a rra ? fuss about <that brawl>, what’s happening
outside <what is there outside>?
- il-ew lfid d a r a b u ... y acn i . .. —The children hit... I mean <it means>...
- d o ra b u m in? —Whom did they hit <they hit whom>?
ru h sflf, Go and see <go see>,
u -b acd£n qul-li. then <afterwards> tell me.
(He comes back:)
- Y o s e f d a ra b ’uljto M ary am ? —Did Yusef hit his sister Maryam?
- la ’, h i d a rb a t *al)tt-ha ;4 —No, she hit her brother;
’an a s a ’a lt il-b in t... I asked the girl...
- h f i , s a ’alt-h a? —Ah, did you ask her?
- ’ayw a, sa ’alt: lfis d a ra b ti —Yes, I asked, "Why did you hit Yusef,"
YQsef, bass hiyye sak tat. but she said nothing.
- hfi, hfida dalrl inno —Aha, that’s proof < a sign> that it was her
hiyye illi ( h iy y e j li ) d«rbato. who hit him <that she [was] who hit him>.
- ma?bOt! —Exactly!

4. We are already familiar with the forms ’afju- (brother-of) and ’aljfly (my brother).

48
 fib h5n zalam e. —There’s a man here.
- min huwwe? §Q biddo? —Who [is] he? What does Jie want?
- hflda^z-zalam e illi (a la b —This is the man who asked for
il-m uftflh cmbCreh. the key yesterday.
- *ayya m u ftah ? —Which key?
- m uftah il-m al)zan. —The key to the storeroom <key-of the st>.
• ha, §u biddowl-y6m? —Ah! What does he want today?
- m araq fi-S-sarec —He was passing by in the street,
u-im m i kam fin m arq at and my mother was going along
fi n afs 5 is-§arec <passingbyin> the same street,
u-huw w e s a ’al k lf hftlak and he asked how you were6 and where
u-wCnak. s a ’al ’iza ’in te fi-l-bet. you were. He asked if you were at home.
- sa ’alto Su b iddo? —Did you ask him what he wanted <wants>?
- ’a , s a ’alto . —Yes, I did <ye$ I asked him>.
- to la b m in n ak ’i§i? —Did he ask you for anything <from you
la ’, w a la ’isi. a thing>? - No, nothing <no thing>.

- id-dokt5r biqQ l inno - The doctor says that his neighbor

j a r o q a ta l b a lo .5 has killed himself.
- le § ? -W h y ?
- ca§an m o ra to 7 tarkato. - Because his wife has left him.
- bass h u w w ewlli ta ra k m o ra to - But he’s [the one] who left his wife
u -ta ra k ’ew lado. and cleft his> children.

5. See below, Explanations 2.

6. Note that while in English we have to say He asked how you were, in'Arabic you
must say He asked how you are <he asked how [is] your conditions
7. j5 z - husband and m o ra = woman; wife. My wife in Arabic is m orati.
What’s the -t- doing here? You’ll get a full answer in Lesson 21.

49
 Lesson 8

- la*, hiyye J l i tark at —No, she’s the one who abandoned

’ew lad -h a u-joz-ha. her children and her husband.
u -s a ’alt-ha: l£S tarak ti And I asked her, “Why did you leave
jftzek w -ew lad ek ? your husband and your children?”
saktat. She said nothing.
- m askln (m iskln) haz-zalam e! —Poor man <poor, that man>!
’a lia yirframo! God rest his soul <[may] God pity him>!

E x p la n a tio n s

1. S tre ss
Have you noticed that, in all the verbs taught in this lesson, the stress moves
from the first syllable to the second?
s a ’al -> sa ’al-t tfarab —►cjarabti ta ra k —►tarak ti
Listen to the recording again, and pay special attention to these changes.
That’ll do for today. W e’ll explain things at length in Lesson 14.

2. “ M y self” ; “ th e sa m e ”
Now let’s go back and take another look at some o f the things w e’ve discovered
today:
1. The word frill, which means condition / situation (k lf fralak?), is also used to
form the expressions m yself, y o u rse lf etc. q a ta l frllo = he killed h im self It
likewise appears in the expression la-frilli, which means by m yself /o n m y own.
\ Here are some examples:
I wrote it m yself/ by m yself/ on m y own k atab to la-hflli
D id yo u maQg w rite the letter yourself? k a ta b t il-m aktQb la-frfilak?
I go in by m yself b a fh t la-fr&li
GoUin&on yo u r own! rGfri la-frfllek
Take care to pronounce the fr- sound properly (i.e., not like the ch in the word
loch). If you don’t get it right, people will think you’re talking about your
maternal uncle (fr&l)!

2. The word nafs. which means souly can likewise be used to form the
expressions m yself yo u rse lf b-n afso means by him self When placed before a
noun, however, n afs means [the] sam e.

50 framsfn
 in the sam e house fi nafs il-bet
the sam e key oafs il-muftah
in the sam e color b-nafs il-lon
the sam e thing nafs i§-§!8

Exercises_______________________________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. h ad a n afs il-m uftab
2 . h ad aw2-zalam e illi k a ta b ii-m aktflb.
3. w 5n il-w alad illi d « ra b a k ?
4. b ifd t cala b€t il-jirfin.
5. h a l-m a ra bitrflb cala_ s-sln am a m ac jOz-ha.
6 . m isklne, ’im m i sak n e h u n a k la-hal-ha.
7. lazem ^etzO r-ha kull ydm .
8. ’aljity mu$ m aw jfld, ta ra k il-b tt il-yOm i$-$uboh.
B. Complete the sentences
(Replace the English words with the appropriate expression in Arabic):
9. ’ihna saknln (in the same house).
10. il-yflm k a m 8 n k atab (the same letter).
11. ’inti k a ta b tU -m a k tflb (yourselffs,ng)?
12. ’inte k a ta b t il-m aktO b (yourself1" 5,08)?
13. ’a y w a ,’a n a k atab to (myself).
14. ’an a ta lo b e t d a fta r ’az ra q u -h u w w e ta la b (the same thing).
15. y a cni, (the same exercise book in the same color).
16. ’im m i (asked for) m a$ o ri m i n ’abOy.
17. biddo irflh cala fiefa u-izGr cak k a 9 (on the same day).

C Translate into Arabic:

18. He asked my mother, and my mother asked10 my father.

8. The Arabic for thing is Si (§ay’ in literary Arabic) or ’i§L With the definite article
we say is-§I or il-’iSi. h ad a n afs i$-§I = That's the same thing.
9. The town of Acre (Acco).
10. She asked = sa’alat or sa’lat (’ represents a glottal stop - i.e., a sudden pause in
speech).

wShad u-bamsln 51
Lesson 8

19. She asked him, but he said nothing.

20. He asked my sister if there was milk in the kitchen <if there is milk >.
21.1 asked the boy: “How old are you <how much is your age>?”
22. Our neighbor hit his son.
23. We asked our neighbor why he had hit <why he hit> his son.
24. Yesterday youpl passed by our house.
25. [That’s] right <true>, we passed by in the street and asked where you lived <where
you live>.
26. What color is the door of the house <[the] color [of the] door-of the house>?

You can do this exercise in writing, but it’s a good idea to compare the result with the
Key to the Exercises on page 117, then read the correct translation out loud.

Just to satisfy your curiosity

You are probably already asking yourselves why some verbs are written with an a,
while others are written with an a (sa k a t —ta la b ). The answer is simple: because of
the type of consonants they contain (and this applies to all words, not just verbs).
“Emphatic” or “dark” consonants such as s, (1* t and z, and sometimes r, too, affect the
sound of the nearby vowels and “require” a “dark” back a sound (see Vowels, p. [12]).
In other words, sak at and ta la b are not two different types o f verb: it is merely the
presence of the t- that turns the two a-s into a-s. If you go back and look over all the
words we’ve learned so far, you’ll see that this is a generalized phenomenon. See, for
example:
w alad as opposed to m a r a b ik a ffi as opposed to ta y y e b
bflb as opposed to d a r sflken as opposed to sfiter
'■juwwa as opposed to b a r r a

And, of course, there are also exceptions that have to be remembered individually:
q a w a m 11(quickly /straight away), b fib a ((faddy / papa), m fim a (mummy / mommy
/m am a) and, most important of all, ’a llfih Of ’a lia (God).

11. You may also hear qaw am .

52
id-dars it-tasec
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9
The Ninth Lesson
Here are a few more sentences and exercises using the same verbs, before we
move on to new material.

Vocabulary
hada' / hadd anyone, anybody b a rb war
m a-h ad a nobody, no one sa la m peace
m a-hada-§ / m a-hadd-§ nobody ca q l / caqcl mind, sense, intelligence
m aw dflc subject, topic mas** Egypt
daqTqa [daqflyeq] minute m a$ ri Egyptian
da!)al he went in / entered yim k en perhaps
il-cftlam the world sa cb / $ a ceb (a) people
d afac he paid / made [someone] do [something] / pushed [someone]
qahw e coffee; cafiS, coffee house

Conversation________________________________________________
F i-l-qahw e In the cafe
This conversation would appear to have taken place before 1973. Mr. Haddad - Yusef
and Maryam's father - and Dr. Elias are sitting in a coffee house. The waiter, who has
forgotten what they ordered, comes back to inquire:

- §fi ta la b tu ? —What did you order?

- ’ana ta lo b ^ t b lra —I ordered a beer,
w -il-’u sta z 12 ta la b qah w e, and this gentleman ordered coffee,
u -ta la b n a kam fin k a c«k .3 and we also ordered cakes.
- hallaq bajlb il-kull, —I’ll bring everything right away.
bass d aq lq a / bass J^dqlqa. Just a minute.

1. This word is usually used in a question: Has anyone come? /D idyou see anyone? or
in a conditional sentence (If anyone asks you...).
2. 'UStflZ is an honorific title used to address a teacher, a university lecturer, a doctor
or any other highly-educated male.
3. Also bagels and other baked goods.

53
 Lesson 9

- y a ’ustfiz E ly as, —Dr Elias <oh professor Elias>,

Su biqOlu fi-r-rfidyo? what are they saying on the radio?
- ya sldi, m os^r bid-ha h a rb . —Sir, Egypt wants war.
- l a ’, l a ’, miS m um ken! —No, no, [that’s] impossible!
- em bala, riisya —It’s perfectly possible <yes it is>. Russia
d a £ a t m aser la-i-barb. has pushed Egypt towards war.
- ya zalam e, w en caqlak 4? —[Come on], man, where’s your
[common] sense?
m us m a ^ u l 4 hflda! It doesn’t make sense
<not logical, that [thing]>!
rflsya (m a) bidhfl-s b a rb . Russia doesn’t want war.
- ’an a muS m acak —I don’t agree with you <l*m not with you>
fi hal-maw<j[flc. on this topic.
- iS-Sacb il-m a§ri m fi-biddo b arb . —The Egyptian people don’t
<doesn*t> want war.
il-yOm ma-hadfl-S / m a-badd-s Today nobody in the world wants war.
bidd o b « rb fi-l-cfllam.
kull w S bad biddo salam ! Everyone wants peace!
- y acn i ... yim ken m a cak h aqq. —Well, perhaps you’re right <it is possible
[that] there is with you rightness>.
ca la k u ll b * l lUzem^enrflb. In any case, we’ve got to go.
y a lla ,5 b -l)ate r-k o m .6 Let’s go! See you later.

' 4. It's not difficult to pronounce caqlak: first you say ca-, then you pause, then you say
lak with a descending intonation. The word macqul is from the same root (c-q-l). For
more about the Arabic root, see p.61.
5. ya ’allah = Oh God! This is an appeal for help in times of effort, and the shortened
form yalla, by extension, means Come on! / Let's get going! / Heave-ho! Listen
carefully to the recording and you will notice that the 11- is pronounced in an
“emphatic” manner and is “dark” like the Russian /- of balalaika or the -ll of the
English word a ll As a result the a sounds are also “dark.”

6. See Explanations 1, below.

54
 Lesson 9

The waiter:
- d afactu b aq q 7 il-blra - Have you paid for <have you paid the
w -il-q ah w e? price-of > the beer and the coffee?
ma-hadfl-$ d a fa c ! No one’s paid!
- em bala, ’an a d afac«t! - Yes [we have], I’ve paid!
- ’a h , m azbQ t. - Ah, right....

They leave
- emrnh illi8 tarak n a - It’s a good thing we dropped the subject
maw<Jfic il-tiarb. of war <good that we left.. .>
- ’ayw a. {ayyeb, b-I)atrak 9 - Yes. Well, see you soon
ya ’ab u Y Qsef .10 Abu Yusef.
- m ac is-salflm e .9 - Goodbye.

7. Apart from justice, truth, right, h aq q also means price (i.e., the right to the beer
once you’ve paid for it), and so hftda, §U fraqqo? means How much is it <that, what is
its price>?
8. In expressions of satisfaction, happiness, contentment and other emotions (It’s good
that / I'm happy that / I t’s a pity that, etc.) the word that is expressed by illi (not
inno): I'm glad that it's you who paid! translates into Arabic as ’an a m absQ t illi
d afactu ’intu! <I’m glad that you paid, you!>.
9. See below, Explanations 1.
10. See below Explanations 2.

55
 Lesson 9

- embfireh m a ra ti dal)lat —Yesterday my wife went

ca-s-su p erm ark et into the supermarket
u-sa’lat qaddeS taqq il-fraHb. and asked how much the milk cost
<how much [is] the price of the miik>.
u-bacdCn d a F a t u-al)dat il-tialib Then <and afterwards> she paid and took
la-cind ’im m i. the milk to my mother's.
- 16$, il-tiaUb mu$ ca$Sn-ku? —Why? Wasn’t the milk for you
<the milk [is] not for you>?
- la ’, ’im m i ta lb a t m in m a ra ti —No. My mother [had] asked my wife
inn-hawtjTb tialtb u-fjubez. to bring milk and bread.

Explanations
1. See you soon / Au revoir!
b -^fitr-ak means with your perm ission - in other words: perm it m e to take my
leave o f yo u . This is what you say when you leave a place and say goodbye to
your friend and / or host. When addressing a woman or girl you say b-fjd(rek.
The proper response to this leave-taking formula is m ac is-salfim e, which
means [go] in peace <with peace / safety / health>.

The word t)dter means desire / inclination. When the possessive pronoun -ak or
-ek is attached to it, the vowel -e- is dropped. Before the attached pronoun
-ku / -kom , however, the -e- is retained, and this actually becomes the stressed
syllable (w e’ll see why later on). When we take our leave o f more than one
person, we say b-f)ater-kom !
\
When you leave, you say:

and your friend replies:

56
 But if he/she speaks first and says

you reply:
’a lia isallm ak, o r -
<God preserve you>
which will be explained later

2. Abu Yusef
It is customary to address a father by the name o f his eldest son - ’ab u Y u s e f
<father-of Yusef>, ’abu ’A bm ad etc., even if this son is not the firstborn child,
i.e., if he has an elder sister or sisters - and even if he has not yet been bom!
When a son is bom, he'll be given the name that has been “waiting” for him. In
the same way, the mother is referred to as *imm Y llsef.

3. Numbers
It’s time to talk about the numbers in Arabic.
Here is the list o f the cardinal numbers {one, two, three) and ordinal numbers
(first, second, third) from 1 to 10.

■1 w ahed/w fthad first ’aw w al

2 tnCn/tenCn second tfini
3 talfite / tlflte third ta le t
4 ’a rb ca / ’arb a ca fourth rfib e c
5 fyamse fifth l)fimes
6 sitte sixth slides
7 sab ca seventh sa|>ec
8 tam Snye / tm ftnye eighth tart\en
9 tisca ninth tflsec
10 caS ara tenth cft§er
 Lesson 9

Don’t forget to read out the page number each time you start a new page. From
page 35 onwards we have indicated only the “tens” (ithirty, fo rty, fifty , etc.), as
you can work out for yourself how to say 43, 57, 79, etc. We have already
explained on page 23 that in Arabic we say one and tw enty, and so, similarly,
we say three and fo rty, seven and fifty and nine and seventy. In the future you
will be able to do a new exercise: you can open the book at random, look at the
page number, and say the Arabic number out loud.

We have already come across expressions such as ’arb a c ulad, tjam es ban&t,
in which the numbers take a different form from those in the table above. What
is the rule?
- Numbers between 3 and 10 lose their final syllable when they come
before the noun that is being counted; the noun itself is in the plural
Read out loud:
■3 tal&te ta la t k a ra s i three chairs
4 ’arb (a)ca ’arb a c m afatlh fo u r keys
5 Ijam se ijames daqSyeq five minutes
6 sitte sitt kutob six books
7 sa b ca sab** banfit seven girls
8 tam finye tam an ’il)we eight brothers
9 tisca t i s ^ / tisaC ulfid nine children
10 ca§ a ra ca§er l)awfit ten sisters

’iza wflhad cindo tisec u lad, kull w a la d cindo tam an ’iljwe.

If someone has nine sons, each child has eight brothers.

'You will have noticed that each o f these numbers is “shortened” For example,
talat (or tlat / talt) and tam an have lost their long syllable, while the numbers
5, 7, 9 and 10, which are “officially” l)am s, sa b c, tisc and casr, have acquired
an extra e like that of bin t -♦ b in ^ . But now let’s see how this works in “real
life.” Read the third column out loud once more - u-bikaffi!

We’ve dealt with the numbers 3-10. What about 1 and 2?

-T h e number one is used after the noun when you want emphasize that a single
person / object is under discussion: walad wahad = one hoy (and no more than
one). This number has a feminine form, too: one g irl - b int wahde / wafrade.

