Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

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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