Egyptian Arabic (Complete Course)

hey guys, i wonder if anyone here is keen to learn Egyptian Arabic from scratch, if there are any people who are, let me know and i would be glad to teach everyone here as if it was a real course, i will try to be here as long as i can, i may get busy from time to time

so if anyone is interested, let me know, i wanted to ask u first to make sure any efforts in this thread will not be wasted

see ya

PS: i used to post in the forum b4 as (lanw_av) but i got busy and could not keep posting, i've just made a new account anyway because i forgot the password of the first one, i wonder if anyone still remembers me, i remember Daydream and Oriee

Hey guys, this is me Len9 but as usual I forgot the password so I have created a new account.

Ok, since there are 2 people who voted yes, let's start the lessons.

LESSON 1: Brief Practical Information on Arabic and Its Dialects:

Arabic is classified into 2 categories:
1- Standard Arabic (also called "Al-Lugha Al-Arabiyya Al-Fusha" or "Al-Fusha"): This is the version of Arabic that is used officially in the TV news, newspapers, official titles, etc. in all of the Arab countries. It is understandable by all of them.
2- Dialects: Arabic has many dialects, nearly each country has its own dialect and you can even find more than 1 dialect in 1 country. To make it easier for you, let's classify the dialects into 4 groups (A, B, C, D). The dialects of each group are very similar to each other to the extent that their speakers greatly understand each other without difficulty, but still do not regard them as 1 thing because they still differ from each other. Before introducing the groups, please note that the following are only the most common Arabic dialects (they are not all the dialects of all the Arab countries). The 4 groups are:
A- The dialects of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morroco: They are considered the most difficult dialects and people of the other Arab countries hardly understand them. For a practical example, listen to the song "Didi" by "Khalid", it is a song in the Algerian dialect (remade by "Milk and Hony").
B- The dialect of Egypt: It can be considered a group itself because countries to the west, east, and south of Egypt speak differently (check their groups on a map). The Egyptian dialect is considered the most common dialect of Arabic because Egypt made many movies and songs that spread widely throughout the whole Arab world at the time that no other Arab country did the same, so the Egyptian dialect spread with those movies and songs. So, Egyptians are understood by all the other Arabs. However, Egyptians do not understand all of the other Arabic dialects. Also, you have to know that Egypt itself has more than 1 dialect, mainly 3 dialects. The first one - which is the most common and it is what is referred to as "The Egyptian Dialect" and it is what you are going to learn in this thread - is the dialect spoken from the middle to the maximum north of Egypt, this includes Cairo (the capital of Egypt), Alexandria, etc (see a map). The second one is called "Saidi" (صعيدي) which is spoken in the south of Egypt in an area referred to as "Upper Egypt" (see Wikipedia). The third one is called "Nobi" (نوبي) which is spoken in the maximum south of Egypt. For a practical example on the first dialect (the most common one), listen to the song "Wayyah" by "Amr Diab".
C- The dialects of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine: They can be considered the cutest dialects of Arabic because they sound very musical. They are easily understandable by all the Arab countries. For a practical example, listen to the song "A Bali Habeebi" by "Elissa", it is a song in the Lebanese dialect.
D- The dialects of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman: They are understandable by all the Arab countries but not to a great extent. The dialects of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman are referred to as "Gulf Arabic". For a practical example, listen to the song "Ahla Min El Helween" by "Miami", it is a song in the Kuwaiti dialect.

Do not take the previous guide as an accurate guide to the Arabic dialects, the objective of the guide was only to introduce you to the Arabic dialects in a very general way. So, do not pick a dialect to learn based on this guide. Do more research on what dialect you want to learn. Remember, that this thread is going to be on the Egyptian dialect only.

Now, here is an important question: What is the difference between the Standard Arabic and the dialects? And which one you should learn or start with?
The difference between the Standard Arabic and the dialects is that the Standard Arabic is considered the standard and formal version of Arabic that is used officially in TV news, newspapers, and those kinds of official things. But the dialects are used in everyday life; when speaking to your family, friends, when shopping, etc. Think of the English words "hankie" and "handkerchief", they both mean the same but "hankie" is informal and more likely to be used in everyday life, while "handkerchief" is more formal. For example, in Egypt you will see only the Standard Arabic and the Egyptian dialect are used. In Lebanon, the Standard Arabic and the Lebanese dialect are only used. And so on. So, as you see the Standard Arabic is essential. As for what to learn, the Standard Arabic or one of the dialects, it is recommended to learn both; the Standard Arabic and one of the dialects (pick any, but make sure you learn one that is very common so that you are understood in the Arab world, for example, the Egyptian dialect or the Lebanese one). So, learn the Standard Arabic as a start to get you in the basics of the language, because keep in mind that all the dialects are built on the Standard Arabic, so if you learn the Standard Arabic first it will be easier for you to learn the dialects. You do not have to finish with the Standard Arabic before learning one of the dialects, no, you can start learning one of the dialects just after you learn the basics of the Standard Arabic very well. Also, you have to keep in mind that speaking only the Standard Arabic will never make you sound like a native Arabic speaker, because you will sound like a newspaper speaking lol.

LESSON 2: Linguistics Basics:

Please note: I am not a linguistics expert, so do not take the following as 100% accurate, it may have mistakes.