58
 Lesson 9

- The number two, when it stands alone (i.e., without an accompanying noun)
also has a masculine form (tnSn, tenSn) and a feminine form (tintCn).
- But what happens when the number 2 is accompanied by a noun: 2 boys, 2
girls, 2 books, etc? In this case we use the d u a l form in Arabic, which is formed
by adding -£n to the noun:
2 boys waladen 2 girls bintCn
2 books ktab€n 2 buses ba$Sn

O ne final im p o rtan t com m ent:

Please note: any noun that follows a number between 11 and 99 will always be
in the singular. This is not as strange as it sounds: in certain dialects o f
English, too, we still hear expressions such as nigh on fo rty year. In Arabic we
say ’a rb a c daffcter (four exercise books) but *arbac u -cisfln d a fta r (tw enty-
fo u r exercise books).
So how do you say thirty childrenl That’s right, talatln w alad. As for what
happens from 100 onwards, we’ll learn about that when we reach page 107.

4. The feminine ending

Here is the explanation we promised in one o f the previous lessons, ju st to
satisfy your curiosity:
Although most words in the feminine end in -e, some end in -a / -a. When does
this happen? W hen the final consonant before the suffix is ‘‘dark” or emphatic
(the emphatic consonants are 4 , t> $> ?)> or if it is a consonant produced far back
in the throat: c, g, b, b and, in some circumstances, r, too. To illustrate this,
let's take a look at the numbers from 3 to 10:
talflte ’a rb ca* I)am se sitte sa b ca* tam finye tisca* ca$ ara* *

* back of the throat ** -r-

Now you can go back and look at all the words we’ve learned since the first
lesson, and you’ll understand, for example, why we say ta cbfine and
mabsOtot.11

11. In the villages around Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip there is a tendency to pronounce
the ending -e as -a. Some people there say m adrasa, while others say m adrase.
Nonetheless, you would do well to learn to pronounce these words as recommended in
this book.

59
 Lesson 9

R em inder! You don’t need to remember these linguistic explanations. While

it’s important that you u n derstand the explanations, you don’t have to learn
them o ff by heart. With time you’ll learn the rules simply by constantly
applying them.

Exercises_______________________________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. cindi w aladen: w alad u -b in n .
2. il-w alad, qaddSS cum ro ? - sa n e u-nu$$.
3. w -il-bint, qaddSS cum er-ha?
4. Ijam sjssn ln .
5. m araq m in h5n qab^l sCca.
6 . ’im m i miS m aw jflde; b iddak^ etS U f’abtly?
7. fih h ad a b o rra ?
8 . ’ihna saknln fi n a fswil-bet.
9. ta ra k il-busuklet (baskalet) ja m b il-m atjzan.

B. Complete the sentences

(Replace the English words with the appropriate expression in Arabic):
10. [Did] h ad a (ask)m innak il-m uftflh?
11. la ’, (no one) ta la b m inni ’iSi.
12. [Did] j a m a (ask you) w £n ’abOk? - la ’, (he asked) ’im m i.
13. (we asked) il-mul)tfir (if there [was] <is> a) bas. qdl: md-fib.
' 14. ’es (did youpl ask) m inni (yesterday)?
15. biqOl (that you are)12 ’ib n ^ il-m u tjtd r.
16. hSda 1-ektab, (how much does it cost <[is] its price>)?

C. Translate into Arabic:

17. The bus has just gone by <now went by the bus>.
18. No one has been by <has passed by from> here.
19. Who wrote this letter?

12. The English conjunction that = inno, or inn- with the addition of the attached
pronouns - i, -ak, etc., depending on the subject of the sentence:
He says that yo u ’re hard-working / bright = biqfll inno ’inte Setter / b iq u l inn-ak
sfiter. I t’s best that she go on her own = ’ahsan inn-ha trflh la-hill-ha.

60 sittln
 Lesson 9

20. No one wrote to my father.

21.1 asked him for money <1 asked from him money>. He asked her for money.
22. Do you want coffee?
23.1 don’t want coffee now <now I don’t want.. ..>,
I’ve got to go <it’s necessary that I go>.
2,4- That man’s got a lot of sense <this man, his mind is big>.
25. He always says, “We don’t want shouting <shouts> or <and> a fight.”
26. We want peace here and all over the world <in all the world>.

If you can’t say all this, don’t worry! Compare your attempts with the Key to the
Exercises on page 118.

T h e A ra b ic R o o t
You will almost certainly have noticed that the words k atab , m ak tu b and ktSb
all have something in common: the letters k-t-b, which constitute the ro o t
shared by all three o f them. In Arabic, roots consist o f three (or, less often, four)
consonants that serve as a form o f “scaffolding” for the vowels inserted among
them to create the various word patterns. Vowels do not usually form part o f the
root. For example, the plural o f k tab is [kutob] - the vowels change, but the
root remains the same.
We'll make do with this simple explanation for the time being - more later!

wfihad u -s ittln 61
 id-dars il-ca§er
-------------------------------------------------------------- 10
The Tenth Lesson
Let’s hope you haven’t forgotten our old friends sQf, jib , rGfo, kGn and zGr, as
the time has come to take a look at what happens to them in the p ast tense. As
with the conjugation o f all verbs in Arabic, here, too, we add the now-familiar
endings:
1st/ 2nd person - - t - - t --ti --n a --tu
3rd person - - — at — u

These are exactly the same endings that we used with the verb katab. But let’s
see, first o f all, what happens in the 3rd person:

■ Present Y G sef bizGr il-jir&n k u ll yOm Yusef visits the neigbors every day
Past Y G sef z a r ’im m o q a b el s€ca Yusef visited his mother an hour ago.
m a r a ti z a r a t ’um m i ( ’im m i) My wife visited my mother.

We can see that that zQ- has turned into z a - .

In the same way, rOh (go!) —> rfih (he went)
and jib (bring!) j i b (he brought)

What happens in the Ist and 2nd persons?

■ ya M ary am , z u r-ti jira n e k ? Maryam, did you visit your neighbors?
’ay w a, z u r- e tjira n i Yes, I visited my neighbors.
ya u la d , §uf-tu ’abu Y G sef? Hey kids, haveyoif* seen Abu Yusef?
n a cam , su f-n a ’ab u Y Q sef Yes, we ve seen Abu Yusef.
jib -tu balib? D id you*1bring milk?
’G ,jib -n a fcalib Yes, we’ve brought milk.
You will have noticed that in the l 1 and 2nd persons (/, you*1**, we, y o if\ the
long syllable becomes short:
zQr becomes zur-
jlb becomes jib -
In other words: G shortens to u - I shortens to i
Let’s review all these forms by putting them in a table. Note that the 3rd person
is, as always, the “odd man out,” as its form is different from that o f the 1st and
2nd persons:
z u rt zu rt zu rti z u ra a z u rtu
z fir z d ra t z a ru
jib t jib t jib ti jib n a jib tu
ja b ja b a t ja b u

62
 Lesson 10

Vocabulary
qu$$a [qu$a$] story kfln he was-*
$abi [§ibyftn] boy, male child kunt I was
tja b a r [ ’aljbftr] information, news fib there is, there are
il-baqi the rest, the remainder cindi I’ve got, I have;
at my house, by me
d€f[dyflf] guestm fth cin d i I’ve got, I have
qarib (m in) near <from> k a n fib there was, there were
qarib [q a ra y e b ] relative, relation"1 k a n fib cindi I had
hilu sweet; beautifiil, nice o r k a n cindi I had
§flheb [$hftb] friend; owner™ k a n b id d o 1 he wanted
jflz / z aw j# husband k u n t biddi I wanted

Conversation
- il-yom i§-§ub<>b k u n t —I was at Umm Nabil’s this morning
<today the morning I was by Umm Nabil>.
cind ’im m N ab ll12, m in zam fin I’d wanted to visit her for a long time
kunt biddi azflr-ha. <from a long time I wanted.. ..>
- su ftt jfiz-ha k am an ? -D id you™ see her husband, too?
- ’fi, sufto. —Yes, I saw him.
- §Q jib^t m in h u n ik ? —What did you bring [back] from there?
- jib©t t)abar! - 1brought news!
- in-Salla l)er. —Good news, I hope <if God wants, well>.
- ’ayw a, ’im m N a b ll ja b a t 3 $abi. —Yes, Umm Nabil has had <brought> a boy.
’abu N ab ll 2 mab§flt! Abu Nabil’s delighted!
- h ad a ta n i 4 w alad cind-hom —That’s their second boy
<... second boy by them>.
il-baqi k u ll-h o m banat. The rest are all <the rest all-of-them> girls.
Ijames b a n a t fih cindhom . They’ve got five girls.

1. Literally: he was + he wants. Likewise, kunt biddi = I was + 1 want = I wanted.

2. See Lesson 9, Explanations 2.
*3. In colloquial Arabic to give birth / to have a baby is <to bring [into the world]>. If
you inquire as to the whereabouts of a woman who has been taken to the maternity
ward, you will be told rfthat^etjYb = <She’s gone to bring [a child into the world]>.
4. See below, Explanations 1.

63
Lesson 10

- ya Jam lla, ru h ti la-cind *imm —Jamila, did you go to [see] Umm Nabil?
N abll? la z e n u e triib i! You’ve got to go!
- m a 5 zu rt-h a jm bftreh! —But 1 visited her yesterday!
- §0 qfllat? —What did she say?
- qalat: ’a h la u-sahla! —She said, “Welcome!”
- u-inti, §u qultl-lha67? —And you, what did you say to her?
- qult-ilha: m abrtlk! —I said <1 told her>, “Congratulations!”

yesterday?
- m a k unt-es fi-l-bet, —I wasn’t at home,
k u n t fi b£fa. I was in Haifa.
- ’aJjQy F ahlm §afak u -m a ra to —My brother Fahim saw you, and his wife
kam 3n Safatak. hiyye kam fln saw you, too. She was
k a n a t fi hefa. in Haifa as well.
kftnat b id(d)-hawtzOrwe§bab. She wanted to visit friends.
<- u-intu w 5n k u n tu —And youpl, where were you
fi n afs il-w aqt? at that time <at the same time>?
- m a 8 k u n n a fi-l-bet! —We were here at home, of course!

5. The word m a is unstressed (the stress fails on the verb that follows), it is not
followed by -S, and it indicates a protest or a*correction: but or oh yes I / y o u /... they
did!
les m a jibtft-s? Why didn 7 you bring him / it?
rnk jib to 1 But I did bring him / it!
You will find another example of this later on in the text
6. Note that qultl-lha is followed immediately by qult-ilha. This will be explained in
another lesson, later on.
7. The day before yesterday <first-yesterday>. Some people say ’aw w altwem bereh
8. See above footnote 5.

64
 Lesson 10

k a n fih cin(d)na dyflf. We had guests <there were at us guests>

- m in hadOl 1^ -d y u f (id-d y u f) illi ■Who were these guests who
k an u cin(d)-kom ? were at your place <by you>?
- nas m in cakka. People from Acco (Acre).
- e^hfib? • Friends?
- la ’, q a ra y e b . • No, relatives.
- ’abflk 9 k a n m aw jfld? - Was your father there <... was present>?
• la ’, bass 'im m i k a n a t m aw jude. - No, but my mother was <present>.
’abfly r a h cala nahariyya My father went to Nahariyya
u -jab wem labbas minSfln id-dyttf. and brought sweets for the guests.
ca§an 1-edyOf.

- wfin ’uljtak? - Where’s your"1sister?

- rah at ca-s-sTnama. - She’s gone to the cinema.
- lSs m a rutit-es 'in te k am an ? - Why didn’t you go too?
- il-filem mu§wem nih - It’s not a good film <the f. [is] not good>.
biddl-S a§flfo. I don’t want to see it.
- ’ana Sufto, k tlr hilu kan . - I saw it, it was very good.
m acale§, m a r ra tan y e betrflb. Never mind, you’ll go another time
<a second time you’ll go>.
v- §u biqflluwn-nfls lam m a biSflfii - What do people say when they see
’a fla m 101 m in ha-§-§ikel? films of that kind?
- lam m a Suft hal-filem ana, - For myself, when I saw that film
<when I saw that film, I>
^ j a b - n i 11 u -cajab kull in-nas. I liked it <it pleased me> and everyone
[else] liked it <it pleased all the people>.

We’ve already seen that ’ab u becomes ’a b iiy (my father). Here ’ab u + -k
becomes ’abflk. Explanations in the next lesson.
10. Yes, there are foreign words that have an Arabic plural form: filem [’aflflm ]
behaves like b « b a r [’afjb ar]. Galilean speakers, however, prefer the plural form
[flflme]
11. The verb cajab conjugates in the same way as katab. Why does the stress move
from the first syllable of cajab-ni to the second? We'll be learning that soon, too.

65
 Lesson 10

*issa / halqCt cindi qu§$a [lilwe. —Now Fve got a good <nice> story.
q u l ta wn § Q fl2! —Let’s hear it <tell, so that we $ee>!
m a r ra kan-fih m alek. —Once there was a king.
kdn cindo ’ib«n 'a cm a He had a blind son
u-bin^t 5 a rs a * • and a dumb daughter.
m askln! balaS hal-qu§§a! —Poor thing! Not that story!
bid(d)na ’iSi ’ah la. We want something nicer.
tay y eb . m a r ra kan-fih m alek. —Fine. Once there was a king.
k a n cindo ’ib^n ’al)ras He had a dumb son
u-bint ^am y a... and a blind daughter...
- bass, ya zalam e, bass! —Enough, man, enough!
fi-§ cin d ak gCr h al-q u sa s? Don’t you know any other stories <don*t
you have [anything] other than these stories>?

E x p la n a tio n s

1. ta n i w alad
In the conversation above we encountered the expression ta n i w a la d (the
second boy), which is another way o f saying il-w alad it-tfini, only in this case
we omit the definite article il- and place the adjective before the noun. This
expression is often used with the ordinal numbers and in sentences o f the this is
f that is type. Don’t forget that the more usual form w a la d tf&ni means not only
a second boy but also another boy. Note the differences:
■ m a r ra tflnye a second time / another time
hfiy tdni m a r ra This is the second time
m a r ra talte a third time
ta le t m a rra the third time
When we look at the expressions tfini m a r ra and ta le t m a rra we notice
something else. This unusual expression (it’s unusual in that the adjective
precedes the noun) is exceptional in another way, too: the adjective that
precedes the noun stays in th e masculine even when the noun is feminine. We
say, for example:
■ h ad i ’aw w al m a r ra This is the first time

12. ta is a shortened form of fratta.

66
 Lesson 10

2. The comparative adjective {more.. than)

The comparative form o f hilu is ’ajila. W e’ll learn more about comparative
adjectives in Lesson 15.
In the meantime, w e’ll make do with the following examples:
’afrla m innak more handsome than you
’a h la m in h$k nicer than that <than thus>
m a f!§§ ’a h la m in h€k There’s nothing nicer than that!
That’ll do for time being.

3. gfcr = someone/something else; another.../different...

g5r hal-qu§a§ other stories
<something-else-other-than these stories>
fi§§ g€r hflda? Is there nothing else
<there isn’t [anything] other than this>?
flS S gCro? Isn 7 there another one /a different one?
Is there nobody else?
- g 6ro? Anything else? (This is what shop assistants,
etc., ask their customers)
’inte ’afrsan m in gfirak?! Are you better than other people
<betterthan other-than-you>?

4. And finally...
W e’ve seen that in order to in Arabic is ca§an, h atta, ta. You will also hear la-
used in this sense, especially in the phrase: ta cfll la-aqul-lak = Come here,
I ’ve got som ething to tell you <come that I tell you>.
This is such a commonly used phrase and it is said at such high speed that what
we usually hear is: ta ^ la -q u l-la k !

Exercises_______________________
A. Translate into English:
1. had i qu$$a liilwe.
2 . k lf k an il-filem ? cajab -k o m ?
3. had a film wejdld, bass m a cajab-nI-§.
4. qabel ju m ca suftia fil^m ’ahla.
5. biqfll kull yOm nafs il-q u ssa.
6 . cindak q a ra y e b fil-quds?

67
Lesson 10

7. la ’ bass fib cindi $ h a b wektlr.

8 . k a n a t bid d -h awtz u r ’im m -ha (actually pronounced bid -h awtzflr *im-ha).
B. Complete the sentences:
9. jib ^t h ah b m in (by / at) ’im m i.
10. h u w w e z a r - n i u -a n a (I visited him).
11. bizQ r-ni k tlr u -an a (visit him) kamfln.
12. ya Y u sef, Stt q u it? ya M ary am , (what did you say)?
13. rGb m a co (now).
14. § ab b ak (did [he] go with you) ca-s-sln am a?
15. ’ayw a, ’an a (went) m a co ca-s-slnam a.
16. ’im m i (went) m ac ’ul)ti u-(saw) il-filem.
17. ya M aryam , cajab e k il-fitem ?
18. ’ayw a, (I liked itm <it pleased me>) ktlr.

C. Translate into Arabic:

19. This is the fifth time he’s visited me <he visits me>.
20. What did he say to you"?
21. He told me, “Gom with him, I’ll go later.”
22. I’ve got relatives in Haifa.
23. And I’ve got friends in Acco.
24. Jamila, what did you tell the boy?
25. He brought sweets for <to> his sister.
26. You’re® our guest
27. You’re our guests.
28. My sister gave birth to <brought> a daughter.
29. My sister has a daughter <my sister, by her is a daughters
30. What more do you want <what do you want also>?

