Things You Wish You Knew when You Started Learning Arabic

Thread: Things You Wish You Knew when You Started Learning Arabic

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  1. bollyking's Avatar

    bollyking said:

    Default Things You Wish You Knew when You Started Learning Arabic

    1.That in written Arabic many of the vowels are not written out. قطر =qtr =qatar. For the longest time I could not understand why people would write things like "msh" when its pronounced "mesh".

    2.That there are signifcant differences between arabic dialects and that there are many of them. I would learn words and phrases in fus7a and then read song lyrics, not understanding why so many of the words were totally different. I dont think I can pick 2 words out of a magrebi song.

    3.That Khalij is not fus7a

    4.That wayn is dialect and ayna is fus7a

    5.That unlike hindi, learning the script really is a must if one wants to learn arabic properly. I only admitted defeat last night and accepted i have to do it.

    6.Trying to learn words through movies and song lyrics is only moderately helpful. Because unlike other languages, in arabic the single word is modified to reflect different cases. (eg. sadiq=friend, sadiq'ii = my friend). So I might misinterpret 'sadiq'ii to mean 'friend' and not 'my friend' because it is one word.
     
  2. maghrebiaa said:

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    the second thing you said is so true.
    I'm speaking maghreb and a year ago I just could'nt understand everything in arabic. I knew some things, but that was everything.
    Now i folowing a cursus to learn arabic better.
     
  3. VivaPalestina's Avatar

    VivaPalestina said:

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    Lol me and you both, I'm trying to learn north african

    Hehe bollyking but khaliji is very similar to fus7a
     
  4. maghrebiaa said:

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    really?
    How do you learn it? Do you follow a cursus?
    If you have question you can ask me if you want
     
  5. VivaPalestina's Avatar

    VivaPalestina said:

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    Aaah no I wish...well I learnt khaliji + iraqi by translating songs and talking with friends, so i'm hoping I can do the same with north african

    wchraki labess?? nchallah labess bien?? hmd.
    (thats about all I know )
     
  6. maghrebiaa said:

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    oh okay, that's good from you!
    I hope it for you.

    i don't know if you are a boy or a girl :$

    if you're a girl:
    rani lebes al7amdoulilah, wa ta ntiya raqi labass?

    if you're a boy:
    rani lebes al7amdoulilah, wa ta nta raq labass?
     
  7. VivaPalestina's Avatar

    VivaPalestina said:

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    Now how am I meant to answer if you didnt tell me whether you were a female or male? lol j/k ana 6ofla (I learnt this word recently I heard it means girl!)

    labess bien mala wech 3amla feha?
     
  8. CZAREK2581 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by VivaPalestina View Post
    Now how am I meant to answer if you didnt tell me whether you were a female or male? lol j/k ana 6ofla (I learnt this word recently I heard it means girl!)

    labess bien mala wech 3amla feha?
    Ok i can help here a bit i guess

    If you want to ask me "How are you" in MA we say كي داير=kee daayer?
    If i wanna say "thanx " I guess I can say "لا باس "=laa baas
    If we wanna finish conversation we say "good-bye" =بسلامة=beslaama
     
  9. CZAREK2581 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by VivaPalestina View Post
    Now how am I meant to answer if you didnt tell me whether you were a female or male? lol j/k ana 6ofla (I learnt this word recently I heard it means girl!)

    labess bien mala wech 3amla feha?
    If you wanna ask me about my age you can just simply say
    شحال في عمرك=sh7al fe 3mrak?How old are you?

    about name"اشنو سميتك=ashnoo smeetak?what is ur name?

    about work خدام=khddaam?Do you work?
    about study كتقرا=katqraa?Do you study?

    This is what I rememebr for now: )
     
  10. VivaPalestina's Avatar

    VivaPalestina said:

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    Mashallah you never fail to impress me!! Any more accents you're hiding up your sleeve??
     
