Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the previous lesson, we covered how to ask, “How do you say this in Egyptian Arabic?” “azzai btʾol deh/dah bellmaṣri” Do you remember? We don’t want you to be caught off guard while in Egypt, So we’re going to introduce a very important phrase.
GRAMMAR POINT
Let’s start this new lesson.
In Egyptian Arabic, “Can you write it, please?” is
momken tektebha lo samaḥit?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) mom-ken tekte-bha lo sama-ḥit?
Once more:
momken tektebha lo samaḥit?
ممكن تكتبها لو سمحت؟
The first word, momken, is translated in this case as “to be able to”. Momken also makes the phrase formal.
(slow) mom-ken.
momken.
ممكن
Next we have tekteb, which is translated as “you write it”
(slow)tiktbha .
tektebha .
تكتبها
lo samaḥit is “please”, as you may remember from our previous lessons.
All together:
momken tektebha lo samaḥit?
This means, "Can you write it, please?”
Now, the previous phrase is not very specific. To make yourself more clear, you can say: “Can you write this phrase?”
momken tekteb algomla deh?
ممكن تكتب الجملة ده؟
Let’s break it down:
(slow) momken tekteb algomla deh?
Once more:
mom-ken tekteb algom-la deh?
The new word in this question is algomla, which means “phrase”
(slow) algomla
aolgomla .
الجملة
algomla deh means “this phrase.”
(slow) algom-la deh.
algomla deh.
الجملة ده
Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time:
(slow)mom-ken tekteb algom-la deh?
momken tekteb algomla deh?
Also, you can say momken tekteb alklmah deh? In English that means “Can you write down this word?”
Let’s break it down.
(slow) mom-ken tekteb alklmah deh?
momken tekteb alklmah deh?
ممكن تكتب الكلمة ده؟
It might happen that people are not carrying a piece of paper or a pen. So before asking: momken tekteb algomla deh? try asking ,maʿak warʾa wi ʾalam?
“Do you have paper and a pen?”
Let’s break it down:
(slow)ma-ʿak warʾa wi ʾa-lam?
Once more:
maʿak warʾa wi ʾalam?
معك ورقة و قلم؟
The first word, maʿak, is translated in our case as “do you have”
(slow)maʿak.
maʿak.
معك
Then you have warʾa, which in English is “a paper”.
(slow) warʾa.
warʾa.
ورقة
Then you have wi, which means “and”.
(slow) wi.
wi.
Finally we have ʾalam, which means “a pen”.
(slow)ʾalam.
ʾalam.
قلم
Here’s the whole sentence:
(slow) ma-ʿak warʾa wi ʾa-lam?
maʿak warʾa wi ʾa-lam?
As usual, before asking about someone else’s stationery supplies, it’s a good idea to say “excuse me”, which is lo samaḥit, at the beginning of the sentence.

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