68
 id-dars il-hadi casar / dars_ihdacs
The Eleventh Lesson / Lesson Eleven

W e've already seen that the possessive pronouns added to the noun 'a b u
(father-oj) are slightly unusual: 'abfi-y, ’abO-k (as opposed to b et-i bCt-ak).
Likewise, the pronouns attached to the preposition w a r a (behind) differ from
those used with the preposition mins&n. Let's build up the paradigm

■ m insflni fo r me
w arfiy behind me
In the 2nd person singular, instead o f -ak, -ek, we have -k , -ki:

m in & n -ak fo r you m in san -ek fo r you

w a rfi-k behind you WOTfi-ki behind you

■ ya w alad , wSn 'abQ-k? Boy, where's yourfather?

ya binet, w €n ’abfi-ki? Girl, where's yourfather?
ya Y flsef, il-kursi w a rfi-k Yusef, the chair's behind you.
ya M aryam , il-kursi w a rfi-k i Maryam, the chair's behind you.

And in the 3rd person masculine singular

■ father-of ’ab u —> ’abflh his father
behind w a ra —> w arfih behind him

The final -h is not usually pronounced, but we can’t omit it in transcription

because it's going to be useful. In speech, the difference between behind and
behind him lies in where th e stress falls. When you listen to the recording,
you'll notice that in those examples where the final -h is added, the stress moves
to the last syllable o f the word and the final vowel is lengthened slightly.
The same thing happens when you add an attached pronoun to any preposition
or verb that ends w ith a vowel. For example:
■ They saw safil
They saw him/it §afdh
They see bisufil
They see you bisu fu -k i

69
Lesson 11

Now we have all the information we need to tackle the text below and deal with
a new set o f problems. Don’t worry, you’ll soon see that they’re not serious -
and in fact there’s really no problem at all!

Vocabulary
bustfln garden, orchard ma... (-§) bada [did] not anybody
hSkfira yard, vegetable plot bijQz perhaps, possibly
kalb [klfib] dog ’a k l / ’akel food
zgjr [zgflr] small; young m ayy water
kblr [kbflr] big; adult; old nflsef dry
hfldes [bawfldes] accident; event, incident
§or [i§Ir] it happened / it occurred; he / it became
il-baqq cala is / are wrong <the right is on = against (somebody)>;
(somebody) is to blame; it’s (his / her / your / etc.) fault

Conversation
- y a N u h a , il-jira n sflfii ’al)u-ki? —Nuha, did the neighbors see your brother?
- ’ft, safflh, kfln fi-l-bustfin. —Yes, they did <they saw him>;
he was in the garden.
- u-§afil-ki kam fln? —And did they see you too?
- l a ’! -N o !
- em bala, ’Ilyfls jf lm a Sflfek —They did so! Elias, our neighbor, saw you
m ac ’a^Oki, u -m a ra to kam fln with your brother, and his wife
sflfatek. m a ’in ti k u n ti saw you, too. You were with
m ac’al)Qki fi-l-bustfln. your brother in the garden!
- ’a , kun«t, bijfiz safilni, —OK, I was. Perhaps they saw me
lflken ’a n a m a Suft-e§ b ada. but 1 didn’t see anybody!
- toyyeb. wfln ’ab ll-k i u-im m ek? —Fine. Where are your father and
<your> mother?
- ’ab$ar12. sa ’alt ’A tim ad ’aljtty? - 1 don’t know. Did you ask my brother
Ahmad?

1. Remember that for verbs the form in square brackets is the subjunctive. This verb is
conjugated like jflb [ijlb].
2. ’ab§ar is not a verb, but an adjective. It means more clear-sighted. In other words,
I don 7 know, but there is someone who is more clear-sighted than me (i.e., Allah).

70 sabcIn
 Lesson 11

- ’ayw a, s a ’alto . qult-illo: — Yes, I did <1 asked him>. I said to him:
“w€n ’abGk u-im m ak?” “Where are your father and mother?”
qal-li: qabel s 6ca kflnu He told me: “An hour ago <bcforc an houi>
fi-l-bet. ’issa / h allaq they were at home. 1don’t know
’ab§ar w 5n rfibu. where they’ve gone now.”

—ya ulfid, jib tu wl-k alb —Kids, did you bring the little
l-ezglr illi k a n fi-I-hakflra? dog that was in the yard?
- ’ayw a, u-jibna-Io k am a n ’ak«l. - Yes, and we brought him food, too.
bass m a biddO-S h a l-’akel! But he doesn’t want that food.
- il-baqq cala m in? —Whose fault is that?
- il-baqq cale*\ h al-’akel —It’s his fault. That food’s
ta y y e b wektlr. very good.
- la*, il-baqq cale-ki, ya bint, —No, it’s your fault, girl,
li’anno h a d a na&ef. because it's <that*s> dry.
jlb i m a y y u-betSQfi Su bi$Ir. Bring [some] water and you’ll see
what happens.
(jabat m ay y : il-kalb (She brought water and the dog
’ak al il-kull.) ate everything <ate the-all>.)

- §Q s a r ? —What’s up?
- w ala ’isi! —Nothing <and not a thing>!
- em bala! $fir m aco bades, —Come on! He had an accident
<happened with him an accidents
k an m ajrub, ’aljadilh He was hurt, they took him
ca-l-m usta§fa, u - ... to hospital, and...
’issa/halqfit jabQ h ca-l-b£t. now they’ve brought him home.
- $ a r ’ahsan, y a cni? —So he’s better <he’s become better,
it means>?
- ’a , b ala$ , bass k u ll il-q u ssa —Yes, it’s over <finished>, but the whole thing
’aljdat 3 m a cn a ta la t secat. <all the story> took us three hours.

3. Note the expression *at)ad m aci sCca = it took me <with me> an hour, qad d es
’a^ad m a cak (w aqet)? = How long did it take you <how much did it take with you
time>?

71
 Lesson 11

Explanations
1. Pronouns
We know that when a verb ends in a vowel - e.g., zfiru, katabti - the final
vowel is unstressed, so when you do hear a stressed (and lengthened) final
vowel it*s a sure sign that a pronoun {he, it) has been attached to the verb:
they visit b izu ru pronounced bi ru
they visit him bizurQh pronounced bi zu ru *1 ___ P

■ - Y a bint, jib iwl-kalb. - Girl, bring the dog!

— Sll? ajlb 4 il-kalb la-hon? - What? Bring the dog here <to here>?
- ’ay w a, jlbfh la-hOn. - Yes, bring it here!

- betsOfi ’a^flki b u k ro ? —Will you see your brother tomorrow?

- yim ken. —Perhaps.
- ’iza b^tsufth, quli-lo — I f you see him, tell him
biddi azOro. I want to visit him.

N o te: bazQr / b^ztiri = I visit / youf visit

bazQr-0 / betZUrTh = I visit him / youf visit him

The two different forms of the attached pronouns are summarized in the table
opposite. Remember, the form used depends on the answer to the question:
“Does the word end in a consonant or a vowel?”

4. ajlb = should I bring? or that I bring? (subjunctive, i.e., without the prefix b-).
Another example: a ru b m a cak? means [Do you want] me to go with you?

12
 Lesson 11

Words ending in a consonant Words ending in a vowel (-a, -i, -u)

0. qudd&m = infront of wara -behind

quddam-i warfi-y
quddam-ak wara-k
quddflm-ek wara-ki
quddflm-o w arah
quddim-ha = wara-ha
quddfim-na wara-na
quddfim-kom (-ku) wara-kom (-ku)
quddam-hom (-hen) warfi-hom (-hen)
Let’s sum up what w e’ve learned so far:
- When a word ends in a / i / u, the final vowel is short and the syllable is
unstressed.
- But when we add any kind o f suffix, such as the negative particle -§, or an
attached pronoun, or 1- + an attached pronoun (-li, -lak, -lo), the final syllable
is stressed and lengthened.2

I f you are not too keen on theory and rules, ju s t repeat out loud the exam ples in
the box below, and you j l absorb the rule naturally.

■ they brought________________youfsin8 brought______________

jflbu ma jabO-s jibti majibtI-§
jftbu jabu-ha jibti jibtl-ha
jabu jabO-li jibti jibtT-li

2. On me, on you...
This is a good place to review the whole paradigm o f the preposition cala / cala
(on, at) with its attached pronouns. Note that when used with these pronouns,
cala behaves as if it were cal£-:
calay y /calayyi (-yye) cale-k calC-ki cal£h calfi-ha
cal 6-na cal5-kom / -k u cale-h o m (-hen)
Now we can understand the expression m a ca l 6-§ (it doesn't m atter). It’s a
shortened form o f m a calfih §i = there is not on it / gbout it a thing, in other
words, there's nothing to say, there's no problem / objection.

73
 Lesson 11

3. H e re is / h e r e ’s / h e re a r e = h a y y -o J // hay y ah or hiyyah o
This also helps us to understand the pronunciation o f the two forms (used in
Jerusalem and Galilee) o f the word that means here is /h e re are:
here he is hayy -o // hiyyah
here she is h ay y -h a // hiy y a-h a
Note that in the first person singular the suffix is the one used with verbs, -ni:
here I am h a y y -n i// h iy y a -n i

A q u ic k ex ercise:
How do you reply to the following questions?
For example:
I . s u ftt ’al)uk? - ’ayw a, Sufto
Continue:
2. ya nas, su ftu ’aljOy? - ’ayw a,
3. il-jira n safii bintak? - ’a y w a ,...
4. in-nfls b id-hom is u f ii j- f ilem ? - ’ay w a, b id h o m ...
5. ’im m ak Safet il-kalb? - ’a y w a ,...
6 . jib tu j- ja r ld e ? - ’ayw a, ...
7. flh nas warfiy? - ’aywa, flh nils5
8 . lflzem ajlb il-bint? - ’a y w a ,...
9. lHzemwcnzflr il-m atfoaf6? - ’ay w a , lftzem ^et-... ’intu kamfln.
10. il-foaqq calawl-jirfin ? - ’ay w a, il-h aq q ...
I I . il-haqq calCha! - l a ’, il-baqq (the right is against you,
- you are wrong)
12. il-uldd k a ta b u wd-dars? - ’ay w a, k a - ...
13. u-inte kam fin k a ta b t id-dars? - ’a y w a, k a - ...

4. Who, which, that

A useful tool for doing the exercises will be the word illi, which means who,
which, th a t Let’s look at the following phrases:
■ k a ta b t il-m aktflb / wrote the letter
il-m aktub illi k a ta b t -0 the letter that I wrote <it>

5. There are two possible answers, depending on who’s asking (male or female).
6. mathaf - museum, tuhfe [tuhaf ] = work o f art or masterpiece; the mathaf is
the place for tuhaf. Marvelling at a beautiful object, people say: tuhfe! / hat-
tuhfe! = How beautiful < what [is] this tuhfe>!

74
 Lesson 11

Note that while in English we can say “the letter which / that I wrote” or “the
letter I wrote,” in Arabic there is no alternative but to say “the letter w hich /
th a t I wrote it.”

p, dafact hal-mablag You paid that amount

hal-mablag illidafact-o That amount which you paid <it>

Saf il-madrase He saw the school

il-madrase illi§&f-ha The school that he saw <it>

jibnawl-muftah We ve brought the key

il-muftah illi jibnJh The key that we ve brought <it>
You can see now that by playing around with verbs and simple phrases you can
turn them into sentences using illi. This will allow you to practice adding the
attached pronouns to verbs. For example:
sufna hal-walad fl-s-§arec We saw that boy in the street
il-walad illi ...7 fl-S-sarec The boy whom /that we saw in the street.

Last exercise
Read out loud: and say out loud in Arabic:
14. Sufna hal-bint fi-l-madrase The girl we saw at the school
15. dafacnawl-mablagw«mbCreb The sum we paid yesterday
16. zumawl-madrase The school that we visited <itf>
17. jibtLI-jande? The newspaper that you brought
18. bintak Sftfat il-fiton Thefilm that she saw

’intu ta cbariln? m acalC§ - It was worth it! W e’ve taken a big step forward
today. Let’s be content with that, and dispense with any further exercises...

Well, perh ap s ju s t one m o re...

My mother and <my> father, your mother and <your> father, etc.:
*abuy u-immi ’abfi-k u-imm-ak ’abu-ki u-imm-ek
,’abQh u-immo ’abtl-ha u-im-ha
’^bfl-na u-im-na* ’abQ-kom u-im-kom* ’abfl-hom u-im-hom*

* We don’t hear the doubling of the consonant -m - when it is not followed by a vowel
i(see Lesson 6, Explanations 1, and p. 110, Doubled consonants.

7. .. we saw him = sufhah. Did you work it out? Well done! ’

75
 id-dars it-tani Ca§ctr‘ - dars_etnaces
12
The Twelfth Lesson (Lesson Twelve)
W e’re going to take another step forward, even though you won’t yet have
absorbed everything you’ve learned so far: today w e’ll be looking at the
present-future (and the subjunctive) o f verbs like k atab .
■ bukrabiddi akteb la-’immi Tomorrow I want to write to my mother
hek b-akteb ’ismi That's how I write my name <thus I write>
biddi adros id-dars / want to study the lesson
kull y5m b-adros id-dars Every day I study the lesson
hal-marrama biddl-s ’adfac This time I don 7 want to pay
bass cadatan b-adfac but usually I pay

Arabic verbs o f this kind assume one o f three possible forms:

’adros ’akteb ’adfac

In the texts that follow you’ll be able to observe the conjugation o f each form,
and you will most certainly recognize the prefixes and suffixes with which you
are familiar from the conjugation o f the verb §flf: ’a-suf, en-sflf, et-§flf-u.
In this lesson w e’ll learn only verbs that have the pattern baDDaD in the
present-future tense, i.e., those that have a as their second vowel. In Lesson 13
w e’ll meet verbs from the patterns baDDeD, baDDoD. 1

1. This is how you say twelfth in literary Arabic - hence the t- (see page [11]). In
colloquial Arabic this letter usually turns into t- (tSni).

76
 Lesson 12

Vocabulary2
bacat he sent dafac he paid
’abcat that I send (subj.) *adfac that I pay
fatah3 he opened zarac he sowed
’aftab that I open *azrac that I sow
manac he prevented / forbade sa’al he asked
’amnac that I prevent ’as’al that I ask
cade [cadat] custom, habit cadatan usually, normally
Subbak [Sabablk] window ’ard [’arfidi] land, plot, field
fallflh [fallahln] {aimer, fellah jawab answer, reply

Conversation
- bacatna maktQb la-mudlr - We sent a letter to the headmaster of the
il-madrase, fi§§ jawab. school, [but] he hasn’t replied
<there’s no reply>.
- lazem tibcatu maktub tani. —You**1must sent another letter.
- ’a , bidna nibcat kaman maktQb - Yes, we’re going to send another letter,
u-bensQf //mensuf §0 bislr. and we’ll see what happens.

- l€§ fatahtL§-§ababIk? —Why have youf opened the windows?

mus lazem tiftahi halqSt. There’s no need for you to open them now
<it must not that you open now>
- dayman baftah —I always open [them]
H i?-§ub<>bweswayy, u-’issa a bit in the morning, and now
biddi aftab bass I want to open [them] just [for] a
rub** sSca. quarter of an hour.
- muS lazem niftah SubbakCn, - We don’t need to open two windows,
Subbak wabad bikaffi. one window’s enough.
’iza bniftab subbakCn, If we open two windows there’ll

2. This vocabulary list (which, as usual, contains only a few new key words used in the
' text; the rest can be understood with the help of the translation) includes verbs that take
-a in the subjunctive / present-future tense, e.g., tiftah. There is a reason for this.
3. We have already encountered the root f-t-b in the word muftQh.

77
Lesson 12

bikfin fih majra hawa5. be <[it] will-be there-is> a draft.

- tayyeb, qQl lal-walad - OK, tell™ the boy to open the window
yiftah iS-Subbflk illi hadd il-bab beside the door
<that he open the window that [is] beside. ..>
ll-rna yiftab Subbak tani. and not to open another window.

(A conversation with a fellah)

- marhaba6. - Hello.
- ’ahlan! - Hello.
- la-wCn? Su Suglak il-y6m? - Where are you going <to where>? What
are you doing <what’s your work> today?
- bidna nizrac duljljan.7 - We’re going to sow tobacco.
- w5nwebtizracu_d-dul)l)ftn? - Where will you sow the tobacco?
- cin(d)na ’ard jamb il-bfct. - We’ve got [a plot of] land beside the house.
il-cam8 zaracna kusa, Last year we sowed courgettes / zucchini,
has-sane bnizrac duljljan this year we’re sowing tobacco
u-b^nsuf.9 and we’ll see [what happens].
- ©mbayyen has-sane kull fallahln - It seems that this year all the village
il-balad bidhom yizracu du^ftn. farmers want to sow tobacco.
bass cin(d)kom cadatan But you don’t usually sow tobacco
bizracu-§ dul)I)an. <by you (pi) usually [they] don’t sow.. .>.

5. majra means current. Its plural form, majfiri, means sewage [system]; hawa
means air. wind il-yom fih hawa = I t’s windy today <today there’s winc>.
6. The expression marimba (or marhaba ) is used to greet people we meet outside
the home (ours or theirs), in the course of the day The root r-h-b expresses the idea of
space, (in literary Arabic rahba = [a] public square). The proper response to
marhaba is ’ahlan, or marhabten (twice marhaba).
7. The word dubf)&n literally means smoke - so farmers who plant tobacco are sowing
a crop that turns into smoke and is borne away by the wind.
8. cam means year, the word last has been omitted here. You could also say
is-sine J-m adye (this expression will be explained later)
9. In Galilee sine, mnizrac, men$Qf (in Jerusalem: sane/sana, bnizrac, b^nsuf).

78
 Lesson 12

cala kull hal, ’alla^iwaffeq101! Good luck, anyway

<in any case, may God cause you to succeed>!
- ’alia yibfazak. —Thanks <may God preserve you>.

