Learn an essential phrase when traveling in Egypt or an Arabic-speaking community
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| INTRODUCTION |
| This lesson's phrase will help you take matters into your own hands! In this lesson, we’ll take a look at the word “please,” which will be very important when you need to ask for something. |
| GRAMMAR POINT・ |
| In Egyptian Arabic, “please” is: |
| law samaḥt. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) law samaḥt. |
| Once more: |
| law samaḥt. |
| Let’s take a closer look at law samaḥt. The first word, law, means “if”. |
| (slow) law. |
| law. |
| The second word, samaḥt, is a conjugated form of the verb yasmaḥ which means “to allow.” |
| (slow) samaḥt |
| samaḥt |
| So law samaḥt literally means “If you would allow” or “If you please”. |
| Let’s hear the expression again: |
| law samaḥt. |
| (slow) law samaḥt. |
| لَوْ سَمَحت |
| By the way, the expression law samaḥt can also mean “Excuse me”. |
| ・ |
| In situations when you’re asking for forgiveness or for a big favor, or when the person you’re speaking to is in a bad mood, and you feel that law samaḥt is not enough, you need to use a different expression. It would be baʿd ʾeznak. This expression is literally translated as “after taking your permission” or “if you don’t mind”. |
| Let’s hear that again: |
| (slow)baʿd ʾeznak. |
| baʿd ʾeznak. |
| baʿd means “after” |
| (slow) baʿd |
| And ʾezn means “permission”. When you add ak to the end of the word, it will mean “your permission”. |
| (slow) eznak |
| eznak |
| ・ |
| When you want to ask for something specifically, say law samaḥt, ʿāyiz dah for “I want this, please”. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) law samaḥt, ʿāyiz dah |
| Once more: |
| law samaḥt, ʿāyiz dah |
| law samaḥt, as we saw before, means “please” |
| The next word, ʿāyiz, means “I want” |
| (slow) ʿāyiz |
| ʿāyiz |
| Finally we have dah, meaning “this” or “that”. |
| (slow) dah |
| dah |
| So altogether it is |
| (slow) law samaḥt, ʿāyiz dah |
| law samaḥt, ʿāyiz dah |
| ・ |
| This expression has many variations depending on the gender of the speaker, the person it’s directed at, and the object. Let’s study these variations: |
| You use law samaḥt if you are speaking to a man, but if you are speaking to a woman, you should use law samaḥti. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) law samaḥti. |
| Once more: |
| law samaḥti. |
| You use ʿāyiz if you are a man, but if you are a woman, you should use ʿāyza. |
| (slow) ʿāyza |
| ʿāyza |
| You use dah if you are talking about a masculine object, but if you are talking about a feminine object, you should use dih. |
| (slow) dih |
| dih |
| So for example, if you are a woman, talking to another woman, about a feminine object, you will say law samaḥti, ʿāyza dih. |
| Let’s hear the expression again: |
| (slow) law samaḥti, ʿāyza dih. |
| law samaḥti, ʿāyza dih. |
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