Learn the phrases to use when you meet someone for the very first time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Munia: مَرْحَبًا بِكُمْ إسْمِي مُنْيَة It’s me, Munia. Welcome back, Munia here. |
| Mehdi: And I’m Mehdi. |
| Munia: Arabic Newbie Lesson 3. |
| Mehdi: “What’s your name?” |
| Munia: Hello and welcome to the Arabic Newbie Series at ArabicPod101.com where we study standard Arabic in a fun and educational format. |
| Mehdi: So brush up on the Arabic that you started learning long ago or start learning today. |
| Munia: With us you learn to speak Arabic, no matter which Arabic country you’re going to. |
| Mehdi: And join us for this Newbie Lesson at ArabicPod101.com. |
| Munia: In the previous lesson, we learned how to greet someone. And today we introduce basic self-introduction. We’ll learn how to ask “What’s your name?” and how to answer it. |
| Mehdi: This is going to be very useful during your visit to any Arabic speaking country. Munia, can you set the stage for today’s conversation. |
| Munia: Sure. Two young people, Leila and Ali meet each other for the first time. I will be Leila and you will be Ali, and the dialogue is going to be in informal Arabic. |
| Mehdi: Ok, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Munia: مَرْحَبًا أَنَا لَيْلَى. مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| Mehdi: مرحبا اسمي علي، أنا طالب |
| Munia: حقّا؟ أنا أيضا |
| Munia: Once again. This time, slowly. |
| Munia:مَرْحَبًا أَنَا لَيْلَى . مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| Mehdi: مَرْحَبًا اِسْمِي عَلِي ، أَنَا طَالِبْ |
| Munia: حَقًّا؟ أَنَا أَيْضًا |
| Munia: This time, with the translation. |
| Munia: مَرْحَبًا أَنَا لَيْلَى. مَا اسْمُكَ؟ Hi. I’m Leila. What’s your name? |
| Mehdi: مرحبا اسمي علي، أنا طالب Hi. My name is Ali. I’m a student. |
| Munia: حقّا؟ أنا أيضا Really? Me too. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Munia: Alright. Tell us, Mehdi, you’ve traveled a lot to many Arab countries. How do people introduce themselves? |
| Mehdi: Well, people use their own local dialect to interact with each other on a daily basis. So when you introduce yourself to new people, typically you would use the Arabic dialect specific to that country. |
| Munia: And the Arabic dialects are a bit different than the standard Arabic in today’s dialogue. But the great thing is standard Arabic is understood in every Arabic speaking country. |
| Mehdi: That’s right. So you can use today’s dialogue and people will perfectly understand you, but they will immediately guess that you’re a foreigner. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Munia: Now we will take look at the vocabulary and phrases for this lesson. |
| Mehdi: First we have a word. |
| Munia: أنا |
| Mehdi: The pronoun I |
| Munia: أَ نَا |
| Mehdi: أنا |
| Munia: Next, we have a phrase. ما اسمك؟ |
| Mehdi: What’s your name? – when addressing a man. |
| Munia: مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| Mehdi: مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| Munia: Next phrase. مَا اسْمُكِ؟ |
| Mehdi: What’s your name? – when addressing a woman. |
| Munia: مَا اسْمُكِ؟ |
| Mehdi: مَا اسْمُكِ؟ |
| Munia: Next phrase. اسمي |
| Mehdi: My name is. |
| Munia: اِ سْ مِي |
| Mehdi: اِسْمِي |
| Munia: Next we have a word. |
| Mehdi: طالب |
| Munia: “Student”, in the masculine form. |
| Mehdi: طَا لِ بْ |
| Munia: طَالِبْ |
| Mehdi: Next we have a phrase. |
| Munia: أنا أيضا |
| Mehdi: Literally, “me too”. |
| Munia: أَ نَا أَ يِ ضًا |
| Mehdi: أَنَا أَيْضًا |
| Munia: Last, we have a word. حقّا |
| Mehdi: Really? |
| Munia: حَ قْ قًا |
| Mehdi: حَقًّا |
| Munia: We also used the word مرحبا in today’s dialogue, which was the focus of the previous lesson. |
| Mehdi: And that’s why we didn’t include it in the vocabulary list. |
| Munia: It means “Hi”. Word and phrase list. أنا |
| Mehdi: “I” and also, “me”. |
| Munia: طالب |
| Mehdi: “Student”, in the masculine form. |
| Munia: طالبة |
| Mehdi: “Student”, in the feminine form. |
| Munia: أنا طالب |
| Mehdi: I’m a student. |
| Munia: أنا ليلى |
| Mehdi: I’m Leila. |
| Munia: مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| Mehdi: What’s your name? – when addressing a man. |
| Munia: مَا اسْمُكِ؟ |
| Mehdi: What’s your name? – when addressing a woman. |
| Munia: اسمي علي |
| Mehdi: My name is Ali. |
| Munia: أنا أيضا |
| Mehdi: Me too. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Munia: Let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words. The first word we’ll look at is أنا |
| Mehdi: We can use it to both say “I” and “me”. |
