A Grammer Lesson and some practice please

Darija, Moroccan Arabic Forums - Forums de darija, Moroccan Arabic (Darija) Exercises - Exercices d'a
#1

Howdy Friends! Bon Jour, s-slamu wi-alikom, se-xbarek :^^:

I found a great tutor in Los Angles who has been very helpful. For the first time I am really getting a feel for how the Arabic language works!!!

I had my lesson last night on the use of [large]???[/large] (fin) when asking for singular blass and haja (place and thing) and wanted to check and make sure that I am understanding everything correctly. I’m going to try my best to mix in the few Arabic words I know. I just hope they are correct :smiley:

What I’ve learned so far covers the use of [large]???[/large] (fin) when asking for blass and haja (place and thing). I was also working on how to ask for dcar and nitwah (masculine and feminine) blass and haja (place and thing)

Here is what I wanted to make sure is correct

When asking for blass (place) I use

fin jah for a a dcar blass (masculine place) or
fin jet for a nitwah blass (feminine place)

Do I have that correct?

Now onto how to ask for haja (thing.)

The way this was explained to me was that I simply use [large]??[/large] (huwa) or [large]??[/large] (heya).

So when asking for a haja (thing) I use

[large]??? ??[/large] for a dcar blass (masculine place) or
[large]??? ??[/large] for a nitwah blass (feminine place)

Do I have all that right or do I need some corrections?

I liked to make sure that I’m using the proper words for

blass - place
haja - thing
dcar - masculine
nitwa - feminine

and that I’m using

[large]???[/large] jah
[large]???[/large] jet
[large]??? ??[/large] (fin huwa)
[large]??? ??[/large] (fin heya)

correctly.

It would be really helpful if I could get the following translated in Arabic and English (I’ve been making list of things and forcing myself to use the script as much as I can)

place
thing
masculine
feminine
jah
jet

and also

singular
plural

[—]

I’d love some “homework” on asking for blass and haja (place and thing) :smiley:

Perhaps I could get a few singular blass and haja (place and thing) (in transliteration please) for practice.

Thanks Friends!

[—]

P.S. If anyone lives in Fez or will be near Fez May 8th -10th we are having the 2nd annual Morocco Business Forum MBF. We are going to have the US Ambassador, Thomas Riely, as a keynote speaker. The Mayor of Fez, other local dignitaries and key business leaders from around Morocco are expected to attend. And we have Royal Patronage from the King

I’m going to give a break out session and lesson on “How to Market You Business in a Global Economy.” It’s going to be on how to tell your story and let the world know your business is different from other Global businesses. Basically it going to be how to tell the world that Morocco is a better choice than China or other countries for business.

It would be great to meet any of you who live in Morocco. The forum will also be a great chance to explore business opportunities (perhaps you might even come away inspired and excited and start a business!!!)

You can learn more and register at www.moroccobusinessforum.com

#2

Hello Tim. It’s nice to see you practice and advance in learning. :slight_smile: Keep working on Darija.
And now let’s get to work.

All corrections are welcome, right?
Bonjour is attached ;).
What’s with se-xbarek? That looks to me like the PC’s way of transliteration that tends to write every sound with one single letter. I’d write that as: Ash khbârk = What are you news. And since you said “friends”, then you should address the plural, and you do so by adding the “kom” ending: Ash khbârkom.
As for the Muslims’ greeting, there is no “wi” inside :hap:, it’s ssalâmo 3alaykom.

Is everything clear up to this point? If not, just ask away. And ask for comfirmation from your tutor.

I always found it strange to say “blâS”, maybe it’s just my region, but people mostly say: blâSa. The a-ending makes it feminine. [I didn’t use a double s because there is no stress on the letter, but rather a ? S - ???). I guess that transliteration won’t be a big concern for you, since you’re learning the alphabet too, but I just wanted to clear up that it’s 7âja and not haja (7 =? and h = ? ) for others reading not to get confused.

Did you get that from a book? Let me remind you of something: Darija is not unified in the whole country, so some expressions or vocabulary might be used in some places and not in others. I often give my own way of speaking.
So, in my place we say nnta w ddkr. Never heard of nitwah before, it’s possibly ntiwah.

[quote]fin jah for a a dcar blass (masculine place) or
fin jet for a nitwah blass (feminine place)[/quote]
Correct, and let me give examples:

  • Jjâm3 = Mosque, a masculine Arabic word. – Fîn jâ jjâm3? - Where is the mosque located? [large]??? ?? ???[/large]
  • Lmdrasa = School, a feminine Arabic word. – Fîn jât lmdrasa? - Where is the school located? [large]??? ??? ???[/large]

The h at the end of your ‘jah’ isn’t really pronounced, right?
I still use ‘a’ whenever there is a fat7a, I can see why you use ‘e’ instead though, for jet.

[quote][large]??? ??[/large] for a dcar blass (masculine place) or
[large]??? ??[/large] for a nitwah blass (feminine place)[/quote]
Just before this, you said that you were talking about asking about 7âja, but then you wrote blâSa. Confused?
By the way, you can use “fîna howwa” to ask for a place too, but you can NOT use “fîn jâ” to ask about a thing.

