Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
This lesson will teach you how to introduce yourself in Egyptian Arabic and how to say where you are from. Egyptians are a very curious people, and depending on which region they live in, they might be more or less sociable. But in general, they are nice and hospitable. A self introduction in Egyptian Arabic will be a pleasant surprise. Let’s start the lesson.
GRAMMAR POINT
Let’s imagine that your name is John, and you are from Canada. You came to Egypt and met a person who asked you “What is your name?” That sounds like this in Egyptian Arabic:
esmak eih?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) esmak eih?
Once more:
esmak eih?
The first word esmak means “your name”.
(slow) esmak.
esmak.
The second word eih means “what”.
(slow) eih
eih
Let’s hear the expression again:
esmak eih?
(slow) esmak eih?
This will sound a little bit different if you are speaking to a woman. The phrase will become:
esmek eih?
(Slow) esmek eih?
The answer to this question will be in our case,
ana esmi John, which means “My name is John.”
(slow) ana esmi John.
First, we have the little word ana which is the pronoun “I” .
(slow) ana.
ana.
The second word esmi consists of the word esm meaning “name”, and the i in the end meaning “my”. Therefore, esmi means “my name”.
(slow) esmi.
esmi.
The name usually comes at the end.
Let’s hear that again:
ana esmi John.
The next question you will usually be asked is “Where are you from?”
enta mneen?
(slow) enta mneen?
The first word enta means “you”.
(slow) enta.
enta.
mneen means “from where”.
(slow) mneen.
mneen.
Let’s break it down
(slow) enta mneen?
enta mneen?
Note that if you are speaking to a woman, enta should be replaced with enti.
(slow) enti
enti
Your answer will be “I’m from Canada”. In Egyptian Arabic, that will sound like this: ana men Canada.
(slow) ana men Canada.
The first word ana, as we’ve learned a while ago, means “I”.
Next we have men which means “from”.
(slow) men.
men.
And at the end we have the name of the country, in our case Canada.
(slow) Canada
Canada
Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time.
(slow) ana men Canada.
ana men Canada.

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