Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

This lesson is not only for all of the vegetarians out there, but for anyone with an aversion to a particular food! There are many reasons a person won't eat a particular food, and there may be times when communicating this is necessary. In this lesson, we'll go over some phrases to make sure you don't get any unwanted surprises on your plate.
In Egyptian Arabic, “I am a vegetarian” is
ana nabaaty.
Let's break it down by syllable.
(slow) ana nabaaty.
Now let's hear it once again.
ana nabaaty.
أنا نباتي
The first word ana means something like “I” or “I am”.
(slow) ana.
Once more:
ana.
Then we have “nabaty”. That is “vegetarian” in English.
Let’s hear the whole sentence one more time
(slow) ana nabaaty.
ana nabaaty.
This means, “I am a vegetarian.”
Another way to say this is, “I don't eat meat”
ana msh bakol laḥmah.
Let's break it down one syllable at a time.
(slow) ana msh bakol laḥma.
Now let's hear it once again.
ana msh bakol laḥma.
أنا مش باكل لحمة
The first word ana means “I”
Do you remember it?
(slow) ana.
ana
Next, we have msh, meaning “don’t” or “not”.
(slow) msh.
msh.
Next, we have bakol, which is the first person conjugation form of the verb “to eat”, so it means, “I eat” in the present continuous tense.
(slow) bakol.
bakol.
Lastly, we have laḥma, meaning “meat”.
(slow)laḥma.
laḥma.
Altogether, ana msh bakol laḥma.
(slow) ana msh bakol laḥma.
ana msh bakol laḥma.
In Egypt, the word laḥma doesn’t usually include chicken, so you need to know the word for “chicken”. That’s feraakh.
(slow)feraakh.
feraakh.
فراخ
So to say that you don’t eat meat, you’re going to have to mention both laḥma and feraakh.
ana msh bakol laḥma aw feraakh.
(slow) ana msh bakol laḥma aw feraakh.
ana msh bakol laḥma aw feraakh.
أنا مش باكل لحمة أو فراخ
aw means “or”. So that means- “I don’t eat beef or chicken.”
Let’s now imagine that you don’t eat cheese. All you have to do is to replace laḥma with the Egyptian word for cheese. That is gebna.
(slow) gebna.
gebna.
جبنة
Now let's try the phrase with this word. “I don't eat cheese” in Arabic is
ana msh bakol gebna.
أنا مش باكل جبنة
Let’s break it down by syllable.
(slow) ana msh bakol gebna.
Let’s hear it one more time.
ana msh bakol gebna.
If you want to make sure some food does not have an ingredient you can’t or don’t want to eat, just ask about it. For example if you want to make sure a meal doesn’t have meat, you should ask, al akl dah fih laḥma? which means “Does this food have red meat in it?”
(slow) al akl dah fih laḥma?
al akl dah fih laḥma?
الأكل ده في لحمة؟
The first word al akl means, “the food”. Which comes from the same root as the verb “to eat.”
(slow) al akl.
al akl.
dah, means “this” .
(slow) dah.
dah.
Next we have fih which is a particle meaning “to have”.
(slow) fih.
fih.
As you can remember, the next word from this sentence means “red meat”.
(slow) laḥma.
laḥma.
Let’s hear it one more time.
(slow) al akl dah fih laḥma?
al akl dah fih laḥma?
Egyptians cook rabbit, duck, and pigeon meat and although we can recommend them as delicious delicacies to try, you can opt out of eating them.
Let’s imagine that you’re in a restaurant and you don’t eat pigeon, and you have to be more specific. It’s easy. “I don’t eat pigeon” is:
ana msh bakol ḥamaam.
Let’s break it down by syllable.
(slow)ana msh bakol ḥamaam.
Once more
ana msh bakol ḥamaam.
أنا مش باكل حمام
In this phrase ḥamaam is translated as “pigeon”.
(slow) ḥamaam.
ḥamaam.
The whole sentence is ana msh bakol ḥamaam.

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