Friday, July 29, 2011

*EASY* Egyptian Conjunctions, Demonstratives, Comparitives & Superlatives

* 7 = ح (haa) - sounds like an aspirated "h"
* 2 = أ (hamza) - glottal stop
* 3 = ع ('ain) - a "choked" letter sounding like an "a" you can't represent with the English alphabet


Conjunctions!
same as in English... 

and - wa
but - bas
or - ow
if - laow
until - lighaayat
since/ than - min
because - 3ashaan 


Demonstratives!
These must agree with number and gender of the noun that they are referring to. They go at the end of the noun.

Refers to animals, things, and plurals
This (one); that (one) (m)  - da
This (one); that (one) (f) - dee 

Refers to people
these/ those - dol

Masalan (for example)... 

This house - il bayt da

Those animals - il 7ayawanaat dee    


Comparitives & Superlatives
Comparatives are when you are comparing two things. Superlatives are when you are comparing one thing to a lot of things. Comparatives: "bigger/ more than," superlatives: "biggest/ most extrordinary" etc. In Arabic, both are used by the same word, it just depends how you use it. Comparatives and superlatives are formed by taking your adjective of choice, taking out all the vowels (forming the root) and adding an "a" to the beginning of the root, and another "a" in front of the last consonant.

big - kibeer       --> (root) kbr   --> akbar   (bigger/biggest)
cheap - rakhees --> (root) rkhs --> arkhas (cheap/ cheapest)
many - kiteer    --> (root) ktr    --> akta  (more/ most)

When using it as a comparative between two nouns substitute "min" for "than".

Masalan (for example)...

bigger than - akbar min

The girl is bigger than the boy - el bint akbar min el walad


  

Credits to Lonely Planet - Egyptian Arabic  
 

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