I am taking an Arabic class at the masjid. The book we are using was great until I got to ‘past tense verbs and pronouns’. I don’t see any way to reconcile what I am reading there with what I already (supposedly) knew about pronouns. The class doesn’t meet again until Sunday, so I am hoping you can help me.
The book says a fat-hah on the end of the past tense verb indicates ‘he’; that taa with fat-hah indicates ‘she’; taa with dammah indicates ‘I’’; taa with fat-hah indicates ‘you’(m). The difference in the book between ‘you’(m) and ‘she’ is that the fat-hah in ‘she’ is on the right of taa, which is followed by sekoon, whereas in ‘you’(m) the fat-hah is on the left of taa and no sekoon. Does this make sense to you? I’ve never seen this before. It seems to be very different from what I see on the SpeakMoroccan site, as well as the Peace Corp book.
Yes, it perfectly makes sense.
For she, it means that there is a fat7a on the letter before t, and t has sukôn on it.
For you (m.s), there is sukôn on the letter before t, and there is fat7a on t.
If you compare MSA to Darija in matters of conjugation, you will get a little bit confused. Let’s take a practical example.
To go out = Kharaja (MSA) = Khrj (Darija)
Yes, that helps a lot, just by you giving me a full subject-verb phrase. Part of my confusion was mixing up the pronouns with the verb suffixes. But I still feel like I am learning two languages instead of just one. :fouet:. I’ll be back when - not if - I need more help. Thx!
Stick to MSA then until you feel confident with it, then convert your knowledge to Darija. It will take just more practice, and throwing away vowels :).
Mr7bâ, anytime!
Anâ kharajtu - Anâ khrjt = I go out
Anta kharajta - Ntâ khrjti = You (singular masculine) go out
Anti kharajti - Ntî khrjti = You (singular feminine) go out
Antumâ kharajtumâ = dual form - the two of you go out
Huwa kharaja - Huwwa khrj = He goes out
Heya kharajat - Khiyya khrjat = She goes out
Humâ kharajâ = dual form - They (two of them) go out
Na7no kharajnâ - 7nâ khrjnâ = We go out
Antom kharajtom - Ntômâ khrjtô = You (masculine) go out
Antunna kharajtunna - Ntoma khrjtô = You (feminine) go out
Hum kharajô - Hômâ khrjô = They (masculine) go out
Hunna kharajna - Hômâ khrjô = They (feminine) go out
You said Darija uses the same form for feminine you plural as masculine, but in your example you have a caret ^ over the vowels in Ntoma for masculine but not feminine. Does this make a difference?
The plural for they is also the same for feminine and masculine, right?
What does the ^ mean? Is that to indicate where to put the stress in pronunciation?
I would say that’s a typo that Ntômâ is one time without ^^. ^ indicates a long vowel. Yes, you translated all the sentences right.
Oh, I know what you are talking about, but I learnt MSA first and than darija and it feels like learning a new language that is just similar. I wouldn’t learn both at the same time. It’s better to have fist the basics in MSA and than start with darija.
That’s plain stupid! Sorry! I was too fast and didn’t proofread what I wrote. Obviosly, it’s hiyya, not khiyya! Sorry again.
[quote=MalikRumi]Antom kharajtom - Ntômâ khrjtô = You (masculine) go out
Antunna kharajtunna - Ntoma khrjtô = You (feminine) go out
Hum kharajô - Hômâ khrjô = They (masculine) go out
Hunna kharajna - Hômâ khrjô = They (feminine) go out[/quote]
Needless to say, all those are in plural.
No, again just a typo.
Yes.
Nuwwara answered your other two questions: You got everything right, and the ^ is for long vowels.