Gulf banks system

فبراير 11th, 2008

Here are some words to help understand this news clip, which is about banks and money in the Gulf area:

منطقة (mintaqa) - area, region

أموال (amwal) - money, wealth [pl]; مال (mal) - money

نقد (naqd) - money, cash

فائد (fa’id) - surplus

خليج (khalij) - Gulf

غمر (ghamura) - to flood, overwhelm

حل (halla) - to work out (a problem), solve, settle, …

سوق (suuq) - market; أسواق (aswaaq) - markets [pl]

مشكلة (mushkila) - problem

Arabic verbs and tense

فبراير 7th, 2008

Most verbs in Arabic are built around a trilateral root, consisting of three consonants. For example, the word دَخَلَ (dakhala) which means “to enter”. The root of the word is د + خ + ل . The consonants will remain the same, no matter what tense the verb is in. As in Spanish, verbs in Arabic are conjugated (change form, depending on pronoun). In the “present” tense, it works like this, with use of a prefix (ت - “ta” , ي - ya, or ن - na) along with modifying the vowel pattern. The root consonants remain the same. The following example is in the “past” or perfect tense, with a suffix attached to the root.
He entered - دَخَلَ (dakhala)
She entered - دَخَلَتْ (dakhalat)
You (m. sing.) entered - دَخَلَتَ (dakhalata)
You (f. sing.) entered - دَخَلَتِ (dakhalati)
I entered - دَخَلَتُ (dakhalatu)
They (dual m. - 3rd person) - دَخَلا (dakhala)
They (dual f. - 3rd person) - دَخَلَتَا (dakhalata)
You (dual 2nd person) entered - دَخَلْتُمَا (dakhaltuma)
They (m. pl) entered - دَخَلُوا (dakhalua)
They (f. pl) entered - دَخَلْنَ (dakhalna)
You (m. pl) entered - دَخَلْتُمْ (dakhaltum)
You (f. pl) entered - دَخَلْتُنَّ (dakhaltunna)
We entered - دَخَلْنَا (dakhalna)

Arabic does not have an exact equivalent of the “present” and “past” tense, as used in English. Instead, it has the “perfect” and “imperfect” tenses. Perfect tense is used to describe actions that have been completed, such as “he ate” but not “he was eating” which is imperfect (incomplete action in the past or present). The above example is the perfect tense, describing completed actions in the past. The above is also in the “active” voice (”he entered”), rather than “passive” which would be “he had entered”.

When looking up words in the dictionary, verbs are given in the male singular third person (”He”), in the perfect tense. For example, you would find “to enter” listed as دَخَلَ (dakhala).

BBC Xtra English - Employment agencies

فبراير 3rd, 2008

The BBC Xtra English segment for January 30th discusses employment agencies in the UK, and bogus ones.

Here is the link to the BBC segment, which discusses various English phrases such as “wannabe stars” and “take advantage of”. The BBC page also includes the ability to listen to the clip:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/elt/newsid_7217000/7217474.stm

Here are some words mentioned in the clip:

The word for “employ” is وظف (wathafa) and “employment” is توظيف (tawthif).

مزيف (muzayyaf) - fake

وكالة (wakala) - agency

ممثل (mumaththil) - actor

عارض الأظياء (arada al-azya) - fashion model

رسم (rasm) - fee; رسوم (rusam) - fees [pl]

والدان (walidan) - parents

طفل (tifl) - child; أطفال (atfal) - children [pl]

مجاني (majjani) - free

عقد (aqd) - contract

نقد (naqd) - money

غير (ghayyara) - to change

About This Blog

I am studying Arabic at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, and will be in Egypt in the summer. This site covers Arabic grammar, vocabulary, and other aspects of the Arabic language, and makes frequent use of YouTube videos, news, and other Arabic language resources on the Internet.