- biqQlu inno lazem nidfac —They say we’ve got to pay

dcalbe cala k u ll ’i$i. tax on everything.
- kull in-nfls byidfacu 11 —Yes, everyone pays
dardyeb. mus mumken taxes. We can’t do anything about it
nimnac hada! <it’s impossible that we prevent it>!
- ’aywa, hada ’ISi —Yes, that’s something
mus mumken nimnaco. we can’t do anything about.
- qadd€§ dafa0^ la-hadd ’issa, —How much have youmpaid so far <until
u-qaddSs lazem tidfac kaman? now>, and how much do you still <also>
have to pay?
- dafac«t l)amsln §5kel —I’ve paid fifty shekels,
u-baCed 12 // lissa lazem ’adfac and I’ve still got to pay <and still 1must...>
Ijamse u-ci§itn. twenty-five.
- u-inti, qaddes dafacti —And youf, how much have you paid
u-qadd6§ lazem tidfaci? and how much do you have to pay?
- nafswi§-§i. —The same thing.
- k an lazem tidfeci ’a k ta r m inni —Youf should have to pay more than me,
<[it] was necessary that you pay>
casan cindek b€t you’ve got a house
’a k b a r m in b£ti. [that’s] bigger than mine.
- cala kull hal badfac hal- —In any case, I pay this sum
mablag kull saher u-bikaffi. every month and that’s enough.
mis lazem nls’aLektlr... We mustn’t ask a lot of questions.
’ana ma bas*al-e§! [As for me] I don’t ask.
- mazbllt, mu§ lazem tis’alL —That’s right, you shouldn’t ask.

10. This verb form will be explained later on.

11. See below, Explanations 1, footnote 13.
12. See below, Explanations 3.

79
 Lesson 12

Explanations

1. Prefixes for the verb in the present-future tense

We have seen that the prefixes in the subjunctive o f s f lf / jib are:
a- / 1- (et-) / i- / n- (en-)

The subjunctive o f verbs like fatab, d a fa c, on the other hand, begins with two
consonants with no intervening vowel: -ftab , -d fa c. With verbs like these,
the prefixes t- and n- add a helping i:
t- —►ti-, n- —►ni-.
W ith the b- o f the present-future these prefixes become: bti- and bni-.

Let’s compare the two families and get used to this minor difference:

7 open ba-ftab ba-SQf I see

ms
you open bti-ftah bet-sQf you see

he opens bVi-ftah13 bi-§flf he sees

we open bni-ftah ben-Sflf we see

[mni-ftah men-§0f]G
Don’t worry! As you listen to the texts (and read them out loud) all this will
become automatic and the correct form will occur to you spontaneously. This
means that you have learned the prefixes to all the possible form s o f th e verb:
you will see this confirmed each time we come across a new type o f verb.

2. The negative particle -S

When we add the negative particle -§ the stress usually moves to the last
syllable o f the word:

■ I ask bas’al m abas’al-e§ 7 don 7 ask

y o ifx sow btizracu ma btizracu-s you don't sow
youm ask him btis’alo ma btis’al5-§ you don 7 ask him

13. Most people pronounce this as bi-ftah. In the subjunctive, however (where the
prefix b- is absent) the y- is clearly beard: lllzem yi-ftab = he must open.

80 tamanln
 Lesson 12

If you’d rather not use -s, you can just use m a on its own; if you do this, the
position o f the stress doesn’t change: mfi b a s ’al. = I don't ask.
The use of m a on its own is characteristic o f a higher register o f speech, and is
less commonly heard.

W hy is it so im p o rtan t to get the stress in th e rig h t place?

(Read this at your leisure, when you 're in a relaxedfram e o f mind)
- Stress is not a particularly complex issue, and you will gradually
acquire the habit o f emphasizing words in the proper place. However,
we want to draw your attention to it at an early stage, as an
understanding and awareness o f the importance o f stress will enable you
to apply the rules that govern it (which are few, and not difficult at all!)
- Stress is very im p o rtan t indeed! If you don’t stress words in the right
places you’ll find it hard to speak fluently, especially when using long
sentences. W hat’s more, the people you talk to are liable to
misunderstand you, because m isplaced stress can, in som e cases,
change the m eaning o f an entire sentence! W e’ll provide examples o f
this later on.
- It’s worth while learning how to stress words properly from the outset:
it’ll stand you in good stead in the future.____________________________

A short exercise:
Translate into Arabic and read out loud:
1. Your must open <[it is] necessary [that] you open>.
2 . 1 want to pay; I pay.
3. I ’ll pay this sum <this sum, ril pay it>.
4. He’s got to ask <[it is] necessary [that] he ask>.
5. He asks the boss.
6. He asks him.

3. Yet, still / not yet

The words lis s a J and b a°d / b a ce d G mean still and not y e t / hasn't-.... yet. We
won’t go over all the possible usages o f these words at this point, but let’s look
at a few examples and try to remember:
b ac«d fth // lissa fth there's still
b a ced-ni // lissS-ni I'm still
b a cd-ak // lissfik youmsing are still

wfihad u-tam an ln 81
 Lesson 12

- With a verb in a negative sentence:

■ baced-ni ma ruht-es G / haven 7gone yet.
lissa (lissflni) ma ruht-e§
bacdo ma dafac-e§G He still hasn 7paid.
lissa ma dafac-§
- In response to a question:
—dafaCet? / ma dafact-e§? —Have youmpaid? /Haven 7you paid?
- lissa // bac«d. - Not yet.
The word lissa can take another form, too: lissSt-. This form is used only with
the attached personal pronouns. This means we have tw o alternative paradigms:
lissa-ni lissfl-k lissa-ki lissSh lissi-ha lissa-na, -kom, -horn
lissat-ni lissat-ak lissat-ek lissat-o lissat-ha lissat-na, -kom, -hom
Exercise
How do you say (in Galilee or Jerusalem, depending on where you live):
7. Are youmstill here?!
8. Are youf still here?!
9. They’re still14 at the m useum
10. They haven’t opened yet.
1 1 .1 still live in the same house.
And perhaps il-y 5 m ... bikaffi!
I f you like, you can put off the exercises until another day. Then tomorrow you
can go back over Lesson 12 and the E xplanations. Afterwards you can do the
following exercises:

Exercises___________________________________________________
A. Translate into English:
12. mnibcat // bnibcat hal-maktflb?
’a , mnibcato; la’, ma mnibcatO-§.
13. ya Samira, sa’altLl-mudlr?
14. l£§ ma sa’altI-§ il-mudlr.
15. lazem tis ’allh.

14. It’s best to avoid hybrids that mix the characteristics of Jerusalem and Galilee
speech, such as baCed-hom (!) (they still are...), which you may occasionally come
across in language manuals for foreigners. On the whole, people who say baCed use
the ending -hen, while those who say -hom use the word lissa (Jerusalem). So you
should say either baCed-hen or lissa-hom.

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 Lesson 12

16. ’iza biddi aftah , baftah.

17. biddi aftah il-bfib; h allaq baftaho.
18. m us lflzem tiftah. lۤwebtiftah?
19. b i-’5§ (~ with what) biddak tifta^i? —bid d i a fta h bil-m uftfih.

B. Complete the sentences

(Replace the English words with the appropriate expression in Arabic):
20. il-m ablag illi (I paid <it>)
21. mu§ lazem (to pay) <that you"1pay> h allaq .
22. sa’a lt ’abfik? - Not yet
23. (Usually) b a fta h il-bfib h a tta iflit, (=in order that he come in)...
24. .. .bass h a l-m o rra (I don’t want to open).
25. ii-m aktOb illi (youpl wrote <it>).
26. il-bab illi (I / we opened <it>).

C. Translate into Arabic:

27. Every day he opens the windows.
28. Does he open the door? - Yes, he opens it. - No, he doesn't open it.
29. Who asked youm/f? - He’s got to ask his mother.
30. You® don’t have to ask / You m ustn't ask <it*s not necessary that you ask>.

83
id-dars it-talet ca§ar - dars talattoce§
13
The Thirteenth Lesson (Lesson Thirteen)
The new verbs we encountered in the last lesson, such as fatah, b a cat, and
s a ’al, all follow the pattern baDDaD in the present-future tense, i.e., they have
a as their second vowel, e.g., b a fta h (7 open). Let’s take a look at some verbs
with a different second vowel in the present-future and subjunctive:
tarak ’atrek batrek
he left (hat I leave / leave/ I'll leave
sakat ’askot baskot
he was silent that I be silent I ’m silent 1 1'U be silent

If the second vowel is e, the prefixes that denote you, he/she and we will be ti-,
yi-, ni-, ju st as they are in verbs that have a as their second vowel, e.g.,
l&zem titrek yitrek nitrek
it's necessary that you leave that he leave that we leave

W e’ll pause the conjugation here for the time being.

(Are you wondering about you f and pl leave and they leave? You’ll find out
about them in Lesson 17.)
If, however, the second vowel in the present-future tense is o ( ’ask o t), the
prefixes will be tu -, yu-, nu-. This happens because the vowel of the prefix

84
 Lesson 13

“identifies with” the second vowel (o and u are phonetically close) and imitates
its sound: tu sk o t fh a ty o u m be silent, y u sk o t1 that he be silent.
Sometimes the pronunciation o f the vowels o f a particular verb varies from one
area to another. For example, although you will normally hear the form tik teb ,
yikteb, you may also hear people say tu k to b , yuk to b .
As usual, w e’ll dive straight into the next text - that’s the best way to learn to
swim!

Vocabulary
2
rabat [yurbot] to tie (up)/attach qalil a little
gasal [yigsel] to wash / do laundry gasll washing, laundry
samab [yismab] to allow / permit ’ahsan better
talab [yutlob] to ask for / request ’ahsan-ma so that (I, you...won’t)
Qabaz [yiQbez] to bake (bread) Qatar danger
ha$ad [yub§od] to harvest / reap fen (=wfin) where (ins.a.)
(Jorab [ywjrob] to hit ca-l-qallle at least
harab [yuhrob] to run away / escape cajan [yicjen] to knead (dough)
nasar [yunsor] to hang out (laundry); to publish
zobaca [zawabec] storm

Conversation
- bidna nuktob / nikteb maktflb - We want to write a letter to the manager;
lal-mudlr;’iza ma mnuktob-§ if we don’t write the <this> letter,
hal-maktflb, muS mumken we won’t be able to send it
nibcato! <not possible that we send it>!

- biddi arbot hal-Qabel. - 1 want to tie that rope.

- le§webturbot il-habel hek? - Why are you tying the rope like that <thus>?

1. With the prefix b-: byuskot (he is silent), but more often the y is not heard:
byuskot buskot. See footnote 13, p.80.
2. Until now we have introduced each new verb by its 3rd person masculine singular,
considered the basic verbal form in Arabic: katab = he wrote. From now on we'll add
the subjunctive and use the English infinitive to translate the pair: katab [yikteb] = to
write.

85
Lesson 13

- ma rabattH-S3 il-kalb? - Didn’t you tie up the dog?

- embala, rabatna J-kalb fil-bgt. - Yes we did, we tied the dog up in the house.
- ’aywa, rabatnUb - Yes, we tied it up
’ahsan-ma4 yuhrob. so it wouldn't run away.
dayman Yuhrob min il-bet It always runs away from home
u-ffi1Qatar calgb. and it's dangerous for it <there is danger on it>.
- cmbereQ horab, bass il-yOm - It ran away yesterday, but today
muS mumken yuhrob, it can't run away
li’anno marbfit5 because it's tied up.

- morati gaslat u-nasrat il-gasll, —My wife did laundry and hung out
the washing,
u-bacd£n cajnat u-Qabzat. then she kneaded dough and baked bread.
- kull yOm^ebtigsel u-btunsor —Does she do laundry, hang out the washing,
il-gasll u-bticjen u-btiQbcz? knead dough and bake bread every day?
- la’, bass kull tlattJyySm, —No, only every three days,
hek taqriban. more or less <thus nearly>.

gasll, gasll, gasll, gasll, gasll, gasTl, gasll,...

3. rabattu is usually pronounced rabaftu (the t is assimilated into the ().

4. Literally better than ...; (he did that) so that (something) wouldn't hdppen <better
than that (something) will happen>.
5. li’ann-O = because he/it... marbfit = tied up, attached. We'll revisit this later.

86
 Lesson 13
- Su b tu tlo b fi m aktO bak? What are you asking for in your letter?
- b a tlo b m a$firi, lflzem y idfac ! I’m asking for money, he’s got to pay!
lfizem y id fa M i ca-l-qallle He’s got to pay me at least twenty shekels,
ciSiTn sekel, b a tlo b -s ’ak ta r. I’m not asking for [any] more.

- h al-w alad d a y m an b yu 4 ro b - That boy is always hitting his sister

’llljto u-hiyye btuskot. but <and> she doesn’t say anything.
- b a ^ C n 'im m i b tu d ro b il-w a la d .. . - Then my mother hits the boy...
- u-h u w w e kam fln b yu sk o t? - And does he keep quiet, too?
- la*! h u w w e m a buskot-§! - No! He doesn’t keep quiet!

(fi-l-maktab:) (At the office:)

—law samabti6, fen il-mudir? —Excuse me, where’s the manager?
- kan hon qab*l s£ca U-rdh. —He was here an hour ago <before an hour>
and [then] went [out].
ma qal-lI-S *i§i. He didn’t say anything to me.

-biddi aruti... - 1 want to g o ...

- il-motma m a btism ah, —Mum <the mum> won’t let [you]!
il-m dm a b tism ab -lek ? Does [your] mum let you <allow to-you>?
- ya m a m a , ’ism ahl-li6 arU h... —Mum, let me go...
- tay y eb , b asm ah -lek , bass —OK, I’ll let you, but take care on the way
dfri bfilek fl-t-tctiTq. <pay your-attention in the way>.

- *ismah-li6 a q u l-la k ... —Do you mind my telling you ...

<ahow me that 1 tell you.. .>
- ’ism ab-li bil-jarTde! —Could 1have the newspaper
<allow me in the newspaper>?

m atal7 (proverb)\

'illi ^ i z r a 0 haw a, byub§od zaw ftbec. He who sows the wind will reap storms.

6. See Explanations 3, below.

7. Compare with Hosea chapter VID, verse 7 in the Bible:
“For they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

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Lesson 13

Explanations

1. On days and months

The plural o f yOm is ’ayyftm o r -iyyam , but after the numbers 3-10 a helping
-t is added:

five days I)am es + 1 + -iyyam = bam^stjy y im

seven days sabeC + 1 + -iyyam = sab^t jyyam
three days talat + 1 + -iyyam = talattjyyam (o r tlatt-iyyam)

The same thing happens to ’aShor o r -u sh o r, the plural form o f the word
§aher, which means month. It, too, takes on a special form after the numbers
3-10: I}ames + 1 + - u $ h o r = 5am estw uShor (l)am stwu$hor)

’arb actju $ h o r, tam an t ju S hor, t i s ^ u S h o r ( = ti-sac-tu§-hor)

four months eight months nine months

Now for a trick question. How do you say 24 months? Y ou’ll find the answer at
the end of the lesson.

2. On taxes...
It’s interesting to note that the word tax - tfarfbe - is derived from the root
d-r-b {hit, beat). W e’ve got to pay tax to the authorities and that’s definitely a
blow! But the usual word for blow is 4<tfbe.

3. la w s a m a h t
The literal meaning o f law sam ajit is i f you permitted\ i f you would allow. This
is a very common expression used to beg pardon for bothering someone, or
request permission to ask or do something: i f possible, i f you would perm it
me When said loudly in a tone o f rebuke, law sam afrt! is the equivalent of
the English Would you mind?! with the implication Please be quiet!

By the way, sam ah [yism ah] is another example o f a verb whose second vowel
is a in the present-future tense. If you look back at Lesson 12, you will notice
that all these verbs have a g u ttu ra l sound or an em phatic consonant such as
c , ’ , |i, as the second or third root letter. These sounds “like” the vowel a ; just
think o f the verbs yibcat, yiftafr, y is’al.
W e’ll discuss the imperative ’ism ab in Lesson 17 (Book 2).

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 Lesson 13

4. More on the helping vowel - this time before bti-, bni- (m n i-)...
You’ll recall the helping vowel e which is inserted between consonants to avoid
“tongue twisters,” in other words, clusters o f consonants with no vowels
between them. Y ou’ll remember the example: b in t + kblre —> b in t^ k b lr e .
It’s virtually impossible to say b i[ntkb|lre. Likewise, though it’s not so hard to
say 16§ fataht? (Why did you open?), it is hard to say les b tiftab? (Why are you
opening?). The solution is to say l5s_ebtiftab?

Let’s compare the following sentences:

Every day I do laundry kull ybm bagsel
Every day she does laundry kull y5mwebtigsel
Afterwards I open bacd£n baftab
Afterwards she kneads bacdenwCbticjen
(dough to make bread)

Exercises____________________________________________________
A. Pronunciation exercise
Add the helping vowel e (if needed, i.e., where there are three consonants
together without an intervening vowel). Translate the result into English and
check your answers against the key to the exercises.
l.le § b iddak trflh?
2. bitStlf mnlh min hfln?
3. kull yflm btikteb darsak?
4. nacam, kull yOm bakteb darsi.
5. ’6§ btutlob minno?
6. batlobktfibjdld.
If you got the last one right, well done! It shows you have caught on and are
becoming sensitive to the rhythmic flow o f the sentence. If you didn’t succeed,
never mind - after a few more lessons and exercises, it will sink in.

