This is a song by Tamer Hosny, Yara, Ramy Ayash, Ganat, and Haytham Shaker, called أمي ثم أمي (My mother, and then, my mother). Like many songs, this one is sung in Egyptian colloquial dialect, which helps to highlight differences in Egyptian colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic.

Here are the lyrics for the first line:

بعد الحب ده ايه الى تعمل كل ده تستاهل ايه بعد الحب ده ايه الى تدى حنان كده من غير حساب نبوس التراب الى مشيه عليه

With these words, the first line of the song roughly translates as:

“After this love
What does she does all of this deserve
After this love, what
She who gives affection like this without asking for anything in return;
We kiss the ground she walks upon”

Nisba nouns are “relative adjectives” that are modified from nouns, for example from a place name to describe a person from the place. These adjectives often indicate affiliation, origin, or other relation to the noun (e.g., a place).

فرنسا (faranca) or France -> فرنسي (francee) or French.

لبنان (lubnan) - Lebanon -> لتناني (lubnani) - Lebanese

كندا (kanada) - Canada -> كندي (kanadi) - Canadian

Nisba can also be used to form nouns, such as professions, and other words such as مدني (medani) - civilian, which is modified from مدينة - medina or “city”.

A nisba is usually formed by adding a ي to the end of a noun. If a noun ends in a ta’ marbuta (ة) or alif (ا), it is usually dropped and the ي added. As with other adjectives, nisba adjectives need to agree with nouns they modified. For nisbas that go with feminine nouns, the nisba needs to be in the feminine form, by adding the ta’ marbuta.

For example, وزارة الخارجية (wizara al-kharijia) - foreign ministry

وزارة الداخلية (wizara al-dakhalia) - interior ministry

Other nisba examples include:

Another site that I have found very useful is http://www.arabicmusictranslation.com/, which has lyrics to songs in Arabic, with translations to English.

Songs include different types of phrases, some that are used in day-to-day speech. Many of the songs are also sung in a dialect (often Egyptian colloquial). For example, the phrase ايه يعني (aaya ya’ni) which translates as “so what?” in English.

The person behind the Arabic lyrics site recently started a second web site, http://egyptianarabiccourse.blogspot.com/ where he focuses on the Egyptian colloquial dialect with examples from song and more detailed explanations of the lyrics. This looks very useful, since colloquial is the day-to-day spoken language and is essential to learn these types of phrases.

Vocabulary

Here are some vocabulary words for family members and various places (of work):

Sentences

Here are some example sentences using these words. The verb عمل is in the “present” tense here, which means a prefix is attached (ي) for male, singular third person (”he”) and for female, singular third person (”she”), a ت is attached. And to make father, mother, brother, or sister possessive (e.g. “my brother”), a suffix is attached to the noun. In this case, the suffix is for first person singular (”my”), which is a ي.

والدي يعمل في مستشفى - My father works in a hospital.

والدتي تعمل في مدرسة - My mother works in a school.

أخي يعمل في المطار - My brother works at the airport.

أخي يعمل في مصنة - My brother works in a factory.

أختي تعمل في مطعم - My sister works in a restaurant.

أختي تعمل في متحف - My sister works in a museum.

Pronouns may be used in sentences to separate the subject and the object (predicate), in situations where there is no verb.

For example:

هَذا هُوَ التفاح اخضر - This is a green apple.

Compared to a noun phrase:

هَذا التفاح اخضر - This green apple…

Another example:

هَذَهِ هِيَ الصورة - This is a picture.

هَذَهِ الصورة - This picture…

Sometimes the pronoun of separation is omitted if the meaning is nonetheless clear without it.

The word for “refuse, reject” is رَفَضَ (rafada).

Examples of how this word can be used:

* OPEC refused to increase production. - رفض الأوبيك زيادة الانتاج [here زيادة (zayada) means “increased”, as an adjective; أنتج (antaja) means “to produce]

Conjugated in the perfect (”past”) tense:

While English only has plural and singular forms of nouns, Arabic also has the dual form to denote two of something. Adjectives that describe a dual noun will also be in dual form.

Forming dual nouns

To form a dual noun, a suffix is added:

انِ (-ani) or ينِ (ayni)

The انِ (-ani) suffix is used for nouns (and adjectives) in the nominative case, that is when the noun is the subject of the sentence.

