Learn "How much is this?" in addition to some more Arabic phrases you'll find useful for shopping
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Now it’s time for some useful Survival Phrases for when you’re shopping in Egyptian stores. |
| ・ |
| The first thing you say to a shop assistant in Egypt is law samaht, which is one of the polite phrases we learned in our previous lessons. After that, you will want to ask: “How much is this?” |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In Egyptian Arabic, we say |
| bekam dah? if the thing we are interested in is masculine and |
| bekam dih? for feminine. |
| Let’s break the first question down: |
| (slow) bekam dah? |
| Once more: |
| bekam dah? |
| بكام دَه؟ |
| bekam, means “how much.” |
| (slow) bekam. |
| bekam. |
| At the end of the question we have dah, which is translated as “this”. This is used when the item you are asking about is masculine. |
| Let’s move to the second question: |
| bekam dih? |
| (slow) bekam dih? |
| بكام دِه؟ |
| dih is the feminine form of “this.” |
| ・ |
| Imagine that you’re at a clothing stand in a local market and want to buy a shirt. To attract the attention of the stall-keeper, say law samaht, then ask how much the shirt costs. The question will sound like this: |
| law samaht, bekam el ‘amees dah? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) law samaht, bekam el ‘amees dah? |
| And again at natural speed: |
| law samaht, bekam el ‘amees dah? |
| لو سمحت, بكام القميص دَه؟ |
| First we have the familiar law samaht |
| After that comes bekam, which means “how much”. |
| (slow)bekam |
| bekam |
| After that we have el ‘amees, the word for “the shirt” |
| (slow) el ‘amees. |
| el ‘amees. |
| The last word is dah, which is the masculine form of the word “this”. |
| The whole question is |
| law samaht, bekam el amees dah? |
| Let’s try now with a feminine item. Let’s say you saw a nice bag and you want to know how much it is. You should say: |
| law samaht, bekam el shanta dih? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) law samaht, bekam el shanta dih? |
| And again at natural speed: |
| law samaht, bekam el shanta dih? |
| لو سمحت, بكام الشنطة دهِ؟ |
| What changed here is el shanta, a feminine item, and dih, to suit it. It’s simple, isn’t it? |
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