B. Translate into English:

7. lazem tidfac kull saher.
8. mus lazem tidfac hallaq, mumken tidfac morrc^ tanye.
9. il-bisse (the cat) horbat min il-bet, su bitqQl?
10. tayyeb rabotnaj-kalb, mus mumken nurbot il-bisse kaman.

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Lesson 13

C. Translate into Arabic:

11. Has he paid? No, he hasn’t paid / he hasn’t paid yet.
12. He always pays, but today he doesn’t want to pay.
13. If he pays - fine. If he doesn’t pay, we’ll write to his mother.
14. Samira's asking the time <asking how-much [is] the hour>.
15. She asks me for money. - And she’s asked me for money, too <and from me, too,
she asked-for money>.
16. Boy, why are you hitting children <thc children> in the street?
17. Me <I>? I’m not hitting anybody (hada).

Let’s not forget the promised exercises on the w ord illi. Use the following
model:
jib t jl - h a l lb - il-ba&b illi jib to
S ufhaJ-bfit - il-bet illi §ufhah
For now w e’ll make do with just a few sentences:
18. z a ra cna dul)t)*n - id -d u ^ frn illi z a - ...
19. d a fa ctu dorfbe - id-darfbe illi d a - ...
20. Y llsef, d afac®t l-eftsfib? - l-ebsfib illi d a -...
21. M aryam , d a fa cti 1-ehsfib? - l-eh s i b illi d a - ...

Note: In the flow o f speech, the i- o f illi is usually unstressed, and sometimes
even drops after a vowel. W e say:
itj-darlbe illi d afacn3-ha or i< j-d a rlb e jli d a fa cnfl-ha

So far w e’ve studied 13 lessons. Let’s say that in Arabic:

la-fradd il-yOm, d a r a s n a . . . ( ? )
W e’re familiar with the numbers ’ib d a Ce§, tn a Ccs (also pronounced tn a ^ s )
and ta la tta ce§, in which the ending Ce§ is a short form o f ca sa r. When a noun
comes after the numbers 11-19, the word appears in full -* ib d ac§ar, tn a cs a r...
tisact a c§ar.
Don’t forget that after the numbers 11-100 (see page 59) the noun is
singular, so 13 lessons is ta la tta c§ar d ars, and 15 days is Qamestac§ar Y&m.

And the answer to the question: How do you say 2 4 months ?

’arbca u-cisrln Sah^r, of course!

90 tiscIn
id-dars ir-rfibec co§ar - dars ’arbactoce§
14
The Fourteenth Lesson (Lesson Fourteen)
Have you been wondering why the stress falls on the first syllable o f k a -ta -b
and k a-ta-b u , but on the second syllable o f k a ta b t and k atabna? Close
inspection will reveal that in both k a-tab -t and k a-tab -n a the final -b o f the
root is followed not by a vowel, but by a n o th e r consonant (-bt- and -bn-).
Imagine this pair o f consonants as a hurdle that you have to jum p in order to
pronounce the word. The syllable before it acts like a springboard that bounces
you over, and in consequence it receives the stress.

jThe cartoon is meant to help you visualize the explanation, but if it doesn’t
appeal to you, just ignore it!
*
Let’s restate the rule:
When two consonants occur together with no intervening vowel,
the stress falls on the syllable that precedes them.
Compare, for example:
ta -ra -k u they left
ta-rak n a we left
In tarakna, the syllable -rak- has acquired the stress. The same situation arises
when, for example, we add most o f the attached pronouns to the verb:
ta ra k + -ni -> ta ra k -n i he left me
Note that this doesn’t happen with the attached pronouns -ak, -ek and -o
because they start with a vowel:
ta-ra-k ak - ta -ra -k e k - ta-ra-k o he leftyoum/ you /him
This rule will help you to understand the changes ^that take place in the
following sentences:
■ ta ra k ’ibno? —’f l, ta-ra-k o Did he leave his son? - Yes, he left him.

wfifcad u -tiscI n 91
Lesson 14

ta ra k m a ra to ? - ’ayw a, ta-rak -h a Did he leave his wife? - Yes, he left her.

tarak ’awlado? Did he leave his children?

- n acam , tarak -h o m - Yes, he left them.
ta rk at il-bint? - ’fi, tarkat-ha. Did she leave the girl? - Yes, she left her.
lflzem tu rb o t iS-§anta. You need to tie up the suitcase.
lflzem turbot-ha. You need to tie it up.
The same thing happens when we add - li, -lak, -lek, -lo etc. to a verb, in effect
creating a single word:
k a ta b + l i —► katab-li He wrote to me
k a tb at + lo —> katbat-lo She wrote to him
byu k to b + lak —►t^ u k to b -lak He writes to you

This rule applies to all words - not just to verbs. For example:
b a la d settlement, town, village
ba-la-di, b a-la-d o my town, his village
b a-lad -kom your town / village

Please be reassured, as always, that you don’t need to make an effort to

memorize this rule. It’s enough to note the phenomenon and understand to some
extent w hat’s happening. You’ll internalize the rule through listening to the
recording and repeating the conversations and examples out loud, as well as by
completing the exercises, lesson by lesson.

Vocabulary
qannfne [qanftni] bottle s u ’ftl [ ’a s ’ile] question
dafa£ [yidfes] to push dukkfin(e) [dakakln] shop
kazzSb [kazzabln] liar Santa [Santat] or [san&ti] suitcase; bag

Conversation____________________________________
- m in k a sa r il-qannTne illi1 - Who broke the bottle that
kSnat ca-t-tfiw le? was on the table?
- Y O sef kasar-ha! - Yusef broke i t f.

1. See Explanations 2 below.

92
 Lesson 14

- kazzfibe2! ’ana kasart-ha?! - Liar! I broke it?!

baba! Maryam kasrat Dad! Maryam broke
il-qannine u-hallaq bitqfll the bottle and now she's saying
inno ’anaJli kasart-ha. I broke it <that I [am] who broke it>.
hiyyejli kasrat-ha, She’s the one who broke it!
btikser kull ’i$i fi-l-bCt! She breaks everything in the house!
-bass! biddi as’al Maryam, - Enough! I want to ask Maryam,
biddi as’al-ha. 1 want to ask her.
ya Maryam, biddi as’alek su’fil. Maryam, 1 want to ask you a question.
’intijli kasartij-qannlne Was it you who broke the bottle,
willa min? or [if not] who [did]?
’iza kasartl-ha, qull-li. If you broke it, tell me.
- yacni YQsef dafa§-ni u - ... - Er... Yusefpushed me and ...
-hfik? —That’s how it was <thus>?
dafeSek? He pushed you?
il-taqq caleh7 He's to blame <the right is against him>?
macale§§... ya Yflsef, Never mind... Yusef, [it’s] not nice
muS_emnlh tidfeS ’u^tak! to push <that you push> your sister!
- bass hiyye dafSat-ni, hiyye... —But she pushed me, she ...
- bass! rub jib qannlne - That's enough! Go [and] get a bottle from
min id-dukkfin u-l)alas! the shop and we'll say no more about it
<it's fmished>!
The incident is over. Let's pick up ... not the broken bottle, but a few interesting details,
paying particular attention to changes in stress!

Explanations

1. Notes on some words

kazzfib [kazzabln] liar
kazab[yikzeb] cala... to lie to

2. The masculine form is kazzfib. That [man] is a liar! is ilfida kazzfib! In literary
.S

Arabic and in rural areas, however, it is pronounced hfida kaddfib!, i.e., with d
both cases (see Abbreviations, p.[10]). This shows that in urbap speech d turns into
in some words (e.g. hfida) and into z in others (e.g. kazzfib).

93
 Lesson 14

kazab calayy He lied to me

l^ikzeb calCki H e’s lying to you
kiz^b [kizbfit] lie, falsehood
kull h§da kiz^b That’s all lies <all that’s a lie>!

t)alas [yul)lo§] tofinish / come to an end

l)ala§! I t’s over! That‘s it! Enough!

’iza ’inte bitqol, l)ala$! I f you say [so], it's enough! (There’s no more to be
said, I believe it.)
’ayya S6ca btul)lo§ i§-$ala3? What time do prayers <does the prayer> finish?
embareh Qalsat4 bakklr Yesterday they <it> finished early.

2. illi again
Do you remember the m atal in the previous lesson? When illi is the first word
in a sentence, the initial i- is stressed ( ’illi) and it means He who..., Whoever...
H ere's another example:
■ ’illi qal-lak hfck, kazzab Whoever told you that <thus> [is] a liar
But when illi follows a noun, it is not stressed (illi) and after a vowel the first i
generally drops:
il-walad illi kasar hada... The boy who broke that
i$-$abi J li kasar h&da...

3. Stress
Note the changes in stress that occur throughout the lesson:
■ kasar —►kasar-ha
kasrat —»kasrat-ha
kasar —►kasarti —►kasartl-ha
Likewise, byis’al / bis’al -♦ bis’al-ni —►ma bis’al-nI-$
And similarly: tarak -n a (h e left us). And now you can see that the word
tarak n a has two meanings:

3. The word $ala (§alfth in literary Arabic) means prayer, plural [$alawat].
4. This is the pronunciation in the Jerusalem area. And in Galilee? We’ll find out soon.

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 Lesson 14

tarakna We left
tarak-na He left us

The context will show you which sense is intended:

■ tarakna U -ra tl He left us and went [away].
tarakna J - w a la d fi-l-b6t We left the boy at home.

. Completion exercise
- dahan [yidhan] to paint (with oil or plastic paint); to coat
1. dah an u j-b fct? - ’a , d -... Did they paint the house? - Yes, they painted it.
2. d a h a n u ji-d f ir5? - ’ayw a d -... Did they paint the house? - Yes, they painted it.
3. biddo yidhan il-bfib He wants to paint the door,
4. w-i$-§ubbflk k am S n biddo yi-.. ,and he wants to paint the window; too
5. badhan it-taw le, b a -... I 'll paint the table, I 'll paint it.
la ’, ma6 tid -... No! Don't paint it!

- m azac [yim zac] to tear

6. m azac 1-ektab? les m - ...? Did he tear the book? Why did he tear it?
7. m a m azaceg 1-ektfib, He didn 7 tear the book,
m a m a....-§ . he didn 7 tear it.
8. w -il-jan d e, m in m -... ha? And the newspaper, who tore itr?
9. m a t - ... -§! Don 7 tear itf!

5. Remember, d a r is feminine.
6. Don’t...! The negative imperative can be expressed b>\means of m a ... -s (or
simply m a ...) with the verb in the subjunctive (implying.intention, desire, prohi­
bition, etc.). For example, Don 7 write! is m a tikteb-s! (m a tlkteb!*)

95
Lesson 14

- With illi (that, which - relative pronoun) / inno (that - conjunction):

10. q a l - l i ...... dah an iH « w le . He told me that he painted the table.
11. w en iH a w le ...... dah an -h a? Where's the table that he painted*
12. il-ulad m azacu k tab. The children tore a book.
13. h ay y 1-ektab m azacQh Here's the book that they tore <it>.

Note:
Have you been unsure about adding the two different forms of the attached
pronoun him / it to a verb? Remember: the rule is -o after a consonant and
after -a, -i, or -u. The following table should help you keep things straight in
your mind:
ta ra k + -o ►tarak o He left him
ta rak u + -h —> tarakflh They left him
tarak t + -o —> tarak to Youm left him
tarak ti + -h —> tarak tlh You* left him
tarak n a + -h —►tarak n 3 h We left him

Here are a few more sentences for you to complete:

- ra k a tf [yurkotf] to run
14. ’an a r a k o d ^ bass hu w w e I ran but he didn Vrun.
m a ra k a d or m a r a - ...§.
15. u-hiyye k am an rak(}at? And did she run, too?
- l a ’, m a r a - ... - No, she didn 7 run.
16. lflzem yurkod, He has to run but don *tyou run
bass ’inte, m a t - ... <butyou, don 7 run>!

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 Lesson 14

-jam ac [yijmac] to collect / gather

17. btijmac {awabec8? Do you collect stamps?
jibti-llak tabec hilu. I ’ve brought you a beautiful stamp!
18. ’aljay kaman b-.. .tawabec My brother collects stamps, too.
19. t^ij- fidaftar He collects them in an exercise book.
20. kull 1-ewlfid byijmacu tawabec? Do all the children collect stamps?
21. la’, ulfid il-jirfin, matalan89 No, the neighbors ’ children, for example,
m al/ij- ...§ tawfibec. don't collect stamps.

These exercises may seem rather boring, but they are essential. They teach you
to express yourself freely and help you to find your way quickly and easily
around the various grammatical forms. This book does not set out to teach you
rigid sentences and expressions that you have to learn by heart. After all, you
don't want to be like the immigrant newly arrived in England who memorized
such complicated sentences as: She sells sea shells by the sea shore, and Peter
Piper picked a peck o f pickled peppers. Reciting them to a friend, he confided:
“But it's hard to work them into a conversation!”
Pianists play scales and singers do voice exercises. Your exercises are just as
demanding - but they disturb the neighbors less!

8. tfibec [tawabec ] means stamp, from the root t-b-c (to print).
matbaca means printing house.
9. In literary Arabic, m a t a l a n . In urban speech, the sound t turns into t or s depending
on the word, the locality, and - the speaker! Sometimes two words derived from the
same root even have S in one word and t in another. On page 71 we learned the word
b i d e s , accident (literary Arabic, h fld e t) and on page 87 m a t a l , proverb.
The expression for example can be pronounced m a t a l a n , m a t a l a n or m a s a la n .

97
id-dars il-i)ames ca§ar - dars l)amestace§
15
The Fifteenth Lesson (Lesson Fifteen)
Let’s take a break from verbs and take a look at the com parative form of
the adjective, i.e., more... than. We already know that nicer than... is
’a h la m in (Lesson 10, E xplanations 2).
Adjectives usually adopt a special form to express the comparative. The pattern
is ’aDDaD, ’aDDaD, or ’aDDaD, depending on how the consonants in the
word affect the vowels1. The word k tlr (much, many) changes to ’a k ta r (more).
In the case of tiilu, the final -u changes to -a, and the same thing happens to all
adjectives ending in -u, or -i; in other words, the comparative form o f adjectives
like these is ’aDDa.
However, not all Arabic adjectives change their form in the comparative; some
add ’a k ta r (more) after the adjective instead, just as in English we say bigger
and taller but more distant, more desirable:
maSgQl m asg u l ’a k ta r
busy busier <morebusy>

Vocabulary
kblr (cp ’akbar)2 big; old $abi [$ebyan]4 boy, youth
tawll (cp ’atwal) long; tall foq above
zglr (cp ’azgar) small; young ^ le /c f i’ile family
qasif (cp ’aq$ar)3 short [ca’ilHt/ ciyfil] families
entflf (cp ’antfaf) clean cumor / cumer age; life
qailb (cp ’aqrab)3 near cumri5 my age; my life
fiker thought; opinion mitjawwez married111
tamflm precisely, exactly mitjaw(w)ze marriedf
ma cada except, apart from, aside from

1. Take a look at the end of Lesson 8, and join the ‘‘curious.”

2. The comparative will be indicated by the abbreviation “cp”.
3. You will often hear people say haq§ar instead of ’aq$ar, and this is the case with
every adjective whose first root letter is q. People do this so as to avoid having to
pronounce two glottal stops (’a ’§ar) immediately after each other (remember, q- is
pronounced like by urban speakers).
4. The vowel sound e is so strongly affected by the $ that you will hear it almost as §o-.

98
 Lesson IS

Conversation
- kam 6 w alad cindak, ya ’a b u - How many children have you got,
Fahlm ? Abu Fahim?
- cindi Ija m sje w la d 7, - I’ve got five children:
ta ltwew lad u-bintSn. three sons and two daughters.
- m in ’a k b a r wflljad? - Who’s the oldest <biggest one>?
- Fahlm ’a k b a r w ahad, - Fahim’s the oldest <one>,
b a ss h u w w e qa$Ir, but he’s short,
h aq $ ar m in il-w alad it-tfini. shorter than the second boy.
- w-it-tfini, §Q ’ism o? - What’s the second boy’s name
<and the second, what his-name>?
- ’ism o N abll, h u w w e - His name’s Nabil, he’s younger
’a z g a r m in Fahlm , <smaller> than Fahim,
bass ’o tw a l m inno.8 but taller than him.

5. cu m °r / cum eT + attached pronoun + the negative particle m a = never [in my life].

For example: cu m ri m a §ufte§ sa b eC - I ’ve never <in my life I haven’t> seen a lion.
cum ro m a saf-s ... - He's never seen .... /H e 'd never seen...
cum er-ha m a § a f a t - S . . She’s never seen... She’d never seen...
6. kam or ’ak am means how much / how many, and the noun being asked about is
always singular. See Explanations 1.
7. w alad means boy, but its plural ewlftd / ul&d can mean either children (girls and
boys) or just boys. Notice that Abu Fahim uses ulad the first time to mean children and
the second time to mean sons. The phrase m a cindO-§ Iliad is ambiguous; if it is
intended to mean He has no sons, you could add cin d o b ass b a n a t He’s only got
daughters.
8. You can confirm this by looking at the drawing. -

99
Lesson 15

- qadde§ cum ro , l-ekblr? —What age is the older [boy]

<how much his-age the big [one] >?
- Fahlm , cum ro sabca u -ci§nn - Fahim's 27 <Fahim his-age 27 year>
san e u-N abll, talfite u -ci§rfn, and Nabil’s 23,
y a cni, ’a z g o r m in ’al)ilh that’s to say, four years younger
eb-’a rb a cwesnln.910 than his brother.
- u-b acd€n? —And after that?
- b a cd e n il-b a n a t: - Then [there are] the girls:
Kflm le u -W id ad Kamla (perfect) and Widad (affection)
u-Sfyer w&had i§-sabi, H an n a, And the last one, the boy, Hanna,
b a cdo // lissato zgfr he’s still young
cu m ro ca srwesnln. [only] ten years old.
- m a § a’ (a )llfih ,10 cele kblre. - Touch wood, a big family.
’a lia i^alU -lak ew ladak! “ May God preserve your children for you!
- ’a li a yihfazek! —Thank you <May God preserve you>.

qaddS§ cu m rak ’inte? —How old are you

<How much your-age, you>?
§0 fikrak? —What do you think <what your-thought>?
’a n a ’a k b a r m innak? A m i older than you?
la ’, ’a n a ’a k b a r m innakweb-sane, —No, I'm a year older than you,
w illa ’a n a g al^ an ? if I’m not mistaken <or [am] I wrong>?
m azbQ t, ’an a ’a z g a r m innak —Right, I’m younger <smaller> than you,
bass il-far«q b€n-na m u§ sane. but the difference between us isn't a year.
’an a baqOl: ta m a n tju s h o r.12 I would say eight months.