For example:

• كنابانِ (kitabani) - two books
• طلفانِ (tilfani) - two kids

Note that in casual speech (colloquial), the final kasra is usually not pronounced.

A different suffix (ينِ or “-ayni”) is used for words that are in the accusative (object of the sentence) or genitive (object of a preposition) case.

For example:

• أكلتُ تفاحينِ (akaltu tufaahayni) - I ate two apples.
• في كتابينِ (fi kitabayni) - in two books

When a word ends in a ta marbuta, the ta marbuta is becomes a ت (”ta”).

Learning numbers in Arabic and how to use them is one of the more challenging aspects of learning the language. One reason they are difficult is that Arabic uses alternative digits (Hindi numerals), though sometimes the same digits used in English are used in Arabic.

- 0 (zero) - صِفْر (sifr)

- 1 (one) - واحد (wahid)

- 2 (two) - اثنان (ithnan)

- 3 (three) - ثَلاثة (thalatha)

- 4 (four) - أربَعة (arba’)

- 5 (five) - خَمْسة (khamsa)

- 6 (six) - ستًة (sitta)

- 7 (seven) - سَبْعة (saba’a)

- 8 (eight) - ثمانية (thamania)

- 9 (nine) - تسْعة (tisa’a')

- 10 (ten) - عَشَرة (ashara)

These numerals are used on money, sometimes on gas station signs to show the price, and other places. Here is a 100 Egyptian pound bill:

Now, listen to the Arabic numbers from one to ten:

In Arabic, there are both masculine and feminine forms of the numbers, with grammar rules about when to use which gender. Further discussion of this will come later.

In my class, I am learning Modern Standard Arabic, which is the formal way of speaking. It is used in the news media, in formal or business situations, giving a conference presentation, etc. However, on the streets of Cairo, the local dialect spoken is quite a bit different. When I get to Egypt and speak standard Arabic, people will understand but it may sound funny to them. So, as I am learning standard Arabic, I am also paying attention to how things are different in Egyptian colloquial.

Differences start with pronunciation of some letters, particularly the ق (qaf) which is instead pronounced as a “glottal stop”. In standard Arabic, one would say قهوة (qahua) for “coffee”, but in the Egyptian dialect, it is ‘ahua.

Another difference is when asking where something is. In standard Arabic, you would say أينَ الحمام؟ (ayna al-hamam) - “where is the bathroom?”. The question word in the Egyptian dialect is “feyn”, so you would ask “feyn al-hamam”. Another word for bathroom in the Egyptian dialect is تواليت (twalit), which obviously is a borrowed word from English.

When I started learning Arabic a year ago, the first thing I got was a pocket travel phrase book / dictionary. It has proved very useful, allowing me to learn some of the most practical, everyday words and things useful for a traveler to know. The pocket phrase book that I have has the standard Arabic spelled out in Arabic script, but it also gives the colloquial words, helping familiarize myself with how colloquial and standard Arabic differ.

توالي درجات الحرارة إرتفاعها التدريجي على معظم مناطق المملكة وسماء غائمة جزئياً على شمال المملكة وقد تظهر بعض السحب المنخفضة على مرتفعات جنوب غرب المملكة .

- Weather for March 2, 2008 - Saudi Arabia

Important words to know to understand a weather forecast:

توالي - to follow, come in succession, come continually, continue

درجات الحرارة - temperature (degrees of heat)

رَفَعَ - rafa’a - to lift, rise, elevate; A number of other words are derived from this verb, including رفعة (rif’a) - height; رفيع (rafi’) - high, high-ranking, loud; إرتفاع (irtafa’) - rise (of prices, temperature, …), increase, height, altitude.

تدريجيّاً (tadrijian) - gradually

معظم (moa’tham) - most

مناطق (manatiq) - areas

المملكة (al mamalika) - the Kingdom

With these words, the first part of the initial sentence translates as: “Temperatures continue to gradually rise in most areas of the Kingdom.”

سماء (samaa’) - sky

غائم (ghai’m) - cloudy

جزئياً (jazi’yan) - partly

شمال (shamaal) - north, northern

This part of the sentence translates as: “and partly cloudy skies in the northern Kingdom”

ظهر (thahara) - to appear, overcome

بعض (bau’da) - some

سحب (suhub) - clouds

منخفضة - low

جنوب (junub) - south

غرب (gharb) - west

The last part of the sentence translates as “some low clouds appearing in the southwest of the Kingdom.”