Examples for asking about a thing:

  • Ktâb = book, a masculine Arabic word. Fîna howwa lktâb? = Where is the book? - [large]??? ?? ???[/large]
  • Tbla = Table, a feminine Arabic word. Fîna hiyya TTbla? = Where is the table? - [large]??? ?? ???[/large]
    You can notice that I wrote fîna instead of fîn, that’s because say “fîn howa” sounds a bit heavy, so the fat7a comes to ease the pronunciation and make it more smooth.
    And by the way, you can use fîna howwa and fîna hiyya also to ask about people… or animals.

I guess that my previous remarks answered your questions, if not let me know what I missed.

Singular = Mofrad [large]???[/large]
Plural = Jam3 [large]???[/large]
Those two are used just like in MSA.

Now I’ll gladly give you a homework. Ask where these are:

Places:

  • The company = Sh-Sharika (Stress on sh) [large]???[/large]
  • Drugstore = frmasyân [large]???[/large]
  • Grocery store = 7ânôt [large]???[/large]
  • Bank = banka [large]???[/large]
  • The Hotel = LoTîl [large]???[/large]

Things:

  • Shoes = SbbâT [large]???[/large]
  • Wrda = Rose [large]???[/large]
  • Spoon = M3îlqa [large]???[/large]
  • Door = bâb [large]???[/large]
  • Chair = korsî [large]???[/large]

For the MBF, I just explored the website, but I do not see any information about the registration fees. How come? Is the website unifished?

Good luck with the homework. :slight_smile:

#3

- Moved to the exercises forum -

#4

Here is my Homework from this weekend :smiley:

[quote]Places:

  • The company = Sh-Sharika (Stress on sh) ???
    [large]??? ?? ??? [/large]

  • Drugstore = frmasyân ???
    [large]??? ??? ??? [/large]

  • Grocery store = 7ânôt ???
    [large]??? ?? ??? [/large]

  • Bank = banka ???
    [large]??? ?? ??? [/large]

  • The Hotel = LoTîl ???
    [large]??? ??? ???[/large][/quote]
    And I’ll work on things later this afternoon.

#5

Good job Tim, you’re working on time! But, you need someone to pull your ears for not revising very well your feminine-masculine lesson!

Hint: Words ending with an “a” are most often feminine. This is showed in the Arabic script with the “t” at the end: [large]?[/large]

I want you to re-do your exercise, otherwise you’d get an F :hap:.

#6

That’s right…I totally messed that up. Let’s try again.

Places:

  • The company = Sh-Sharika (Stress on sh) ???
    [large]? ??? ??? ??? [/large]

  • Drugstore = frmasyân ???
    [large]??? ?? ??? [/large]

  • Grocery store = 7ânôt ???
    [large]? ??? ?? ???[/large]

  • Bank = banka ???
    [large]? ??? ??? ??? [/large]

  • The Hotel = LoTîl ???
    [large]? ??? ?? ???[/large]

[—]

Things: (I’m not sure how to type the definite article so I added my best try at the transliteration)
Shoes = SbbâT ???
[large]??? ??? [/large] Fîna howwa ssbbâT?

Wrda = Rose ???
[large]??? ?? ???[/large] Fîna hiyya wwarda?

Spoon = M3îlqa ???
[large]??? ?? ??? [/large] Fîna hiyya lem3îlqa?

Door = bâb ???
[large]??? ?? ???[/large] Fîna howwa lbab?

Chair = korsî ???
[large]??? ???[/large] or Fîna howwa lkorsî?

[—]

I do have a few more questions on asking for places and things. When asking for things I have I heard 3 different words so far. Fina, Fin, and Fayn. Are all these the same? Are they different?

#7

Very good.

Places: All correct. 5/5

Ah, so now it’s the definite article lesson that you didn’t revise. :hap: But you did good in transliteration, it’s only wrda that you got wrong, since it’s lwrda and not wwrda. As for the Arabic writing, let me correct it for you… You could have followed the example of “places” for which I put everything definite.

Shoes = SbbâT ???
[large]??? ?? ??? [/large] Fîna howwa ssbbâT?

Wrda = Rose ???
[large]??? ?? ???[/large] Fîna hiyya lwarda?

Spoon = M3îlqa ???
[large]??? ?? ??? [/large] Fîna hiyya lem3îlqa?

Door = bâb ???
[large]??? ?? ???[/large] Fîna howwa lbab?

Chair = korsî ???
[large]??? ?? ???[/large] or Fîna howwa lkorsî?

[—][quote]I do have a few more questions on asking for places and things. When asking for things I have I heard 3 different words so far. Fina, Fin, and Fayn. Are all these the same? Are they different?[/quote]
They are all the same, just different ways of pronunciation for different regions. Chose the one you like most :).

You still need to practice more with this? Or you’ll move to something else?

#8

i understood:

  • fîn jâ or fîn jât is used [color=#f82306]only[/color] to ask fo a place.

  • fîna + personal pronouns is used to ask about:

  • persons

  • things

  • animals

am i right? :hap:

#9

Correct :).