In Kuwaiti, there are two ways of saying ‘by the way.’ The first is taraa, which you put at the beginning of a statement as you would in English. An example? taraa chin-ik kalayt sandawiitsh-tii. Straight-forward enough.
bas maa tidgr tista3mil today’s word for questions. In this case, you’d use the word aguul. Let’s use the same sentence above but turn it into a question: aguul kalayt sandawiitsh-tii?
And if you mix the two words up at first? taraa 3aadii.
| Arabic | Pronounced? | English |
بس ما تقدر
|
bas maa tigdr tista3mil | but you can’t use (>m) |
بس ما تقدرين
|
bas maa tigdriin tista3milayn | but you can’t use (>f) |
بس ما تقدرون
|
bas maa tigdruun tista3miluun | but you can’t use (>pl) |
ترى چنك كليت سندويتشتي
|
taraa chin-ik kalayt sandawiitsh-tii | by the way, I think you ate my sandwich (>m) |
أقول كليت سندويتشتي؟
|
aguul kalayt sandawiitsh-tii? | by the way, did you eat my sandwich? (>m) |
ترى عادي
|
taraa 3aadii | anyway, it doesn’t matter |
