verbs in arabic

[palilover 1]

My neverending quest to learn arabic....

I informed my husband today he talks funny:) I was joking of course:)

I'm trying to learn a few words so my sentences are not so broken. Well, as anyone who remembers conjugating verbs in English class or a foreign language class in school, you must speak them a certain way or it just sounds.....bad:)

I did a google search and I found that arabic verbs depending on what tense it is (ana, ente, huway/hiya, etc etc) have a letter before the verb (a, ta, etc) and a stem afterwards. The site I referenced was http://arabic.speak7.com/arabic_verbs.htm

But my husband does not speak this way. For example:

The word I learned for "to work" from a word of the day series was ya'AMEL (stress the AMEL which is why it is capitalized). No idea how to conjugate that as it begins with ya' but it does not matter because my husband did not recognize this word. I asked him how to say "I work" in arabic and he said ana besh...something. Or he could say it a different way but it certainly was not ya'AMEL!

Another example of how my husband does not put letters before the verb is "to drive". Ana besooka is I drive in arabic.

What kind of arabic am I learning here???? The whole idea of learning arabic is so I can communicate with people in Palestine (and eavesdrop because I never let on to what I know until I actually say something:)

[Nasturtium 500]

There are 2 main kinds of Arabic taught as far as I have ever seen in the US...Egyptian dialect and classical Arabic. Neither one will match Shami/Levantine Arabic exactly, although they should be able to understand it... and of course local dialect is even more different. Ex: classical arabic's "oheb" (love/like)= "baheb" in the Levantine (and Egyptian too I think) style... Ana oheb Ammar. Ana oheb mayi. Ana baheb Ammar. Ana baheb enti. Thus bahebic, etc.

ETA: I'll add more in a sec, gotta go really quick and actually work.

Edited September 12, 2008 by julianna

[palilover 1]

Ana oheb? thats different than my husband's arabic which is ana hobak for I love:) And even oheb or hobak does not begin with the letters that that site says.

I need more Palestinians in my life to teach me their version of arabic!!!

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

I thought Palestinians spoke nearly the same dialect as Jordanians and the words your using, we dont use..

Amel we use to say "to make"

[Donna A 4]

i think there are alot of dialects. i tried saying something to hassan i learned online also and it was very easy like 2 words and he didnt have a clue what i was saying. u could even listen to how it was said so i knew i was saying it just like they were but it didnt matter.

Edited September 12, 2008 by Donna A

[palilover 1]

yeah Palis and jordanians speak same arabic just different accent is all. But they can understand each otehr of course.

well, at least I am not the only one who has confused their husband by saying a word he does not know:) So maybe just some sites are not good for words, maybe. Wow guess I'll have to make a fool of myself to find out, eh:) At least my husband is understanding and has a sense of humor:) (especially with my arabic, lol)

Yeah even in Palestine...small place but with different accents. My husband said even Nablus people speak different than his village and he's only 5 mins away from Nablus. And in other villages from Palestine speak different but they all understand each other. his mother, for example, is from Ramallah and I can pick up on her accent right away when she speaks. A good example is we say "kayf halak" and she says it like "kayf halej"

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

sounds to me like your hubby is a villager? If so, they have such a different accent..Sometimes its hard for even me to understand and I do very well with arabic

[Nasturtium 500]

OK, so you're learning standard Arabic, but it sounds like maybe the pronunciation is off. Yamel is to work, but there shouldn't be a break in the word if you want your husband to understand it. Standard arabic pronouns are also hoowa/hiya, so your huway is like Syrian/Palestinian dialect. Pronunciation is really important... if you're ever heard someone repeat something over and over in English just slightly off, it can make it totally not understandable until you finally figure it out with context. unfortunately, learning another language you don't have context to give someone so they just cannot figure it out.

[Sandrila 1]

I dont think I will ever really learn how to speak arabic

and it can even vary from city to city from what my husband told me

the only thing I focus on now, is just words and actually for the ones I do know, I am starting to recognize them when he speaks arabic

so for now that is fine enough for me

plus for pronunciation it is very difficult

good luck

[amal 4]

Yeah, Arabic varies not only from city to city but from generation to generation as well. When I was trying to learn, my husband asked me "do you want to talk to all ppl or the ppl in Jordan and my family"? I answered that I wanted to be able to talk with his family and he said that the best way to learn that dialect was to learn from him, other ppl from his area because almost all of the learning materials are either egyptian arabic or formal arabic. Formal arabic, they'll laugh at u coz its mainly used in speaches and the news lol.

Most of the time I will pick out a word or 2 that I hear him say a lot when he's on the phone and I'll ask him how to say it properly and what it means. That is how I've learned most of my Arabic and it's going fairly well so far.

Good luck

[Nothing1234 2]

I agree with Amal. If you are going to learn Arabic from your husbands area...its best from him. I posted on another thread the differences in the dialects. Most of the full programs out there to learn are Modern Standard or Egyptian and people do giggle at you when you speak "proper" Arabic. The Egyptian arabic is also used in movies and news as well so its widely understood. But again to get the "accent" down for your hubby...you'd really need to be learning from him or his family. Ask him what he thinks you should learn...he might prefer his own dialect.

[Y's_habibitk 2]

My neverending quest to learn arabic....

I informed my husband today he talks funny:) I was joking of course:)

I'm trying to learn a few words so my sentences are not so broken. Well, as anyone who remembers conjugating verbs in English class or a foreign language class in school, you must speak them a certain way or it just sounds.....bad:)

I did a google search and I found that arabic verbs depending on what tense it is (ana, ente, huway/hiya, etc etc) have a letter before the verb (a, ta, etc) and a stem afterwards. The site I referenced was http://arabic.speak7.com/arabic_verbs.htm

But my husband does not speak this way. For example:

The word I learned for "to work" from a word of the day series was ya'AMEL (stress the AMEL which is why it is capitalized). No idea how to conjugate that as it begins with ya' but it does not matter because my husband did not recognize this word. I asked him how to say "I work" in arabic and he said ana besh...something. Or he could say it a different way but it certainly was not ya'AMEL!

Another example of how my husband does not put letters before the verb is "to drive". Ana besooka is I drive in arabic.

What kind of arabic am I learning here???? The whole idea of learning arabic is so I can communicate with people in Palestine (and eavesdrop because I never let on to what I know until I actually say something:)

heh heh heh. When I would be so proud of learning some new thing. My husband would say, you sound like an egyptian! lol I was telling him about his book I got and I found a website that had audio too.. so you sould HEAR how to say the word.. it was all egyptian... in other words useless to me. hee

Im on the same never ending quest to learn too. When he gets here, I'll have a private tutor and will learn to speak in the correct pali accent

Perfect example: kteer said kateer. worked for a while until I got there, then he gently told me it was Ikteer. So I was saying IKteer.. but, not really.. its iktHeer. ha ha

Lisa

Edited September 13, 2008 by Y_habibitk

[Y's_habibitk 2]

sounds to me like your hubby is a villager? If so, they have such a different accent..Sometimes its hard for even me to understand and I do very well with arabic

Like the difference between bahbek and some villagers say bahebitch (sorry I know its childish but i think its funny)

[Uncle O 2]

:rofl: :rofl: Oh My god , this is Funny.

[HLM 1]

Its always so cute to hear americans try to speak arabic