Google Earth in Arabic

أبريل 2nd, 2008

At least the help pages of Google Earth are in Arabic, so I expect the program is also available with an Arabic language interface. When looking at the help pages in English, I noticed a drop-down box which allows you to view the help page in a different language. Arabic is one of the choices, so this is one more opportunity to build vocabulary and practice reading.

The particular help page I looked at asks the question:
كم عمر صور القمر الصناعي التي لديكم؟

كم (kam) - this is the question word, asking “how many”, “how much”, or in this case, “how old”

عمر (’umr) - age; this word can also be used as: كم عمرك؟ (kam umrak?) or “how old are you?”

صور (sur) - picture, image

قمر (qumar) - normally, this word means “moon”, but it can also refer to an artificial satellite, such as one that collects imagery

صناعي (sinaa’i) - artificial

التي (leti) - that, which

لديكم (ladikum) - you have

Thus, the question is asking “How old is the satellite imagery that you have?”

Google Earth help page

Question words

فبراير 19th, 2008

As in English, questions in Arabic are indicated with use of rising intonation.  Here are some question words in Arabic:

مَل (hal) - do (as in “do you?” or “is it?”), used for yes/no questions

ما؟ (maa) - what?

ماذاذ؟ (matha) - what? (used with verbs, such as “what are you doing?”)

مِن؟ (min) - who?

أينَ؟ (ayna) - where?

كَيفَ؟ (kayfa) - how?

متى (meta) - when?

لماذا؟ (limatha) - why?

كم؟ (kam) - How many?

Examples

مِن هُوَ؟ - Who is he?

مِن أينَ أنتَ؟ - Where are you from?

كَيفَ حالك؟ - How are you?

كَيفَ الحال؟ - How are things?

ما هذا؟ - What is that?

مل يوحد؟ - Is there …? or “are there …?”

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?َ

فبراير 17th, 2008

The Arabic word for question is سؤال (su’al) and the plural form of the word is أسئلة (asa’la).

The television program (برنامج - “barnamaj”) “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” is aired in the Middle East, in Arabic, on MBC (Center for Middle East Television) as من سيربح المليون؟. The show was once very popular in the United States. The prize on the MBC show is 2,000,000 Saudi Riyals, which is approximatley $520,000 USD.

In this segment, the contestant is answering السؤال الثامن (the eighth question), which is asking who played “Anna Karenina” on film? “Anna Karenina” is the title character of a book by Tolstoy, which was made into a film in 1935.

More about the novel and the film:
* Anna Karenina - Wikipedia (English)
* أنا كارنينا - Wikipedia (Arabic)

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.