al-7aflah

Audio with Theyab's pronunciation

The one with al-Halfah ...

You've got a da:wah to a Haflah. Are you going to go?

Love it or hate it, most parties around the world revolve around alcohol (or "al-kuhl" - a word the Arabs invented). So it's probably wise to know that Kuwait is a country that is nashifah. Meaning that mashrubaat kuHuuliyah are illegal. Everywhere.

Except at the British Embassy of course - but let's face it, without your relevant connection, getting a da:wah to a function there is going to remain a tricky business indeed.

A while back, I heard that there were some great Haflaat at the as-safaarah briiTaanniyah so one morning while doing paperwork there, I asked the receptionist for an events' programme.

She looked at me as if I were from Mars.  Then she said: "Are you ma:zuumah?"

"Doesn't it count that I'm British?" I asked.

She laughed. "No it doesn't, to be honest. I'm afraid you're not invited."

And that was that.

Some people say that a number of nightclubs in London, Paris and New York are difficult to get into. Funnily enough, a back garden Haflah at Kuwait's British Embassy is up there with them.

دعوة	da:wah	An invitation
ناشف	nashif	Dry (masc. adjective)
ناشفة	nashifah	Dry (fem. adjective)
ناشفين	nashifiin	Dry (plural adjective)
مشروبات كحولية	mashrubaat kuHuuliyah	Alcoholic drinks
الحفلة	al-Haflah	The party
الحفلات	al-Halfaat	The parties
معزوم	ma:zuum	Invited (male)
معزومة	ma:zuumah	Invited (female)

دعوة

da:wah

An invitation

ناشف

nashif

Dry (masc. adjective)

ناشفة

nashifah

Dry (fem. adjective)

ناشفين

nashifiin

Dry (plural adjective)

مشروبات كحولية

mashrubaat kuHuuliyah

Alcoholic drinks

الحفلة

al-Haflah

The party

الحفلات

al-Halfaat

The parties

معزوم

ma:zuum

Invited (male)

معزومة

ma:zuumah

Invited (female)

How was today's post?

al-2ijtimaa3

Audio with Theyab's pronunciation

Winslow Homer, 'A Temperance Meeting' (1874)

"mikhaalif if I go out for a walk?" she asks her father.

"maa :ind-ii maani:" her father replies. "In fact, make yourself useful, wadd-ay the bucket wiyaa-ch and get water."

She nods. "raaH arja: as soon as I can."

Her father grimaces. "Don't think this means I'm giving you permission to have a 'ijtimaa: with that boy."

The girl reddens.

"Your little brother will chaperone you," the father adds. "raaH ychayyik that it's just water you're getting."

"I can take care of myself!" the girl says hotly.

"Amen to that," says the father.

مايخالف	mikhaalif	Do you mind
ودي !	wadd-ay !	Take ! (>f)
وياچ	wiyaa-ch	With you (>f)
راح ارجع	raaH arja:	I will return
راح يچيك	raaH ychayyik	He will check

In Arabic there are only two verb tenses, present and past.

In the present tense, the verb conjugations are almost always regular. Look at the table below where the verb "to check" or chayyik has been conjugated into its eight different forms. 

اچيك	achayyik	I check
تچيك	tchayyik	You check (>m)
تچيكين	tchayyikiin	You check (>f)
تچيكون	tchayyikuun	You check (>pl)
نچيك	nchayyik	We check
يچيك	ychayyik	He checks
تچيك	tchayyik	She checks
يچيكون	ychayyikuun	They check

To conjugate almost any verb into the present tense, remove the highlighted word chayyik and replace it with a verb of your choice.

Some examples of how to conjugate verbs from previous posts are here and here.

ya3timid

Audio with Theyab's pronunciation

Marilyn? Impostor with mustache? ya:timid

Sometimes there's no easy answer to questions in life. I'm not talking million dollar questions here. What about the humble, but inescapable: "what shall we have for dinner?" maadrii ("I don't know") might be the typical answer. But if a few options spring to mind, it's more accurate to say ya:timid.

A friend comes to lunch and stays all afternoon. When he leaves the room for a moment, Maryam asks Hashim, "raaH yDHul Hag al-:ashaa?" - will he stay for dinner?

"ya:timid, maybe he's got other plans," says Hashim. 

The friend returns and Maryam says to him: "DHul Hag al-:ashaa!"

Before he can answer, Hashim yells: "nuTur-ay, Maryam! I'm not sure we have enough meat!"

The friend gets up to leave but Maryam stops him: "ig:ad!"

She turns to her husband. "There's no problem, Hashim, I can go to the butchers now. Why don't you offer your friend a drink?"

Martin Parr, 'Bored Couples' (1993)

DHul, unTur, ig:ad are all examples of the imperative. 

Imperatives are words which come with exclamation marks in tow because they are an order or command.

In Arabic the imperative is made by finding the 'he form' of a verb in the present tense and removing its prefix 'y.' What am I talking about? shuuf-aw ! :

yDHul	he stays	DHul !	stay !
yunTur	he waits	unTur !	wait !
yiga:ad	he sits	ig:ad !	sit !
yshuuf	he looks	shuuf !	look !

khallii, unTur, ig:ad and shuuf are imperatives addressed to a male. If you are a woman reading this, and I have been so rude as to heckle these orders as if you were a man, let me correct the error immediately:

DHul-ay !

nuTur-ay !

gi:ad-ay !

