In this lesson, we are going to learn about verbs, the present tense particularly. Verbs in Egyptian language have three different forms. These are Present, Past and Imperative. A typical practice is to memorize the three forms of each verb.
Now we will focus on the present form/tense. Like in French, German and many other languages, the verb changes according to the subject. The pattern most verbs follow in the present tense is demonstrated in the following examples (notice the letters written in red):
| ye--SHrab yeshrab (Drink) | |
| anaa baaSHrab | anaa bashrab (I drink) |
| enta bete--SHrab | enta beteshrab (You drink (m.)) |
| ente bete--SHrab--ee | ente beteshrabee (You drink (f.)) |
| entoo bete--SHrab--oo | entoo beteshraboo (You drink (pl.)) |
| howwa beye--SHrab | howwa beyeshrab (He drinks) |
| heyya bete--SHrab | heyya beteshrab (She drinks) |
| homma beye--SHrab--oo | homma beyeshraboo (They drink (pl.)) |
| eHnaa bene--SHrab | eHnaa beneshrab (we drink) |
The following verbs follow the same pattern shown above :
| ya'kol | ya'kol | Eat |
| ye3mel | ye'mel | Do |
| yekoon | yekoon | Be |
| yerooH | yerooH | Go |
| yeegee | yeegee | Come |
| yemSHee | yemshee | Walk |
| yoqaf | yo'af | Stand up/Stop |
| yoq3od | yo''od | Sit |
| yetakallem | yetakallem | Speak/Talk |
| yoskot | yoskot | Stop talking |
| yezoor | yezoor | Visit |
| yedres | yedres | Study |
Some new words are presented here to help exemplifying the use of verbs:
| le- | le | To |
| fee | fee | In |
| 3alE | aala | On |
| 3an | aan | About |
| alqahwat> | el-'ahwah | The coffee |
| albayt | el-bait | The house |
| alkorsee | el-korsee | The chair |
| almadrasat> | el-madrasah | The school |
| alSHaare3 | eshsharea | The street |
Examples of using verbs in the present form/tense:
|
1-anaa baaSHrab aalqahwat>
anaa baashrab el-'ahwah I drink coffee |
|
2-ente betrooHee lelmadrasat>
ente betrooHee lelmadrasat You go to school (f.) |
|
3-howwa beyeegee lelbayt
howwa beyeegee lelbait He comes to the house |
|
4-entoo betoqafoo fee aalSHaare3
entoo beto'afoo fee eshshaarea You stand in the street (pl.) |
|
5-heyya betoq3od 3alE aalkorsee
heyya betoaod ala elkorsee She sits on the chair |
This concludes Lesson2, now it is exercise time ;).
I am hopefully flying out to Egypt next week to do a 4 month course in Egyptian Dialect.
I have looked at your present tense markers and the verb always prefixed with a letter ب for e.g. BA-shrab BEte-shrab etc etc
I am just slightly confused as i have a book called Colloqial arabic of egyp the complete course for beginners by Jane wightwick & Mahmoud Gaafar.
The above book states on page 197 The present /Future tense is formed by adding prefixes and suffixes to a present stem. Verbs fit into one of the two following patterns, the difference being the vowel on the prefix. The prefix voweled with i(ti-yi etc)is more common in Egyptian arabic.
Present tense yil9ab to play ( stem I9ab)
i play is ana al9ab
you (m) play is inta til9ab
you (f) play is inti til9abi
The above is just an example so should it be;
1: ana Bil9ab or ana al9ab?
2: inta Beteil9ab or inta til9ab?
Can you please help as i totally inderstand both ways and would just like to know the correct one please.
thanks alot
Ray
Konqueror
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