Friday, June 25

This, That and These




da, di & dol


In Arabic there are three words meaning this, that and these.

da - this, that (masculine)
di - this, that (feminine)
dol - these, those (plural)

For example:

طالب - Taleb - Student (male)
ده طالب - da Taleb - That's a (male) student

طالية - Taleba - Student (female)
دي طالبة - di Taleba - That's a (female) student

طلبا - Talaba - Students (plural)
دول طلبا - dol Talaba - Those are students

ده حسن - da 7assan - That's Hassan
دي مها - di maha - That's Maha

If you want to use da, di and dol as demonstratives (i.e. this thing. Referring to a particular thing) there are two rules you must follow:

1) The noun it is referring to must be defined (i.e. el 'the' must be attached to the noun)
2) da, di and dol come after the noun

الراجل ده - er-raagel da - This man
الكلمة دي - ek-kilma di - This word
المدرسين دول - el-mudarriseen dol - These teachers
البنت دي - el-bent di - This girl

Did you remember that the plural of objects are in the feminine plural and are treated as feminine singular words? The adjective comes after the noun, and di, da, dol. For example:

المطرات  دي  كويسة  - el-motoraat di kwayyisa - These engines are good
السعات دي جميلة - es-sa3aat di gameela - These watches are beautiful.



Aho, Ahe, Ahom


There are three words used to point something out with emphasis.

aho - Masculine
ahe - Feminine
ahom - Plural

If you say aho, ahe or ahum before a word, you should stress the first vowel (a) in the sentence. If you use it after a word, you should stress the last vowel (o, e or um).

For example:

أهو جي - aho gayy - here he comes!
أهي جية - ahe gayya - here she comes!
أهم جيين - ahom gayyeen - here they come!

المدرس أهو - el-mudarris aho - the (male) teacher is over there
المدرسة أهي - el-mudarrisa ahe - the (female) teacher is over there
المدرسين أهم - el-mudarriseen ahom - the teachers are over there


ماشي - maashy.
Egyptians use maashy to mean 'okay' very often. You can say أهو ماشي (aho maashy) to reply to the question ازي الحال؟  ezzay el-7aal (how are you?). 

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