Egyptian Arabic A1, Unit 4: Sentences without “to be”

Sentences without “to be”

Egyptian Arabic A1 · Unit 4

GoalMake simple sentences without am, is, are.

New words

طَالِب (ṭālib) · student (a man)طَالِبَة (ṭāliba) · student (a woman)مُدَرِّس (mudarris) · teacher (a man)مُدَرِّسَة (mudarrisa) · teacher (a woman)تَعْبَان (taʿbān) · tired (a man)مَبْسُوط (mabsūṭ) · happy (a man)مِش (mish) · not

Explanation

Egyptian has no word for “am, is, are” in the present. أَنَا طَالِب is just “I student”, and it means “I am a student”. For a woman the word gets an -a at the end: هِيَّ طَالِبَة. The same works for adjectives: تَعْبَان for a man and تَعْبَانَة for a woman. To say “not”, put مِش before the word: أَنَا مِش تَعْبَان. To ask a question, keep the sentence and raise your voice at the end.

Sentence	Meaning
أَنَا طَالِب	I am a student (a man)
أَنَا طَالِبَة	I am a student (a woman)
هُوَّ مُدَرِّس	He is a teacher
هِيَّ مُدَرِّسَة	She is a teacher
أَنَا مِش تَعْبَان	I am not tired (a man)
إِنْتَ مَبْسُوط؟	Are you happy? (to a man)

Worked examples

Omar

إِنْتِي طَالِبَة؟

Salma

أَيْوَه، أَنَا طَالِبَة. وِإِنْتَ؟

Omar

أَنَا مُدَرِّس.

Omar and Salma talk about what they do.

Hana

إِنْتَ تَعْبَان؟

Mina

لَأ، أَنَا مِش تَعْبَان. أَنَا مَبْسُوط.

Hana asks Mina if he is tired.

A man and a woman: only the end changes.

Class activity

Write six sentences about yourself and about people you know. Use أَنَا, هُوَّ and هِيَّ with طَالِب, مُدَرِّس, تَعْبَان or مَبْسُوط. Change the end for women. Write one sentence with مِش.

Practice

Say about this woman: “she is a student”.

A man says he is tired. What does he say?

Listen. Does this word say “happy” for a man or for a woman?

Say: “I am not a student” (you are a man).

What is missing in Egyptian in the sentence أَنَا مُدَرِّس?

I, you, he, she; countries

Sentences without “to be”