  11. CZAREK2581 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by VivaPalestina View Post
    Mashallah you never fail to impress me!! Any more accents you're hiding up your sleeve??
    a bit Tunisian i guess /i know few differences only

    Shniya ahwalek?how are you
    Shismik? - What is your name
    Kaddesh omrek?very close to Syrian

    and a few other words

    But i dont use them at alljust wanted to know how far are they from Modern Standard Arabic ,so i learnt them some time ago
     
  12. CZAREK2581 said:

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    Don't know nothing about Algerian ,but I guess this dialect is much more close to Maroccan than Tunisian as far as i know
     
  13. maghrebiaa said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by VivaPalestina View Post
    Now how am I meant to answer if you didnt tell me whether you were a female or male? lol j/k ana 6ofla (I learnt this word recently I heard it means girl!)

    labess bien mala wech 3amla feha?
    mezyan ! ( means good)
    haha sorry, i'm a girl too.

    but which north-african language you learning beacause they are not the same. There are some differences.
     
  14. maghrebiaa said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by CZAREK2581 View Post
    Ok i can help here a bit i guess

    If you want to ask me "How are you" in MA we say كي داير=kee daayer?
    If i wanna say "thanx " I guess I can say "لا باس "=laa baas
    If we wanna finish conversation we say "good-bye" =بسلامة=beslaama
    yeah, we say it the same

    Quote Originally Posted by CZAREK2581 View Post
    If you wanna ask me about my age you can just simply say
    شحال في عمرك=sh7al fe 3mrak?How old are you?

    about name"اشنو سميتك=ashnoo smeetak?what is ur name?

    about work خدام=khddaam?Do you work?
    about study كتقرا=katqraa?Do you study?

    This is what I rememebr for now: )
    by asking the age of somebody we say: sh7al 3am 3andek?
    so it's not the same as you..

    asking somebody's name: ki smeetak?

    and about the work and study it's the same
     
  15. maghrebiaa said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by CZAREK2581 View Post
    Don't know nothing about Algerian ,but I guess this dialect is much more close to Maroccan than Tunisian as far as i know
    yeah, that's true. Algerian is almost the same as Moroccan.
     
  16. VivaPalestina's Avatar

    VivaPalestina said:

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    Erm well for now I'm sticking to algerian then I've never been able to understand a single morrocan word

    wchraki labess? mezyan!!
    mala wech 3amla feha? mezyan!!

    I think its hopeless to be honest I'm just gonna have to live there a couple of years!!

    ki smeetak??
     
  17. maghrebiaa said:

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    to living years or months in a country you'll learn faster the language, that's true
    I'm moroccan, so that was no problem to learn for me.

    ana smeyti ikrame wa inti?
     
  18. VivaPalestina's Avatar

    VivaPalestina said:

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    ana smeyti noor
     
  19. CZAREK2581 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by VivaPalestina View Post
    Erm well for now I'm sticking to algerian then I've never been able to understand a single morrocan word

    wchraki labess? mezyan!!
    mala wech 3amla feha? mezyan!!

    I think its hopeless to be honest I'm just gonna have to live there a couple of years!!

    ki smeetak??
    what i have learnt new about Maroccan arabic the definition of the hours(it is so strange omg

    what time is itشحال في الساعة=sh7al fe as-saa3a?

    Look how they say "it is two o'clock"=هادي الجوج نيشان=haade jooj neshan

    neshaan as far as i know means in MA "exactly=تقريباً

    few differences that I know between MSA and MA
    عفواً=afwan the MA عافاك=please
    3afaak

    *a lot

    بزاف=be-zaaff=كتير

    * دابة now=daaba=الأن

    *i dont wantما بغيتش
    =ma b3'etsh=مش عايز


    *good

    مزيان=mazyaan=منيح

    *this one i really like a lot

    *I dont speak Arabic=ما كنهدرش العربية
    maa kanhdersh al-3arabe
    and the last one

    *Can you help me?
    واخا تعاوني?=wa5'aa t3awnne?

    It shows how MA is different from another accent (and it doesnt have anything in common
     
  20. VivaPalestina's Avatar

    VivaPalestina said:

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    Lool have I turned this into a learning north african accent thread? Bollywood change the name

    Czarek where did you learn all this morrocan?
    I like the wa5a t3awne one