9. Pronounced eb -’ar-b a-^ S -n ln . Try saying this slowly, and don’t forget to put the
stress on the two syllables ’a r and nfn
10. Literally, what God wanted (in literary Arabic). This is an expression of admiration,
with the implication of averting the evil eye. It means: This is G ods will, and I'm not
envious. / don 7 want to bring you bad luck.
11. it)alli: we’ll explain this verbal form later. This expression is often used when
speaking to people about their children. To a woman, of course, you would say ’a li a
il}alll-lek ewlfldek!
12. See Lesson 13, Explanations 1.

100 miyye
 Lesson 15

- mu§ m uhem m . [It’s] not important.

- w 6n saknln ew lad ak ? —Where do your children live?

- kullayflt-hen // k u ll-h o m saknln - They all live with me
m aci fi-l-bCt hadfik13 l-ekblr in that big house next to the
ja m b il-m adrase, m a cad a school, except [for]
Kfimle. hiyye m itjaw w ze Kami a. She’s married
u-sakne m ac jO z-ha fi b€t and lives with her husband in a smaller
’a z g a r b asswejdld w-en<jlf u-hllu. house, but [it’s] new and clean and nice.
- zb°ld ca n 14 b£t-kom ? —[Is it] far from your house?
- la ’, qaribwektlr m in 15 betna. —No, very near our house.
y a m m 16 baddl-na (jam b-na). Right next to us.
il-beten ja m b b a Ced tamUm. The two houses are literally <exactly> next
door to each other <one beside the other>
- u-bfit ’aljflk? - And your brother’s house?
-bfcto ’ab ca d j£ w a y y - His house is a little farther [away],
foq ca-l-jabal. up on the hill.

Explanations____________________________________________
1. How much, how many
Let’s start by looking at the difference between k am and qaddCS:
- qaddSs is used to ask about quantity (how much?);
- kam is used to ask about the number o f individual units (how many?).

13. That (big house) - an explanation will be given in the next lesson. Let's just say for
the moment that although had&k means that, hflda and hSdi, too, often translate best
into English as that.
14. We’ve already met the preposition can, on page 41. It means from, in contexts
involving distancing or separation, while the preposition m in relates to a thing's origin
or starting point.
15. Note that while in English we say near to, in Arabic we say qaifb m in <near
from>. Near here is qaifb m in hOn.
16. yam m = right, exactly, yam m ffcq! = right at the top! yam m hck! = exactly so
(and not otherwise)1.The word b a 0^ (one another) will be explained in Book 2.

miyye u- wihad 101

 Lesson 15

kam is followed by a singular noun (how many boy, how many book*), or by
the word w fthad (one) when the question relates to something that has already
been mentioned (~ I saw[some] books. - How many <one>?). Instead o f kam
you will sometimes hear people say 'a k a m / ’akam .
biddi rozz 7 want [some] rice
qadd£§ biddak? How much do you want?
y a cni kam k ilo ? I mean, how many kilo[s]?
kam b s d a b iddak? How many eggs do you want?
Similarly,, kam yOm / k am san e / kam m a rra = how many days / how many
years / how many times?

kam / 'a k a m m in ... can also mean a few:

b a Ccd k a m ydm a few days later <after a few days> /
in a few days
'a k a m m in b $ 4 a a few eggs

2. B ig g er, th e b ig g est (the comparative and the superlative adjective)

At the beginning o f the lesson we saw how the comparative is formed. Note that
this is an invariable form that remains unchanged regardless o f whether it refers
to a masculine, feminine or plural noun:
■ w alad 'a k b a r bint 'a k b a r u la d 'a k b a r
a bigger boy a bigger girl bigger children
Now let's learn how to translate the biggest boy. You can say (as in literary
Arabic) il-w alad il-'a k b a r, but in colloquial Arabic it's more usual to say
'a k b a r w alad, i.e., to drop the definite article and put the comparative
adjective before the noun.
■ biddi b£t 'a k b a r I want a bigger house
hSda 'a k b a r bet That’s the biggest house
w alad sfite r17 a clever boy
hO 'a s ta r m innak H e’s smarter than you
h uw w e 'a s t a r w alad He's the smartest boy in the class
jlb i ktab 'a k b a r! Bring a bigger book!
h&da 'a k b a r w ab ad This is the biggest one

17. Setter (cp ’a§tcur), fem Sfitra, pi [SatrTn] means clever, smart; hard working;
talented; quick. You call a boy sfifor to encourage him, or to praise him for something
done well. It is also used as a form of address to a boy: —jib - li... ya setter! (Clever
boy! Please bring me ...).

102 m iy y e u -tn e n
 Lesson 15

This construction will remind you o f what we said about tfini w alad , the
second boy - see Lesson 10, Explanations 1. In the final sentence above, the
word w flhad (or w ahed), one, is used, just as in English, instead o f repeating
the word previously mentioned.
Another example: You want to buy notebooks. A fter choosing the kind you
want, you tell the shopkeeper:
biddi talatin wftfrad I want 30 (of them) <30 ones>
And you don’t mean 3 1, o f course! In Arabic, thirty-one is w fi^ad u-talatln.

3. Big /o ld
The adjective k b lr has more than one sense: it means big (m adlne k b lre is a
big city), and important (a big man), as well as o ld / adult, so sometimes we
need to add an explanatory phrase to make the meaning clear:
■ huw w e ’a k b a r m inni fi-l-cum or He is older than me <bigger than me in ago.

4. Between
The Arabic word beyn is used in the same way as between in English:
■ bcni u-b en ak between you and me <me and you> /
between ourselves (I can tell you...)
il-m asfife b€n it-tcnfin the distance between the two
b€n il-bab w-iS-SubbBk between the door and the window

103
 Lesson IS

When a plural pronoun (-na, -kom , etc.) is attached to it, ben can assume either
one o f two alternative forms: ben or benftt-.
I il-far^q ben-na / benat-na the difference between us
ben-kom / benit-kom between you pl

5. All of us, all of you...

kull-na all o f us
kull-ku // kull-kom all o f you
kull-hen // kull-hom all o f them

In the Galilee region you will often hear people saying kullayfit-na, kullayfit-
ku, k u llayat-hen

Exercises___________________________________________________
A. Translate into English:
1. beto ’a n tja f m in betak.
2. hftda ’a n d a f bet fi-l-balad.
3. hadi ’akbor be<Ja.
4. hada ton ’ab la, b ^ j e b - n i ’a k ta r.
5. binti mitjaw(w)ze.
6. m in jOz bintak, u k l f h u w w e?
7. ma fih far^q ben it-t«nen.
8. *inte g a llo n . - la ’, ’i n t ij - g a l ta n e <you [are] themistaken-onef>!
9. k u lln a §ufha J-file m , m a cad a YQsef.
10. cum ro m a d a fa c (Jaroyeb. (See Lesson 12, p.79).

B. Complete the sentences

(Replace the English words with the appropriate expression in Arabic):
ll. (Never) m a ru tit-es ca-s-slnam a.
12. (How many times) Sufct hal-filem ?
13. (How much) biddak tid fec?
14. fth bint ’akbor (than youf)?
15. rriln (is the biggest / oldest)?
16. huwwe ’akbor minni b-(two months).
17. f f 1 cindo t<xwfibec (more) minni.

104
 Lesson 15

18. il-yom id-dars ( [is] longer).

19. la ’, muS ’a tw a l, (the same <thing>)
20. (Yes!), hSda d a rs (very long).
C. Translate into Arabic:
21. How old are you"1<how much [is] your age>?
22. How old is yourmson <your son - how-much his-age>?
23. How many years were youmwith him <how many years you were at him
[at his house]>?
24. How many <how-many one> have youpl got?
25. Who’s the elder, you"1or him?
26. He’s older than me, but I'm taller than him.
27. How many times were youmthere?
28. I've never seen a cleverer boy <a boy cleverer - never I saw>!
29. How many families are there in the village?
30. No more than seventy.
31. Who was last <last onem>?
32. There’s no difference between the two.
33. Did you01 open the shop yesterday?
34.1 want a nicer one"1.
35.1 want the nicest onem.
36. He has bigger books.
37. That’s the biggest book.
38. What’s the difference between the two books?
39. They say there’s a big difference.

105
Appendix

Revision Exercise on the Subjunctive

Have a look back at Lesson 5, Explanations 1 and Exercise B, and Lesson 6,
Explanations 2.

Now let’s take some o f the verbs we learned in Lessons 5-15 and put them into
the correct form after the following expressions:
* h a tta ... so that...
*♦ m ln q a l-la k in n o ... Who told you that...
* mu§ lk zem ... I t‘s not necessary that
** biqOl in n o ... He says th a t...

1 .. .. so that you’IP see your brother.

2. Who told you” that you would see your brother tomorrow?
3. He mustn’t see youf!
4. He says he’ll see youf tomorrow.
5 .. .. so that they visit the museum.
6. Who told you™ they’re visiting my uncle?
7. He doesn’t need to send the letter now.
8. He says he’ll send it"1 later.
9. He doesn’t need to pay the whole sum.
10. He says he’ll pay tomorrow.
11. Who told you"1he pays every month?
12. ... so that you"1pay the same amount.
13. Who told you"1they would be at home?
1 4 .. .. so that they’ll be happy.
15. It’s not necessary for them to be <that they be> at the same school.
16. He says they’ll be with you® <at you> tomorrow.

* Intention or prohibition: subjunctive (without b- prefix)

** Statement o f fact: present-future (with b- prefix)

“Snowball” Exercise
A good way to learn to express yourself is to begin with a short phrase and,
once you feel comfortable with it, start adding a few words before and after it to
make a longer sentence, just like a snowball picking up more snow as it rolls

106
 Appendix

along. For instance, if you want to say with confidence: My dad says you ve got
to go and bring a chair fo r your mum, you can build the sentence up in the steps
below (repeating each line several times before going on to the next):
lf lz e m ^ r u h
lfizem^rQketjlb
liz e m wetrtlhwetjfb k u rsi
lfizem ^etrQ hjnjlb k u rsi la -’im m ak

’abfly biqQl inno la z e m ^ e tra fi^ tjlb k u rsi la -’im m ak

Say each phrase slowly at first, then more quickly. Try this method o f making
up complex sentences for yourself. You’ll find useful components in the lessons
w e’ve been studying: it's not possible that ..., they told me th a t ..., a week ago
they told me th a t..., etc. Good luck!

How to translate no and not into Arabic (summary)

N o! la’ !

not with a verb in the past, present-future or

subjunctive
m a ... -s
n o t with cin d i... * (meaning I've got)

n o t with biddi, b id d a k ... *

n o t before any o th er w ord** mu§ / mi§

la... w a la ... / la...

N e ith e r ... n o r
w a la ...

* Because, although they are not verbs, these words behave as if they were.
** Not me, not nice, not now, not like that, not at home, etc.

How would you declare a stock of 102 books to the Income Tax
authorities in Arabic?
a. Actually, you will probably never have to;
b. And anyway, to avoid grammatical complications, you could just declare
100; b u t ...

107
Appendix

Now, seriously, let’s learn how to say 101-l 10 books / children.

We know how to say 99 children: tisca u -tiscTn w a la d
We also know that 100 is m iyye. Now we can add 100 children: nut w alad,
I ’ve told you 100 times! qult-illak m lt m a rra !
101 miyye u-w&frad 101 books miyye u-ktilb (w-ektab)
102 miyye u-tnSn 102 books miyye u-ktabSn
103 miyye u-talate 103 books miyye u-talat kutob

And so on, up to 110.

111-199 is like 11-99, with the addition o f m iy y e before the numbers 11-99:
187 children m iyye u -sa b ca u -tam an ln w alad .

Summary of the Rules of Stress

za-la-me, ka-ta-bu Are all the syllables The first syllable is

short? stressed

sSken, batale, kamfin Is there a long syllable? The long syllable is

stressed

ta^anln, saknln Are there two long The second long

syllables? syllable is stressed (and
the first is shortened)
ka-tab-t, ka-tab-na Are there two The stress falls
jabat-li, ba-lad-kom consonants together on the syllable before
without an intervening the consonant
vowel? with no following
vowel.

If there are several syllables in the word that have a “claim” to the stress
according to the rules above, the last one “wins:”

ka - tab - tT- ha la zem na

consonant long long consonant
with no syllable syllable with no
following following
vowel vowel

108
 Appendix

That’s the secret o f getting the stress rig h t in colloquial A rabic, and there are
hardly any exceptions. It’s the key to the rhythm o f the language. Once again,
remember that there’s no need for you to overload your memory with these
rules! They are here purely to satisfy your curiosity. By applying them daily
you’ll absorb them almost unconsciously.

Smile!
A student on a colloquial Arabic course once overheard two little girls aged 6-8
chatting and exclaimed in astonishment: <(How wonderful! Such little girls and
they know all the rules o f correct stress!”.

For perfectionists - transcription issues

The perfectionists among you may have found some things surprising. For
example:

1. Stressed syllable
Why is the same word sometimes stressed and sometimes not? For example, §fl
/ $u, y a cni / yacni. The answer is simple: that’s how it sounds in the normal
flow of conversation, and the transcription tries to be as authentic as possible.
The differences lie in the intonation of the sentence. English behaves similarly.
For example, there is a difference between the slow and accentuated w ay a
lecturer would ask his students: What do you know about this phenomenon? and
the colloquial expression o f surprise: Well, what d ’y e know! In the latter
expression, do you becomes a single sound that is skipped over without any
emphasis.

Accordingly, we find in the Conversation in Lesson 2:

y a cn i... il-yO m ... (ya is stressed)
fth §ug°l, yacni? (with the main stress on fth, a secondary stress on §u-, and
the intonation staying low and “flat” on the word yacni, which is just “thrown
in,” and remains unstressed.)

The same could be said o f the word §0? on its own (long and stressed), in
comparison with the combination Su bid d ak ? §u is short and unstressed here,
because the stress is on the following syllable bi-

These variations in stress are natural and are produced automatically in the flow
o f speech without any particular effort. The explanation is provided here purely
to reassure anyone who has been bothered by these transcription anomalies.

109
Appendix

2. D oubled consonants
A similar case o f “authentic transcription” occurs when a consonant is doubled.
The doubling is clearly heard when the doubled consonant is followed by a
vowel. In Lesson 6, E xplanations 1, we showed how the doubling was
weakened and often disappeared if the doubled consonant were not followed by
a vowel. It’s easy enough to say biddak (bid-dak), but the combination bidd-
k o m is pronounced bid-kom , with no doubling o f the d-. When this happens,
the transcription leaves out the doubling. W e’ll remind you o f this again
whenever such cases occur.

3. H am za - the glottal stop

In words beginning with the letter *-, there is one specific case in which we
don’t transcribe the hamza ( ’):
- When the word beginning with ’ follows a vowel (a, e, i, o, u). This is
because the hamza is in most cases hardly heard:
biddijarOb ’ihna u-intu / w-intu
- On the other hand, after a consonant, the glottal stop should be
pronounced clearly:
klf *inte? - min 'immak - masgtll ’aktar, etc

110
 Key to the Exercises
Here are the solutions to the exercises. When you finish each lesson compare
your answers (the written ones, of course) with the key below. After you’ve
corrected any mistakes, read the amended text out loud.

Lesson 1____________________________________________
1. This is a new house, and this is a new house, too.
2. Who lives in your house?
3. Do you live here, too?
4. That’s not big
5. Who else lives here?
6. ’inte sftken fi hfcfa? ’a n a k a m ln s&ken fi befa.
7. JOij fi betak? - la ’, JOrj muS fi beti.
8. h a d a jd ld . - l a ’, hadamu§wejdld.
9. binto sftkne fi b6twejdld, u-bintak kam fln sftkne fi b€twejdld.
10. ’an a sa k e n fi b et il-m udlr.
11. ’inti mu§ sSkne hOn.
12. il-bet m is hilu.
13. mTn hfidi / m in hSy?
14. hSdi mu§ bintak?
15. la ', h ad i m isb in ti.
16. ya M ary am w en bin tek ?
17. il-mudlr mus fi betak.
18. hay m adlne bilw e.
19. binto m us hilw e.
20. hada m uswejdld.
If you feel like doing an additional exercise, w e’ve got a simple suggestion for
you: translate sentences 1-5 above back into Arabic. The key, o f course, is in
Exercise A at the end o f Lesson 1.

Lesson 2
1. My neighbor has children.
2. My children are at your neighbor's.
3 .1 haven’t got a daughter.

Ill
Key to the Exercises

4 .1 only have a son.

