Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the previous lesson, we covered how to get on the subway. In Egypt, a comfortable way to travel over long distances is to take a train, in Egyptian Arabic ‘atr. Trains are convenient and often cheaper than coaches. They’ll also let you see a bit of the countryside between cities, and not just the other side of a motorway.
GRAMMAR POINT
You’ll ask for ‘atr tickets at a ticket office. The phrase will sound something like this:
tazkara le, then you add the destination and then law samaht. If your destination starts with the definite article “el”, instead of “le” add just an “l” before the definite article. For example, Alexanderia “el eskendereyya” will become “lel eskendereyya”.
So let’s try the whole sentence.
“One ticket to Alexandria, please” in Egyptian Arabic is
tazkara lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) tazkara lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
Once more:
tazkara lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
تذكزة للاٍسكندرية لو سمحت.
تذكرة للإسكندرية لو سمحت
تذكزة للاٍسكندرية لو سمحت.
تذكزة للاٍسكندرية لو سمحت.
Resolve
In case that you are not traveling on your own, but you have company, you will need to ask for two tickets or for more.
“Two train tickets to Alexandria, please,” is
tazkarteen lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
(slow) tazkarteen lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
tazkarteen lel eskendereyya, law samaht. تذكرتين للاسكندرية لو سمحت
As you can see, instead of tazkara we say tazkarteen (2 tickets).
In the case you want to buy three tickets, use tazaker and add three in front of the word.
talat tazaker lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
(slow) talat tazaker lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
talat tazaker lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
تلات تذاكر للاسكندرية لو سمحت
Normally when you ask for a train ticket, you will get a second class one, therefore we will teach you how to specify what type of ticket you need.
For a First Class ticket say,
tazkara daraga ‘oola law samaht. which means “One First Class ticket please.”
(slow) tazkara daraga ‘oola law samaht.
tazkara daraga ‘oola law samaht.
تذكرة درجة أولى لو سمحت
daraga ‘oola is translated as “first class”.
daraga means “class”.
‘oola means “first”
(slow) daraga.
daraga.
(slow) ‘oola.
‘oola.
Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time:
tazkara daraga ‘oola law samaht.
If you want to add your destination, in this case Alexandria, your phrase will sound like this:
tazkara daraga ‘oola lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
(slow) tazkara daraga ‘oola lel eskendereyya, law samaht.
تذكرة درجة أولى للاسكندرية لو سمحت
In the case that a second class ticket is what you need, all you have to do is to replace daraga ‘oola with daraga tanya. So “One second class ticket, please” will sound like this:
tazkara daraga tanya law samaht.
(slow)tazkara daraga tanya law samaht.
تذكرة درجة تانية لو سمحت
daraga means “ class” and tanya means “second”.
Let’s hear both phrases one more time so you could compare them easily.
tazkara daraga ‘oola, law samaht.
tazkara daraga tanya, law samaht.
Also there might be cases when you will be asked : “which class?” In Egyptian Arabic, that’s anhi daraga?
(slow) anhi daraga?
Anhi daraga?
أنهي درجة؟
In this sentence anhi means “which”.
In this case your answer will be shorter.
daraga ‘oola if first class is what you want and
daraga tanya for a second class ticket.
Your trip might be a long one and during the night, in which case you would like a “sleeper ticket”.
In Egyptian Arabic that is
tazkara le ‘atr el noom, law samaht.
(slow)tazkara le ‘atr el noom, law samaht.
تذكرة لقطر النوم لو سمحت
In this phrase tazkara means “a ticket”
Le means “to”.
‘atr means “train”, and el noom is translated as “sleep”.
(slow) ‘atr el noom.
‘atr el noom.
Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time:
tazkara le ‘atr el noom law samaht.

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