INTRODUCTION |
The only cities in Egypt that have a subway are Cairo, Giza, and Helwan. Riding the subway, which is metro in Egyptian Arabic, is one of the best ways to reach the most important parts of the capital. In this lesson, we’ll cover how to get on the subway. As we have learned in previous lessons, in Egypt you can buy tickets at stations. This is true of the subway as well. Just in case you get too confused and have to ask the station attendant, we have prepared this lesson for you! |
GRAMMAR POINT |
Now let’s get ourselves a subway ticket. You may remember from our previous lessons that the way to ask for a ticket is: |
tazkara law samaht. |
(slow) tazkara law samaht. |
tazkara law samaht. |
تذكرة لو سمحت |
This is the same sentence we learned in lesson 25. |
・ |
Our location in this lesson is Cairo. Imagine you’re going from Ramsis Square to Maadi, and you want to know what line will get you there. |
You can find out by asking, “Excuse me, which line goes to Maadi?” |
law samaht, anhy ḫat ywaddi el maadi? |
Let’s break that down: |
(slow) law samaht, anhy ḫat ywaddi el maadi? |
And again at natural speed: |
law samaht, anhy ḫat ywaddi el maadi? |
لو سمحت, أنهي خط يودي المعادي؟ |
First comes the usual law samaht. |
Next is anhy, which is translated as “which”. |
(slow) anhy. |
anhy. |
After that, we have, ḫat which means “line”. |
(slow) ḫat. |
ḫat. |
Then comes ywaddi, a present tense form of the verb that means “to take something somewhere”. |
(slow) ywaddi. |
ywaddi. |
After that comes el maadi, which means “Maadi”. |
All together, it’s: |
law samaht, anhy ḫat ywaddi el maadi? |
・ |
Here is a possible answer. “Take the Helwan line.” |
ḫat Helwaan. |
Let’s break that sentence down: |
(slow) ḫat Helwaan. |
ḫat Helwaan. |
خط حلوان |
The first word is ḫat, which means “the line”. |
(slow) ḫat. |
ḫat. |
Next we have Helwan, which is the name of the line. |
The whole sentence again is: |
ḫat Helwaan. |
Comments
Hide