5. Your daughter’s got money.
6. Y usef has a son.
7. The boy [is] at Y usef s.
8. ya Maryam klfhalek?
9. ’ana mu5 mabsflt il-y d m .
10. il-jir&n fi betak?
11. la*, il-jiran mis cindi.
12. §Q fih fi-r-rddyoj-ydm?
13. il-yOm ma ft-§ radyo.
14. w£n Maryam, u-Yttsef weno?
15. huwwe fi-s-§ugoL
16. YOsef cindo ulad.
17. la’, YQsef ma cindO-§ ulad.
18. wen jirfinak/jiranek?
19. il-walad mu§ cindi.
20. wen bet jirfinek?
21. ma cindl-s dars il-ydm.
22. h ad a mu§ mazbQt (or simply;) mu§ mazbut.
23. ’ana kamdn cindi masari.
24. ’inte kaman cindak bet
25. wen il-ma$ari? mus cindak?
26. la’, il-masari fi-l-bet.
27. il-ma?ari cind il-jiran.
28. ma fi§s cindi rfidyo / ma cindI-§ radyo. fih rfidyo cind il-jirfin.

Lesson 3____________________
1. I’m tired today.
2. You’re not tired, the work here isn’t hard.
3. This work is very hard.
4. She’s very tired from her job.
5. Maryam, are you busy now?
6. No, I’m not busy.
7. Where do your children live?
8. They live in Haifa.
9. Is there work in Haifa?

112
 Key to the Exercises

10. Yes, there’s a lot o f work.

11. Is your work hard <you, your work hard>?
12. Yes, and your work is pleasant / nice.
13. huw w e m absfit m in Suglak.
14. hiyye m is m a b s u ta m in Suglak.
15. m in hal-bint? mi§ b in t jl-m u d lr?
16. fth hOn nfls. h um m e jirfin -k o m ?
17. la ’, mu§ jirfin -n a.
18. hada §uglwemnlh.
19. il-w alad b a r r a m ac il-bin^t.
20. wCn saknln u lad ak ?
2 1 . fi b€t-hom (bCt-hen0).
22. u-hadOl, w 5n saknln?
23. mis fi-l-bet h ada.
24. jira n -k o m m ab su tln m in sugli?
25. m ab su fln jfctlr!
26. ew lad-na miS b a rr a ? - la ’, hum m e (h en n e) fi-l-bet.
27. la ’, halqfit h u m m e // issa henne cind il-jirfln.
28. il-jira n m a b su tln m in ir -ra d y o ... ’a n a la ’!
29. had-dars s a ^ b , ’an a ta cb a n / t a ^ a n e .
30. tay y eb , bikaffi!

Lesson 4___________________________________
1. This book’s good.
2. Where’s the new house?
3. Your daughter wants money.
4. We don’t want exercise books! Everyone’s got an exercise book,
[that’s] enough. W e only want books.
5. Do you have books?
6. No we don’t.
7. binti kblre.
8. binto kaman^kblre.
9. biddi ktab.
10. biddi kam an_ektab. ^
11. Sugli mnlh.
12. mazbflt, Suglak3nnlh.

113
Key to the Exercises

13. hadaktlr!
14. la’, hfida musj4ctlr.
15. huwwe saken mac ’ibno fi-l-bSt ij-jdld / fi-l-bet l-ejdld.
16. minSan ’es bid-ha ma$firi ?
17. mac min il-haqq? - il-fcaqq maci!
18. ’ana muS mabsflt minnak.
19. hal-walad cJndo kutob u-daf&ter, u-hada bikaffi minsan il-madrase.
20. bintak bidha kamanj^ktab? - la’, ma bidha-§.
21. bidkom sugol willa ma$firi?
22. ma bidna / ma bidna-S ma$ari, bidna Sugol.
23. fib hOn madrase kblre.
24. cindak ma?firi ’aktar minni.
25. hada minSani.
26. *aywa, hada minSanek.
27. cindo masfiri ’aktar min kull il-jirfin.
28. halqCt // ’issa ma Cindl-S waq«t.
29. cindi basswektabwezglr.
30. ’ana ta^an! - ta^an min ’5S?

Lesson 5_______________________________
1. Maryam, you’ve got to bring a chair.
2. Do you want me to bring another chair?
3. No, there’s no need.
4. Come and see us with your sister <come to at u s .. ..>.
5. He’s got a good job, and he brings money home every day.
6. Do you want to go? / D on’t you want to go?
7. Yes I do, I want to go with him.
8. I want to bring money to my mother, too.
9. lazem ijfb id-doktflr.
10. ’issa / halqgt bijlb il-jarlde.
11. lazem is u f il-m adrase.
12. b id d o jrflti la-cind il-jirfin.
13. b u k ra birQh ca-l-m ad rase.
1 4 .16S b id d ak wetriih la-hunfik?
15. b id dekj^S flfi bintek?
16. b u k ra betSQfi bintek.

114
 Key to the Exercises

17. ya Yflsef, rflb la-cind ’immak. - ya mama, ftlti ca-l-bet!

18. hallaq lazem ’arflh ca-l-madrase.
bukra bartih ca-l-madrase.
19. biddakj*§Qf binti? hiyye mu§ fi-l-bet.
20. ya Maryam, biddek^etrQbi macna ca-l-madrase?
- la’, barfib bacden.
21.16§? - li’anno ’ana maSgflle.
22. ya walad, mi§ lftzem^etfilt cala b£t il-jiran.
23. il-baqq maco.
24. ma biddi arttb / ma biddl-s ’arQb ca-l-madrase.
biddi arub cala hfifa.
25. tayyeb, rab mac ’u^tak cala h£fa, u-jib-li jande min hunak.
26. raus lazem iSflf hada ca-t-tfiwle.

Lesson 6____________________________________
1. You go in, I’ll go in later.
2. The boy doesn’t want to go in.
3. Yes he does. He wants to go in with his sister.
4. Now he’s going to see <he will go to at> his paternal uncle Khalil.
- Do you want to go, too?
5. No, I’m busy now, I ’ll go tomorrow.
6. The children want to go to the cinema.
7. If you go, I’ll go with you.
8. ’iza bisuf hada, bikfln mabsfit, u-inti
’iza b ^ u fi hada, b^tkuni mabsQta.
9. bukra 1-ewlad biktlnu mabsutln, li’anno ma madrase.
’ana kaman bakfln mabsQt, li’anno ma ft-s dars.
10. Yflsef saken fi-n-nfi§re u-Maryam sakne fi-l-quds.
11. biddi arQh ca-n-nasre u-hiyye bid-haJrflh ca-l-quds.
12. bukra bartih kaman m a rra - tayyeb, jib-li kaman wabad.
13. bukra lazemjsnrilh ca-l-madrase, w-il-y5m kaman.
14. mu§ la z e m ^ trflb hallaq , betrQh b u k ra .
15. lazemwenrQh min h5n caSanJkfln mabsflt-
16. ’ahsan^etrflh la"cind ° h allaq , li’an n o h u w w e m aitd-
17. jib ir-radyo la-hfln hattaj-jiran ikunu mabsutln.
18. ’iza betjlb ir-rfidyo, bikilnu mabsutln.

115
Key to the Exercises

19. mus la z e m jn jlb l-ek ta b la-hfln.

20. m a biddoJrtUi ca-l-quds, biddoJriih macna cala fo6fa.
21. biddakwetrtlh ca-n-nfi$re?
22. ’aywa, 'ibni fi-l-madrase fi-n-na $re.
23. ’iza biftit, 'ana bafilt maco.

Lesson 7______________________________________
1. Whose is this book?
2. He hasn't got the key [on him].
3. Look, the key's in the door.
4. The chair’s beside the window.
5. Where are your sisters? They're in the kitchen.
6 . 1 want to see your big sister before ten o'clock.
7. I’ve got work for her.
8. Fine, I'll tell her.
9. There's no sun today.
10. What color is the bus <what [is the] color-of the bus>? - Which bus?
There's a red bus and a blue bus!
11. Move [away] from the window! I want to see the sun.
12. su Ion il-bab?
13. su lOn bab il-bCt?
14. jib-li jarfde qab^l-maJrQh.
15. 'Smta biddakj^rflti ca-l-madrase?
16. miS mumken iruh hallaq, ma fib ba§.
17. fib hOn zalame, biddo iSilfek.
18. 'aS biddo minni, haz-zalame?
19. biqOl inno muftati il-madrase m a^k.
20. mus mazbiit, il-muftab cala-t-tdwle, fi-l-matbal).
21. it-tfiwle illi fi-l-matbal)...
22. il-kursi barra fi-S-sams.
23. il-karfisi illi fi-l-madrase.
24. jib il-jarfiyed illi ca-t-tfiwle.
25. Sflf ’izaj-busukl€t / 1-baskalSt barra willa juwwa.
26. bikaffi, 'ana ta ^ a ^ e ) min had-dars.

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 Key to the Exercises

(What about the ”sun letters”?)

27. il-kursi il-ma$ari it-tawle il-fikra
28. il-marl<j id-daftar il-madrase in-nfls
29. iz-zalame il-matbal) is-sCca id-dfir

Lesson 8_____________________________________
1. This is the same key.
2. This is the man who wrote the letter.
3. Where’s the boy who hit you?
4. He goes into the neighbors’ house.
5. This woman is going to the cinema with her husband.
6. My mother lives there alone, poor thing.
7. You must visit her every day.
8. My brother’s not here <not p resen ts He left the house this morning
<today the morning>.
9. ’itina saknln fi n afs jl - b e t .
10. il-yom kamftn katab nafs jl-maktflb.
11. ’inti katabtij-maktilb la-halek?
12. ’inte katabtjl-makttlb la-halak?
13. ’aywa, ’ana katabto la-hali.
14. ’ana talab^t daftar ’azraq u-hu talab nafs JS-sT.
15. yacni n afsjd -d aftar eb-nafsjl-l5n.
16. ’immi talbat ma$ari min ’abOy.
17. biddo irflb cala hefa u-izflr cakka fi nafs jl-yOm.
18. huwwe sa’al ’immi, ’immi sa’lat ’abfly.
19. (hiyye) sa’lato, bass huwwe sakat.
20. (huwwe) sa’al ’ul)ti ’iza flh hallb fi-l-matbal).
21. sa’alt il-walad: qadde§ cumrak?
22. jam a <Jarab ’ibno.
23. sa’alna jfima 1S§ <Jarab ’ibno.
24. - embCreh maraqtu jamb b€tna.
25. - m a?b u t, m araq n a fi-§-§flrec u -sa ’a ln a wfin ’in tu saknln.
26. su Ion bfib il-bet?

117
Key to the Exercises

Lesson 9______________________________________
1. I ’ve got two children, a boy and a girl.
2. How old is the boy <the boy, how much his age>? - A year and a half.
3. And the girl, how old is she?
4. Five <years>.
5. He passed by here an hour ago <before an hour>.
6. My mother isn’t here <not p rese n ts Would you like to see my father?
7. Is there someone outside?
8. We live in the same house.
9. He left the bicycle beside the storeroom.
10. h ad a ta la b m innak il-m u ftah ?
11. la’, ma-bada-S talab minni *i$i.
12. jfima sa’alak wCn ’abuk? - la’, sa’al ’immi.
13. sa’alnaj-mubtfir ’iza fib bfi$, q a l: ma-fih.
14. ’&> talabtu minnijmbCreh?
15. biqul inno ’inte (or: biqQl innak) ’ibnjl-mul)tftr.
16. hada le-ktab, §u haqqo?
17. ’issa maraq il-bfis.
18. ma-hadfl-s maraq min hdn.
19. min katab hal-maktflb?
20. ma-bada-$ katab la-’abfly.
21. talabet minno ma§ari. - talab minha ma^Sri.
22. biddak qahwe?
23. hallaq ma biddI-§ qahwe, biddi aruh.
24. haz-zalame caqlo kblr.
25. dayman biqQl: ma bidna-Sjsyab u-t0§e.
26. bidna salam hOn u-fi kull il-calam.

Lesson 10____________________________
1. That’s a beautiful story.
2. How was the film? Did you like it <did it please you>?
3. It’s <this [is]> a new film, but I didn’t like it.
4. We saw a better <more beautiful> film a week ago.
5. Every day he tells the same story.
6. Have you got relatives in Jerusalem?

118
 Key to the Exercises

7. No, but I’ve got a lot o f friends.

8. She wanted to visit her mother.
9. jibet haUb min cind ’immi.
10. huwwe zftr-ni u-ana zurto.
11. bizQrni ktlr u-ana bazQro kamfln.
12. yaYflsef, Suqult? ya Maryam, $u qulti?
13. rflb m s^ o hallaq (’issa / halqet).
14. sflhbak rah macak ca-s-slnama?
15. ’aywa, ’ana ruh^t maco ca-s-slnama.
16. ’immi rabat mac ’uljti u-§afat il-fiton.
17. ya Maryam, cajabek il-fiton?
18. ’aywa, cajab-ni ktlr.
19. hfly bames marra bizflmi.
20. §u qal-lak?
21. qal-li: rtlh maco, ’ana barub bacdCn.
22. cindi qarfiyeb fi h€fa.
23. u-ana cin d ij? b S b fi cakka.
24. ya Jamlle, su qulti la-l-walad?
25. jabwemlabbas la-’u^to.
26. ’inte def-na.
27. ’intu dyttf-na.
28. ’uljti jabat bin^t (bint).
29. ’uljti cindha bin«t
30. ’es biddak kamdn?

Lesson 11_____________________________________
1. §ufct ’a^Ok? - ’ayw a, sufto.
2. ya nas, su ftu ’a^ u y ? - ’ayw a, sufhah.
3. il-jirfin Safii bintak? - ’aywa, §afil-ha.
4. in-nas bid-horn isQfuwl-fiten. - ’aywa, bidhom iSuffeh
5. ’immak §afat il-kalb? - ’aywa, safato.
6. jibtuJ-jartde? - ’aywa, jibnS-ha.
7. fih nas warily? - ’aywa, fth nas wotrak / warfiki.
8. lazem ajlb il-bint? - ’aywa, lazemj^tjlb-'ha / etjlbl-ha.
9. lazem^enzflr il-mathaf ? - ’aywa, lazem^etzurflh ’intu kaman.

119
Key to the Exercises

10. il-haqq calawl-jirGn? - ’aywa, il-haqq cal6-hom (-hen).

11. il-haqq caleha! - la’, il-haqq calSk (± ’inte).
12. il-ulad katabuwd-dars ? - ’aywa, katabfih
13. u-inte kamfln katabt id-dars? - ’aywa, katabto.
14. il-bint illi §ufha-ha fi-l-madrase.
15. il-mablag illi dafacnahwemb5reh.
16. il-madrase illi (il-madrasejli) zurnS-ha.
17. il-jande illi (il-jarTdeJli) jibtl-ha.
18. il-fiton illi safato.

Lesson 12_____________________________________
1. lazem tiftahi.
2. biddi adfac: badfac.
3. hal-mablag, badfaco.
4. lazem yis’al.
5. b>ls’al (bis’al) il-mudlr.
6. bis’alo.
7. lissa-k hOn (lissatak h5n) / bacdakG hon?
8. lissa-ki hOn / bacdek hfin?
9. lissa-hom (baced-hen) fi-l-matbaf.
10. lissa ma fatahfl-§.
11. lissa-ni (baced-ni) saken fi nafsjl-bet.
12. Shall we send this letter? Yes, w e’ll send it. No, we w on’t send it.
13. Hey, Samira, did you ask the boss?
14. Why didn’t youf ask the boss?
15. Youf must ask him!
16. If I want to open [it], I’ll open [it].
1 7 .1 want to open the door. I’ll open it now / I ’m opening it now.
18. You must not open [it]. Why do you open [it]?
19. What <with what> do you want to open [it] with? 1 want to open [it]
with the key.
20. il-mablag illi dafacto.
21. mus lazem tidfac hallaq.
22. sa’alt ’abuk? - lissa (bacd).
23. cadatan baftah il-bab hattajfiit.

120
 Key to the Exercises

24. bass hal-morra ma biddi (ma biddl-s) ’aftah.

25. il-maktflb illi katabtQh.
26. il-bab illi fatahto / illi fatahnfih.
27. kull yOm biftah i§-$absblk.
28. biflab il-bab? - ’aywa, biftaho. / la’, ma biftah5-$.
29. min sa’alak / sa’alek? - lazem yis’al ’immo.
30. mu§ lflzem tis’al.

Lesson 13_______________________________________
1. tes b id d ak j^tru h ? Why do you want to go?
2. b it§ aC enmUi m in hOn? Can you see well from here?
3. kull y6 m web tik teb d arsak ? Do you write your lesson every day?
4. n acam, kull yOm b a k te b darsi. Yes, every day I write my lesson.
5. ’£§^ebtUtlob m inno ? What do you want <ask> from him?
6. batlobwektfibwejdId. I want <ask for> a new book.
7. You must pay every month.
8. You don’t have to pay now. You can pay some other <another> time.
9. The catf ran away from home. What do you think o f that
<what do you say>?
10. Well, we’ve tied up the dog, [but] we can’t tie up the cat as well!
11. (huw w e) d afac? - la, lissa m a d a fa ce-§.
12. daym an b id fac, bass il-yom (m a) bidd6-§ y id fac.
13. ’iza b id fac, em nlti.’iza m i b id fac (m a b id fa ce-§), bnikteb la -’im m o.
14. Sam ira b tis ’al qaddCS is-sCca.
15. hiyye b tu tlo b m inni m a$firi. - u - m in n i kamfrn ta lb a t m asfiri.
16. ya w alad , te$webtudro b 1-ewlad fi-§-§arec ?
17. ’an a? m a badrob-S (badrobe-s) foada.
18. id-dul)I)an illi zaracnah.
19. id-dartbe illi (id -d a rtb e jli) dafactu -h a.
2 0 . 1-ehsab illi d a fa cto.
21. l-eb sab illi dafactlh.