In this lesson, you will know what a "noun" is, what a "verb" is, etc. This will be greatly useful for you to learn to know what is meant by saying something is a noun, something is an object pronoun, etc.

Noun: A word that is usually regarded as an entity. For example, in the sentence "The boy played soccer.", "boy" and "soccer" are nouns.

Definite article: The word "the" in English. Used with a definite noun.

Indefinite article: The words "a" and "an" in English. Used with an indefinite noun.

Verb: A word that expresses the action of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "The boy played soccer.", "played" is a verb.

Adjective: A word that expresses the state of a "noun". For example, in the sentences "The boy was tall." or "The tall boy", "tall" is an adjective.

Adverb: A word that expresses how an action is done. For example, in the sentence "The boy played soccer well.", "well" is an adverb.

Subject: The person or thing doing the action of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "The boy played soccer.", "the boy" is the subject.

Object: The person or thing that receives the action of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "The boy played soccer.", "soccer" is the object.

Subject pronoun: A word that represents the subject of the sentence when the name of the person or the kind of thing doing the action is not mentioned, for example, in the sentence "He played soccer.", "he" is a subject pronoun.

Object pronoun: A word that represents the object of the sentence when the name of the person or the kind of thing is not mentioned, for example, in the sentence "He played it.", "it" is an object pronoun.

Reflexive pronoun: A word that expresses that the action is done to oneself. For example, in the sentence "The boy saw himself in the mirror.", "himself" is a reflexive pronoun.

Possessive adjective: "My", "your", "his", etc. For example, in the sentence "The boy saw his car.", "his" is a possessive adjective.

Possessive pronoun: "Mine", "yours", "his", etc. For example, in the sentence "This car is his.", "his" is a possessive pronoun.

Relative pronoun: "Who", "that", "where", etc (not the question words). For example, in the sentence "This is the place where I saw the car.", "where" is a relative pronoun.

Tense: When the action of the sentence happened, is it in the past or in the present or in the future, etc.

Word order: The order of words typical of a language. For example, the word order of the sentence "The boy played soccer." is "Subject > Verb > Object". It was not "Subject > Object > Verb" for example, otherwise it would have been "The boy soccer played."

Imperative: When giving orders. For example, the sentence "Give me that."

Negation: When there is "NOT". For example, "The boy did NOT play soccer."

End of lesson 2. Now, here is a test on this lesson. Note that each lesson (except Lesson 1 because it has nothing to be tested on) has a test with scores, you are going to answer the test and count your score so that you know how well you are going along. The answers of each test would be in the end of the test colored in a very light color so that they become unreadable (so that you do not cheat lol) and in order to be able to read either highlight the text or copy it and paste it in a notepad or a Word document, for example. Make sure you write down your scores, because at the end of the course there is a total score and it will show you whether you got the course well or you have to restudy it.

TEST ON LESSON 2:

Score, out of: 90

1- In the following sentences, write beside each sentence what part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc) or function the underlined word(s) or phrase(s) is or has (the first one is answered so that you know what the question means):

A- The car was very fast.
Answer: Noun.
B- He did not see that. (5 Points)
C- You must read it. (5 Points)
D- Do not worry. (5 Points)
E- Do it. (5 Points)
F- The sky is clear. (5 Points)
G- He found it easily. (5 Points)
H- The ship sank. (5 Points)
I- He ran fast. (5 Points)
J- He wrote that. (5 Points)

2- Specify in which tense each of the following sentences is (first one is answered):

A- The car ran fast.
Answer: Past.
B- He plays soccer. (5 Points)
C- He will do it. (5 Points)
D- She listened to music. (5 Points)
E- They went there. (5 Points)

3- Give the word order of the following sentences (first one is answered):

A- He ran fast to see it.
Answer: Subject (he) > Verb (ran) > Adverb (fast) > Verb (see) > Object Pronoun (it).
B- He answered the phone. (5 Points)
C- The boy saw the car. (5 Points)
D- Do it. (5 Points)
E- He will do it. (5 Points)
F- Is he going? (5 Points)

Answers to the questions (the answers are colored in this color so that you do not cheat, to be able to read them highlight them or do as mentioned above):
1-
B- Verb.
C- Subject Pronoun, Object Pronoun.
D- Negation.
E- Imperative.
F- Definite Article.
G- Adverb.
H- Verb.
I- Adverb.
J- Subject Pronoun.

2-
B- Present.
C- Future.
D- Past.
E- Past.

3-
B- Subject > Verb > Object.
C- Subject > Verb > Object.
D- Verb > Object Pronoun.
E- Subject > Verb > Object.
F- Verb > Subject > Verb.

law sama7t, saedni. ana arabe msh tmam. ana arfa w fahema bas shewia. 3allemni mn fadlak!!!!

hi Len
i'm egyptain too i think it would b nice idea maybe i could help from time to time =)

i would like to learn !

i am too

ana kmaaaan!

i would love to learn.. i've had a little exposure to the language but not enough

Count me in!!

I'd love that!

me too!

me too

I would love it too. My husband is egyptian, but not a good teacher ;-P

Yes please, we all non arabic are willing to learn this wonderful languague and dialect pelase please, thank u!

Aiwa shukran

yes, i like to learn..

aiwa, kwais gedan! i want to learn it. how we can manage this?