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Lesson Transcript

Hella: Hello again Simon and welcome to another All About Arabic, lesson 5. Today’s lesson is going to be extremely fun and really easy.
Simon: Yes. Today we’re talking about the five essential phrases that will make the most difference in your studies. The most versatile phrase in Arabic is...
Hella: تفضّل . Now, this is the most versatile phrase you will come across. You can use it to say, “Please come in, please join me,” and that is for food or drinks. You can use it to give permission to someone as, “You may leave, you may talk,” and so on.
Simon: Also, when giving an item to a person. Like if you’re asked to give the pen or you’re giving the waiter the money for the cheque or even offering something to someone.
Hella: The meaning depends on the situation really. I wouldn’t be able to give it a specific translation in this case. Now, there is no excuse not to know this phrase. When you’re addressing a male, you will say, تفضّل , addressing a female تفضّلي , and if you’re addressing a group of people, تفضّلو . So Simon, let’s try with some examples.
Simon: Okay. For example, تفضّلي . I’m gesturing to Halla to come in or sit down.
Hella: Okay. Simon, تفضّل الكتاب . In this case, I’m telling him, “Here is the book.” He probably asked me for it before.
Simon: The second phrase is to showoff your manners with this extremely polite expression.
Hella: شكرا جزيلا, “Thank you very much,” and عفوا , “You’re most welcome.”
Simon: When someone helps you or offers you something, you can always use this expression. It will show how much you appreciate what they are doing and are very grateful for it.
Hella: And as a reply, when using عفوا , that’s a really nice way to say, “No problem, you’re welcome, it’s okay,” and so on. It’s both formal and informal, so feel free to use it whenever you want. So, Simon, تفضّل الكتاب.
Simon: شكرا جزيلا.
Hella: عفوا.
Simon: Halla تفضّلي معي . This means, “Come join me for food.”
Hella: Yes, because he’s gesturing that and has a lot of really delicious food in front of him. So my reply would be, شكرا or شكرا جزيلا , “Thank you very much.”
Simon: عفوا , “You’re welcome.” With these next two expressions, you will be able to ask for and refuse anything you like.
Hella: Now, to say, “Excuse me, pardon, please,” that would be من فضلكَ when addressing a male, من فضلكِ when addressing a female, and من فضلكم when addressing a group of people. To say, “No, thank you,” that would be…
Simon: لا شكرا .
Hella: Okay Simon. So let’s break this down. Simon, من فضلكَ أريد الكتاب , “Excuse me or please I want the book.”
Simon: تفضّلي .
Hella: And here he’s saying, “Here it is,” and handing me the book, and my reply, شكرا جزيلا .
Simon: You can also use it when asking for directions. For example, Halla من فضلكِ أين البنك.
Hella: And I would say, “The bank is in here, go right, go left, go straight forward, after 10 minutes you’ll reach it,” and…
Simon: And I would say, “Thank you,” or شكرا .
Hella: عفوا . Now, our next expression, أهلا و سهلا مرحبا . That’s more like “hello and welcome,” plus السّلام عليكم , “Peace be with you.” This is the Islamic greeting, and it’s one of the most important you will ever hear and use while being in an Arabic-speaking country. You can use أهلا و سهلا مرحبا and السّلام عليكم both as a greeting and a reply. It really doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s both formal and informal. So Simon, أهلا و سهلا.
Simon: مرحبا .
Hella: السّلام عليكم.
Simon: و عليكم السّلام .
Hella: Okay, perfect. So, that leads us to the final expression, مع السّلامة - أراكَ غدا - أراكِ لاحقا or إلى اللّقاء.
Simon: This is “goodbye”. Literally, it means, “Be with safety,” and the second means, “See you later.” You just need to make sure to use the right form when addressing a male, female or a group of people.
Hella: Yes. So let me repeat that again. مع السّلامة , it’s, “Be with safety,” so we don’t really have to change anything with it. The second one is a verb, so it will be. أراكَ when addressing a male. أراكِ when addressing a female. أراكم when addressing a group of people. غدا] is “tomorrow”. لاحقا is “later”. And to say إلى اللّقاء , that’s “goodbye”. Okay. As an extra tip for our listeners, what we’re going to do now is give you the same expressions, but I will pronounce it using the Egyptian dialect. As we said, there’s a difference between standard and Egyptian, dealing with someone in a formal way or informal way. So, the first one would be إتفضّل ـ إتفضّلي ـ إتفضّلو , which was in standard, تفضّل ـ تفضّلي and تفضّلو. The second expression we used شكرا جزيلا . It’s basically the same, but instead of جزيلا , we will say ڤزيلا , شكرا ڤزيلا or simply شكرا. We may also say ألف شكر . Literally, that’s a thousand thank you. And our third expression, which was “Excuse me, pardon please,” it will simply be
من فضلك ـ من فضلكِ ـ من فضلكم and that’s addressing male, female and a group of people. أهلا و سهلا , it’s the same. مرحبا we use it but it’s not that common actually with our dialect, so I would recommend that you stick with أهلا or أهلا و سهلا, and مع السّلامة , it’s more the same. And to say, “See you tomorrow,” أشوفَك ـ أشوفِك ـ أشُفكو بكرا. That’s, “See you tomorrow,” and that is all.
Simon: That’s great. Thanks Halla.
Hella: You’re welcome. See you next time with another All About Arabic lesson.
Simon: Join us again at arabicpod101.com.
Hella: مع السّلامة .
Simon: Bye, bye.

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