Dialogue

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Lesson Transcript

Exchanging money in Egypt is quite convenient. You can exchange money at airports, special money exchange kiosks and banks, or simply withdraw money from an ATM. The rates applied when withdrawing money from an ATM are likely to be higher. As a general rule, try to find one of the countless exchange offices. They shouldn’t be too hard to find.
First, let's review some previous phrases and patterns we've covered.
In Egypt, “Is there an ATM near here?” is
fi ATM orayyeb men hena?
(slow) fi ATM orayyeb men hena?
fi ATM orayyeb men hena?
في إي تي إم قُرَيِّب من هنا؟
Note how the Egyptian Arabic ق is pronounced just like a glottal stop sound would be.
Now, to ask for a bank. We can just replace the word for ATM with the word for bank and the phrase works just fine. “Is there a bank near here?” is
fi bank orayyeb men hena?
(slow) fi bank orayyeb men hena?
fi bank orayyeb men hena?
في بنك قُرَيِّب من هنا؟
It is simple, as you may have noticed the word for bank is the same.
Let’s ask for an exchange office now. It is very similar. You just need to insert - maḥal seraafah.
(slow) fi maḥal seraafah orayyeb men hena?
fi maḥal seraafah orayyeb men hena?
في محل صرافة قُرَيِّب من هنا؟
Let’s ask the question.
fi maḥal seraafah orayyeb men hena?
(slow) fi maḥal seraafah orayyeb men hena?
fi maḥal seraafah orayyeb men hena?
For times when there is neither a bank nor an ATM, you can ask, "Where can I exchange currency?"
In Egyptian, this is a’dar aḥawwel floos feen?
Let’s break it down:
a’dar aḥawwel floos feen?
Once again:
a’dar aḥawwel floos feen?
أقدَر أحَوِّل فلوس فين؟
The first word, a’dar, means “I can.”
(slow) a’dar.
a’dar.
Then we have aḥawwel a verb in the first person form that is translated as “ to exchange”
(slow) aḥawwel.
aḥawwel.
And then we have floos, the word for “money”.
(slow) floos.
floos.
And then we have feen, the word for “where”.
(slow) feen.
feen.
All together, we have
a’dar aḥawwel floos feen?
Literally, this means “Where can I exchange money?”
In case you need smaller units of money you can go to any shop, supermarket, exchange office, or gas station and ask ma’ak fakkah? In English “Do you have change?”
Let’s break it down:
ma’ak fakkah?
Once more:
ma’ak fakkah?
The first word ma’ak is translated as “You have”.
(slow) ma’ak.
ma’ak.
Then we have fakkah , which in our question means “ change”.
(slow) fakkah.
fakkah.
And at the end as usual we can add “law samaḥt” to be extra polite.
Here’s the question again:
ma’ak fakkah law samaḥt?
معاك فكه لو سمحت؟
The literal translation is “Do you have change please?”
Ask this when you have a big bill that you want to break.

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