121
Key to the Exercises

Lesson 14__________
1. dahanflh.
2. dahanfl-ha
3* ( - ) •
4. yidhano.
5. badhan-ha... tidhan-hfl-S
6. mazaco.
7. maza^-S.
8. mazac-ha.
9. timzac-hfl-§.
10. inno.
11. illi dahan-ha.
12. ( - ) .
13. illi mazacQh.
14. ma rakad-s.
15. ma rak<Jat-§
16. turkod-§.
17. ( - ) .
18. byijmac / bijmac.
19. bijmac-hom.
20. ( - )
21. ma bijmacii-s.

Lesson 15____________________________________
1. His house is cleaner than yours <than your® house>.
2. This is the cleanest house in the town.
3. This is the biggest egg.
4. That’s a more attractive color, I like it better <it pleases me more>.
5. My daughter’s married.
6. Who’s your daughter’s husband? And what’s he like <how [is] he>?
7. There’s no difference between the two.
8. You® are wrong! No, it's youf w ho’s wrong
<you [are] the-mistaken-one>.
9. We all saw the film, apart from Yusef.
10. H e's never paid taxes in his life <his lifetime he didn’t pay taxes>.

122
11. cum ri m a ruhte-§ ca_s . sj nam a
12. kam m a rra Sufi* hal-filem ?
13. qaddfis b iddak tidfac?
14. fib binet ’a k b a r m innek?
15. rain ’a k b a r w fibad?
16. huw w e ’a k b a r m inni b-Sahr6n.
17. fib cjndo |a w a b e c ’a k ta r m inni.
18. il-yfim id-dars ’a tw a l.
19. la ’, m is ’a tw a l, n afs j§ - s l.
20. em bala, h ad a d ars ta w lL ekt!r.
21. qaddSS cum rak?
22. u-ibnak, qadd6s cu m ro ?
23. kam san e // sine k u n t cindo?
24. kam w flhad fib cin(d)kom ?
25. m in ’a k b a r w fihad, ’inte w illa h uw w e?
26. huw w e ’a k b a r m inni, bass ’a n a ’a tw a l m inno.
27. kam m a r ra k u n t (kun^t) hun ak ?
28. w alad ’a § tar cum ri m a Sufte-s.
29. kam ^ l e fib fi-l-balad.
30. muS ’a k ta r m in sa b ^ n .
31. m in k an ’aijer w afrad (w afred)?
32. m a fib far«q bfin it-ten5n.
33. fetaht jd - d u k k a n wembCreti?
34. biddi w ah ed ’ahla.
35. biddi ’a h la w atiad.
36. cindo k u to b ’a k b a r.
37. hfida ’a k b a rwektab.
38. ’5s il-far«q b5n l-ektab5n?
39. biq uiu (± inno) fib fa rq ^ k b lr.

Revision exercise on the subjunctive:

1. h a tta jS ttf ’aJjOk.
2. nUn q al-lak inno b<*siif ’aljuk b u k ra ?
3. muS lazem jS Q fek.
4. biqQl inno biSlifek b u k ra .
5. h a tta J z ttru J -m a th a f.

123
Key to the Exercises

6. m in q al-lak inno bizfim cam m i?

7. m us lazem y ib cat il-m ak to b hallaq.
8. biqOl inno b ib cato bacd£n.
9. mi§ lazem yidfac k u ll il-m ablag.
10. biqQl b idfac b u k ra.
11. m in qal-lak b idfac kull Sah^r?
12. tiatta tidfac n a fs jl- m a b la g .
13. m in q al-lak bikQnu fi-l-bet?
14. b a tta jk f ln u m ab su tln .
15. mu§ lazem ikunu fi n afs jl-m a d ra s e .
16. biqfil inno bikQnu cln d ak b u k ra.

124
 Index of Vocabulary and Rules
Notes:
12 = Lesson 12
15-17 = Lesson 15, footnote 17.
8-e-2 = Lesson 8, Explanations 2.
The c, which has no English equivalent, appears in this list as the first letter o f
the alphabet. For example, the word will appear earlier in the list than
the word m ablag.

C ’ahmar 7
ca ’ile 15 'ahsan 6
cfidatan 12 'ahsan-ma 13-4
cad e 12 ’afj7
cajab 10-11 ’al)ad 8
cajan 13 'af)ad waqet 11-3
cala 5 *al)er 15
cala, cale- 1l-e-2 'afyras 10
calam 9 ’al)u 7
’al)0y 7, 11-e-l
cftm 12-8
'ajlb? 11-4
camm 6
'ak al ll
can 7, 15-14
'akam/akam 15-e-l
caql, caqel 9
'akbar 12
ca§er 9-e-3
'akbarwalad 15-e-2
cCle 15 'aktor 12
cind 2, 5-e-4 a l l o f u s 15-e-5
cumri 15,15-5 'alia 6-6
A 'allah 6-6
’a l ’amCrka 8
*acma 10 'ana 1
'ab, 'abu 7 'ortf 12
'ab$ar 11-2 l-e-6
a tta c h e d p ro n o u n s

'abu (Yusef...) 9-e-2 ’awlad 2-9

'abu-y, -k 11,11-e-l, p. 75 ’awwal 9-e-3
a d je c tiv e l-e-4,
’awwaLembareh 10
’awwaLcmbSreh 10
'ahl 4-4
'ahla, 'ahlan 4, 4-4, 6_6 ’awwalt^embereh 10-7

125
’ay w a 1 b u rd a y 7
’ayy, ’ay y a 7, 7-4 b u sta n 11
’azraq 7 b usuklet 7-2

B C
b- 8-2 com p a ra tive 10-e-2, 15
b ^ d 15
D
b a cat 12
d a fa c 9
b a Ced (after) 6
dafe§ 14
b a ced (yet).12-12,12-e-3
d a fta r 4
b o Ced 15 d ah an 14
bacdSn 5
dal}al9
bflb 7 dalll 8
baba 5
d aqlqa 9
baby {have a - ) 10-3
d a r 3 , 3-1
bakkir 14-e-l
d ay m an 6
b alad 12
days 1 3 -e-l
b a la § 5 d efin ite a rticle 1, 2 -e -1 ,4-e-2
b a q i 10
dinya 2
b a rr a 3, 7 d ir b alak 13
baskalet 7-2
doktflr 5
bass 6 -e-l
d u a l 9-e-2
b a § 6-11, 6 -e-l
dutjtjan 12-7
b atfile 3 d u k k an 14
be- 12-e-l
be {to be) 1, 1-e-l
p
b e d a 15-e-l d a ra b 8, 13
bfin, b e n a t 15-e-4 d a rib e 12, 13-e-2
biddi 4, 6 -e -l d e fio
bid-henne§ p.38
b ijttz 11 E
b Ik 4 -5 e^ty fir - see t)etyfir
b ik affi 1 ’em ta 6
b in t 2 - binet 3-e-2 ’e§ 4, 4 -e-4
b lra 9 ew lad 2-9, 15-7
b u k ra 6, 6-4

126
F h ay y - 5, ll - e - 3
fallah 12 h ay y en 4 ,4 - 8
farq, fareq 15 hSk 2, 1 0 -e - 2 ,15-16
fatah 12 h elp in g vow els 2 -e -2 ,1 3 -e -4
fe m in in e 9-e-4 henne 3
fen 13 h ere is 1 l-e-3
fi 1 hi, h iy y e 1
fth 2 h iy y a- 5, ll - e - 3
fikr 15 hfin 1
fikra 5 ho 2
filem 10-10 hum m e 3
fi-s 2 h u n ak 5
fi§§2 huw w e 2
ffiq 15, 15-16 h w ay y en 4-8
flit 4
H
G habel 13
g ive birth 10-3 tiabTb 3
hada 9
G
had d (besides) 1
g altfin 15
h ad d (anyone) 9
g asal 13
h ad es ( - t ) 11, 14-9
gasll 13
h a fa z 12
g5r 10-e-3
h a k u ra 11
H h al 2, 8-e-2
hada 1 h am d 2, 2-4
hadflk 15-13 haqq 4, 4-3, 9-7
hadi 1 h a q q ca la ... 11
hadO l3 h a rb 9
hal- 3, 3 -e-l h a § a d 13
hallaq 6 h a tta 6
halqet 1-2 h C fa l
ham za p.[9]t p. 110 bilu 1
haq-, haq§ar 15-3
h a ra b 13 5
h a b a r 10
have 2, 7 -e-l
h a b az 13
h aw a 12-5
hay 1 h a la § 1 4-e-l

127
l)ames 9-e-3 ju m ca 8
Ijatar 13 ju w w a 7
tjayyi 4-7
K
1 ,4
k ack 9-3
l)ety&r 6, 6-3
k a lb ll
t)ubz, ^ubez 9
kam 15-e-l
I kamfln 1, 6-e-5
’iben 4 kSn 6
’ihna 3 kftnbiddo 10, 10-1
il- 1, 2 -e -l, 4-e-2 kan fih io
illi 7-e-3, 9-8, 1 l-e-4, 14-e-2 ka-§ 4-2
*imm 5 kazzab 14-2
’imm Y flsef9-e-2 kblr 1, 7-7, 15-e-3
’in §a ’a lla h 6-7 kibnt 4
indefinite article l-e-2 k lf2
inn- 7, 7-3, 9-12 kilo 15-e-l
inni, innak... 9-12 kI-$ 4-2
inno 7, 7-3 kizeb 14-e-l
inSalla 6-7 k ta b 4
’inte, ’inta 1 ktlr 3
’inti 1 kull 2, 4 , 1 5-e-5
’intu 3 kullayat 15-e-5
’issa 1-2 kiln 6
’iSi2 kursi 5-1
-iyyfim 13-e-l kflsa 12
’iza 6-13 kw ayyes 5

J L
ja b 5 1- 5-e-3, 5-e-4
jabal 15 la- 5-e-3, 5-e-4
jab at 10-3 la... w a-la5 -5 , p.l(
jam ac 14 la ’ l-e-7
jam b 7 lahadd 12
ja r 2 l a k e n ll
jd ld l lazem 5-e-l
Jerusalem 6-e-4 las 6
jib 5 li’anno 6
joz 8

128
lissa, lissat- 12-12,12-e-3 masculine l-e-3
lOn 7 maslan 8
ma§er 9
M ma§ri 9
ma 2-e-4, 4 , 12-e-2, p.107 masgQl 3
mk... unstressed 10-5 matal 13, 14-9
m acada 15 matalan 14-9
ma calS§ / cale§§ 5, ll-e-2 mathaf 11-6
ma b*da, ma-hadfl-§ 9 matbaca 14-8
mfiSa’allfih 15-10 matbab 7
mac 3 ,7-e-l mawdOc 9
maclflm 4 mawjfld 8
macqiil 9 mayy 4
mablag 12 mazac 14
mabsQt 2 mazbut 2
madlne 1 embala 5-7
madrase 4, 9-11 cmbareb 4 ,4-e-3
mfildi 12-8 embereb 4, 4-e-3
mahatfa 6 min 1
mafjzan 8 min 3 ,4-e-l
majra 12-5 min^an 4
majrQh 11 miskln 8
makana, makina 8 mis 1, l-e-7, p.107
maktab 13 mitjawwez 15
maktub 8 mjawwaze 15
malek 10 mlabbas 10
mfima 7 mnlh 2, 2-e-2,4-e-3
manac 12 months 13-e-l
mara 8-7 mudlr 1
marbtlt 13-5 muftah 7
marhaba 12-6 muhemm 15
marra 10, 12 mubtfir 7
masa 4 mustasfa 11
masalan 14-9 mus 1, l-e-7, p.107
ma$a ri 2 mflt 6
myself 8-e-2

129
N ro b 5
n acam 1 r a h a twetjfb 10-3
n afs 8-e-2 ra k a tf 14
n a § re /-ra 6 ro o t p. 61
na§ ar 13 ro zz 15-e-l
n a S e fll ru h 5 -e -l
n<jlf 15 S
negation l-e -7 s a ’al 8
enSalla 6-7 sa b e c 9-e-3
num bers 9-e-3 s id e s 9-e-3
nu$$ 6 sahl, sah^l 4-4
O sak at 8 ,1 3
’t><Ja 5 s ik e n , sfikne 1
salam 6, 9
P
s a lim ta k 4
p lu r a l 2-e-3
sam ab 13, 13-e-3
p o ssessives l-e -8
sa m e 8-e-2
pro n u n cia tio n l-e-1 0 , 6 -e -l
saw a6
Q sCca 6
qab^l (-m a) 6
see y o u ! 9 -e -l
qaddes 15-e-l
-s e lf8 -e -2
qahw e 9
sh e 5-e-2
qalll 6-9
slnam a 10
qalfle (ca-l-) 13
stress 3-e-3, 14, 14-e-3, p.109
qannlne 14
s u ’a l 14
q a rib 10, 15-3, 15-15
su b ju n ctive 5 -e -1, 6-e-2, 11 -4
qa$Ir 15
su n letters 2 -e - l, 4-e-2
q atal 8
su p erla tive I5 -e-2
qaw am , qaw fim 5
quddfim 11-e-l §
q u d s (il-) 6-e-4 §acb, §aCeb 3
question l-e-9 $ a b a h 2, 8-3
q u l 5, 7 ?abi 10, 15
qu?$a 10 § a b e b 10
R $ a la 14-3
ro b a t 13 ? a r 11
r a b e c 9-e-3

130
sube(i, $ub°b 8, 8-3 tinten 9-e-3
§y«h8 tlat 9-e-3
§ tn a cSar p.90
S, -S 12-e-2 tnfin 9-e-3
Sacb 9 to 5-e-3, 5-e-4
Sah^r 12 tulife 11-6
Saher [ushor] 13-e-l T
Sams 7 t« b e c 14-8
Santa 14 tarTq 13
s3rec 8 ta w le 5
Setter 4, 15-17 tOse 8
S € k e l12
U
ST 4-9, 8-8
’1 1 * 5 ,7
Su, SO 1, 4-e-4
u la d 2-9
subbilk 7, 12
’u m m 5
sugol 2
*usbuc 8
Swayy 5, 7
’u sta z 9-2
T -uShor 13-e-l
ta 10-12
V
ta cal 5
verb 5-3-1
ta ^ a n 3
ta cl-aqullak 10-e-4 W
talate 9-e-3 w- 1
ta la tta cSar p .9 0 w ab ad / w a h e d 7-4, 9-e-3
talet 9-e-3 w a^ a d / w ab ed (kam - ) 15-e-l
talt 9-e-3 w a la 5-5, p .1 0 7
tam am 6, 15 w ala d 2, 15-7
tam en 9-e-3 w aq t, w aqet 4, 6-12
tani 2 , 4 , 9-e-3, 10-e-l w a r a 11
taq n b an 13 w a ra -y , w a r a - k 11
tarak 8 wfin 1
ta s e c 9-e-3 w illa 4
tenfin 9-e-3 w in ta 6
tfa<J4al 4, 5-3 w hich 1 l-e -4
that 3 -e -l, 7-e-3, l l - e - 4 w ho 7-e-3, 1 l-e -4

131
Y Z
yi - , yu- 12-13, 13-1 zalame 7
ya 1 zam fln6
y acni 2, 2-5, p.109 zarac 12
y a lla 9-5 zawj 10
yam m 15-16 zglr 11
yimken 9 zlti 7
yirtiam 8 zobaca 13
y5m 2 zQr 6

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As you reach the end of the first book
Here you are at the end o f the first book. Y ou’ve gone over all the material,
more or less, you’ve learned a lot, and you can now say hundreds o f extremely
useful sentences. You may have forgotten some o f the things you’ve studied -
or think you have - but at least you’ve come into contact with these things and
made a superficial acquaintance with them. A seed has been sown, and in due
time it will grow.
This has been the first and most difficult stage: foreign sounds and new rules,
which, though comparatively easy to understand, are hard to apply in the course
o f conversation. Nonetheless, if you’ve been conscientious about doing the
exercises, all this material is stored away somewhere in your memory.
When you began this course o f study you entered virgin territory: rocks had to
be cleared away and foundations laid before you could start to build. In Book 2
you won’t be starting from scratch; you’ll be moving forward over familiar
ground, and you’ll be able to use the same methods to continue building:
another verb, whose conjugation greatly resembles that o f verbs you already
know; and more new words, some o f which will remind you of those you
learned in Book 1. If you persevere and advance step by step, and don’t allow
yourself to be overwhelmed by everything you’ve still got to learn, you’ll
negotiate Book 2 safely - and more easily - than you did Book 1.
Good luck!

And w h at’s w aiting for you in Book 2?

a) New verb forms, but - no major surprises. After all, you’ve already acquired
the basics o f verb conjugation. The verbs w e’ll be learning soon are very useful
ones: to do, to know, to understand, to be able, to laugh, to speak, to forget, to
begin, to come - how have we managed to come so far without them? In Book 2
you’ll make their acquaintance.

b) A general overview o f the different verb forms. W e’ll be concentrating

especially on Form 2, which will open new horizons.

c) Lots o f new vocabulary and new turns o f phrase (iif I were..., i f only..., the
more /...), the days o f the week, telling the time, and many more useful rules,
all accompanied by a wealth o f exercises that will turn the new material into a
vehicle for self-expression.

133
In Books 3 and 4 we shall finish covering all the verb forms and get to know
something about “educated Arabic” (the language used in debates and
interviews). Later on you’ll be able to broaden your vocabulary and practice
what you’ve learned with the help o f an additional book: T he O live-Tree
D ictionary.

And o f this excellent plan we have to say, o f course “ ’in * a llfih !”

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