If you're addressing a group of two or more people, whether male or female, or both, say the following:

DHul-aw !

nuTur-aw !

gi:ad-aw !

Negative imperatives, as in "don't do something!" are not formed this way. They are easier. You simply use the word laa (which means no) and the 'you' form of the present tense with the appropriate endings for male, female and plural:

laa tHaatii ! - don't (you) worry!

laa tHaat-iin ! - don't (you, female) worry! 

laa tHaat-uun ! - don't (you, plural) worry! 

3ayn

Audio with Theyab's pronunciation

Salem Al-Qassimi, holding on to the :ayn

******

What is this?

:ayn is a letter of the Arabic alphabet that does not exist in English. It comes from the hieroglyph

and to this day :ayn in Arabic means "eye." 

Can you see?

In this blog, when words are transcribed into the English alphabet, the letter :ayn is written as a colon : because as was mentioned before, :ayn does not exist in English. However it's useful to know that in Arabish (or the Arabic used on the Internet or for SMS) you'll see this letter written as the number 3. Example?

But don't do this

How do I say this new letter?

Get ready to retch.

:ayn is pronounced from the middle of the throat, as if you are gagging.  This letter is notoriously difficult for Western learners to say or even hear, and guess what, it's one of the most common letters in the Arabic language. Fear not - one wisdom for aiding people with their pronunciation of :ayn is to "sing the lowest possible note, then go one lower."

Due to its position as the innermost letter to emerge from the throat, the author of the first Arabic dictionary, Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi began the dictonary with :ayn as the first letter. He viewed its origins deep down in the throat as a sign that it was the first sound, the essential sound, both voice and representation of the self.

How do I write it?

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ع	ـع	ـعـ	عـ

Listening

Now wipe that sweat from your brow and enjoy this all-singing, all-dancing video about the letters :ayn (ع) and ghain (غ) which is basically :ayn with a dot above it:

3imaarah

Audio with Theyab's pronunciation

This :imaarah has been the subject of recent debate in Kuwait

David Lynch is not always trying to freak people out. Recently I read something he wrote about buildings, and it rang true in light of the news that Kuwait's former Chamber of Commerce is to be demolished.

"When we see an old building, nshuuf nature and man working together.

"If we dammarnaa that building, maa yubgaa li-haa siHir.

"But if the building is allowed to age, then man has built it and aT-Tabii:ah has added to it."

نشوف	nshuuf	We see
دمرنا	dammarnaa	(We) damaged
ما يبقا	maa yubgaa	There would not be left
لها	li-haa	To her
سحر	siHir	Magic
الطبيعة	aT-Tabii:ah	(The) nature

saa3duu-nii

Audio with Theyab's pronunciation

Maybe time to ask: mumkin tsaa:d-nii?

When we arrive at the hotel, the receptionist might ask my husband: mumkin asaa:d-ik? Or if I'm by myself, the receptionist will address me: mumkin asaa:d-ich?

Or if the receptionist is polite, both husband and wife will be included in his greeting: mumkin asaa:d-kum?

mumkin    =  is it possible / can

asaa:d       =  I help 

ik              =  you (male)

ich            =  you (female)

kum          =  you (plural)

Hotel Missoni, Kuwait

If I need to go to reception and I ask a question, the phrase must be turned around. Instead of the "I" form of the verb asaa:d (which means "I help") I have to use the "you" form of the verb, which is going to change its spelling depending on whether the receptionist is a man, a woman, or a group of receptionists.

mumkin   =  is it possible / can

tsaa:d       =  you help (to a male)

tsaa:diin   = you help (to a female)

tsaa:duun = you help (to many)

nii            =  me 

This question is a simple sentence: mumkin + verb + possessive. So let's try a longer sentence on the theme of help. How do you say: "my book helps me to learn Arabic"? 

kitaab-ii ysaa:d-nii at:allam :arabii 

(my book he helps me I learn Arabic)

When making sentences, verbs in Arabic work differently to their English equivalents. There are no infinitives - every verb is in the present tense. So whereas in English you'd say of the book "it helps me to learn," in Arabic you'd say "he helps me I learn."

In Arabic, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. Which means when you describe a noun, using a verb, you have to refer to it as he or she, even if your talking about a book. Every last noun has a gender. You will never look at a book the same way again. Another similar sentence:

mudarist-ii tsaa:d-nii at:allam :arabii

(my [female] teacher she helps me I learn Arabic)

My teacher helps me learn Arabic. Actually my teacher is male, a mudaris, but I used the female equivalent, mudarisah just for the above example. 

For the diehards, here is the present conjugation of the verb "to help". The good news is that most Arabic verbs are very regular, with few exceptions, so the way this verb is conjugated is very similar to how other verbs are conjugated, as the coming days will reveal:

اساعد	asaa:d	I help
تساعد	tsaa:d	You help (m)
تساعدين	tsaa:diin	You help (f)
تساعدون	tsaa:duun	You help (pl)
نساعد	nsaa:d	We help
يساعد	ysaa:d	He helps
تساعد	tsaa:d	She helps
يساعدون	ysaa:duun	They help