| Munia: Can you give us an example, Mehdi, please? |
| Mehdi: أنا مهدي means “I’m Mehdi”. |
| Munia: That’s pretty simple. We can actually make sentences in Arabic starting with أنا followed by a noun. أنا منية Munia. |
| Mehdi: That’s right. We can also use it in combination with the word طالب. Which means “student”. |
| Munia: That is right. Just like in the dialogue. Ali says أنا طالب. And that’s another word we would like to talk about. طالب is “student”, in the masculine form. |
| Mehdi: In the feminine form, it’s طالبة, note that we added the sound أَ at the end. |
| Munia: For example, if I were to speak I would say أنا طالبة . أَ is literally translated as “I, Leila.” The sentence أَنا plus name can be used by men and women alike. For example, أَنا James. “I’m James.” Or أَنا Susan, “I’m Susan”. The verb to be is implied. |
| Mehdi: In the same way أنا طالب means literally “I, student”. The verb to be is not needed. |
| Munia: You can actually make your own sentences and start speaking Arabic right now. Let’s try. |
| Mehdi: أَنا جميل and that means “I’m handsome”, |
| Munia: That is correct. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Munia: Now, let’s go over the grammar use in this lesson. We will learn how to say “What’s your name?”, both when addressing a man and when addressing a woman. |
| Mehdi: In the dialogue, Leila asked Ali مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| Munia: ما means “what” followed by اسْمُكَ, which means “your name”, All together مَا اسْمُكَ؟ literally means “what your name?” |
| Mehdi: Again, the verb “to be” is not used. |
| Munia: مَا اسْمُكَ؟ means “What’s your name?”, and is used to address a man. |
| Mehdi: To address a woman, we say مَا اسْمُكِ؟. |
| Munia: The suffix كَ and كِ attached to a noun is the possessive “your”. سْمُكَ means “your name” in the masculine form, and سْمُكِ means “your name” in the feminine form. |
| Mehdi: To answer this question simply use إسمي, “my name”, followed by your name. For example, “It’s me, Ali” or “It’s me, Emi”. Again, there is no need for the verb to be. |
| Munia: Alright. Let’s practice a bit, shall we? مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| Mehdi: إسمي مهدي It’s me, Mehdi. مَا اسْمُكِ؟ |
| Munia: إسمي منية It’s me, Munia. |
Outro |
| Munia: That just about does it for today’s lesson. Make sure you check out the grammar point in this lesson’s PDF which you can pick up at ArabicPod101.com. |
53 Comments
HideMarhaban, My fiance's family speaks Egyptian Arabic, so I am trying to learn some Arabic, too. How do you say "What's your name?" in Egyptian Arabic? Also, I have been hearing "anaa kaman" for "me, too," not "anaa ayDan." Is the former a regional variation? Shukran!
Hi Lukman,
Thank you very much for your kind words. We are rooting for you!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
This is my day one and I am already done with part 3 of the newbie lesson. So far, I am enjoining learning how to communicate in arabic.
My main purpose of learning this is because I want to be a flight attendant and I need a second language, I wish I can find a teacher to teach me aviation terms and greetings.
Alihamdulai I am a Muslim and I read the Quran which means I am familiar with the Arabic letters.
Thank you for the good work you are doing, may Allah (swt) reward you.
Hi Cynthia,
Oh, that is called tanween, or nunation. You will often find it in the end of adverbs. The vowelling sign of tanween is sometimes omitted, which makes it a bit confusing, but you will get used to it.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Hello! I am a total beginner and this classes are really helping me. I noticed that some words (haqqan, marhaban, aydan,..) are pronounced with an n at the end even though written they end with an alif. Could you please explain this to me? Is there a specific rule for this? Thank you very much.
Hi Caleb,
That's true. Using what you learn is the best way to master it.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
They are very detailed resources but it requires a lot of focus, persistence and some arabic speaking clients or colleagues to practice with to improve in it.
Hi Ks,
Thank you ❤️️
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Hu Urooj,
Yeah the best thing to do is use all our products on several platforms together.
Good luck!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
❤️️
also you guys are the best, i have so many accounts on different platforms but you have taught me the best tbh❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️