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Introduction

Making Out in Arabic is your passport to the living, breathing, colorful language spoken on the streets of the Arab world and the Middle East. It is the first book to give you access to the casual, unbuttoned Arabic that will allow you to express yourself in restaurants, cafes, and nightclubs, in crowded market places, and at train stations. Here you will find the warm-hearted language that you can use with friends, and also the rough-and-tumble language you can fall back on when you are ready for a fight.

Making Out in Arabic will be a useful companion throughout the Arab world – even when traveling in the furthest outbacks. So you want to meet people, make friends, eat out, go dancing, or just take part in friendly chitchat? A quick glance at Making Out in Arabic and you’ll have the language at your fingertips.

PRONUNCIATION

Consonants

The imitated pronunciation should be read as if it were English. The emphatic consonants d and t, s and z represent more a question of volume than a separate sound.

th is pronounced like th in three;

dh is pronounced like th in there.

kh is pronounced like ch in Scottish loch;

gh is the voiced equivalent.

A few sounds do not exist in English, such as the uvular stop

(q), which is pronounced like a “k” in the back of one’s throat; a glottal stop ( ‘ ), an abrupt, momentary cutting off of air followed by an explosive release and the pharyngeal fricatives both voiced ( ’ ) and voiceless (h). A voiced pharyngeal fricative is produced by forcing air through a narrow channel in the back of the throat with vibrations at one’s vocal chords while a voiceless one is produced in the same manner without vibrations at the vocal chords. To check if a sound is voiced, place your fingers on your throat and feel the vibrations.

Vowels

There are three basic short vowels in Arabic and three long ones. These are:

a as in cat

aa as in far

i as in pin

ii as in clean

u as in put

uu as in noon

Stress

Arabic words do not have a stress accent in the way that English ones do. However, individual consonants can exhibit stress by means of doubling. For example, in the word kassara “to break,” the double s indicates consonantal stress as in the English name “Cassandra.”

PRONOUNS

The following are the main Arabic personal pronouns:

I	anaa
You (singular, masculine)	anta
You (singuar, feminine)	anti
He	huwa
She	hiya
We	nahnu
You (plural, masculine)	antum
You (plural, feminine)	antunna
They	hum

QUESTIONS

The easiest way of asking a question in Arabic is to use a question word at the beginning of the phrase or sentence, e.g.:

What’s this?	maa haadha?
Which man?	ayyu rajul?
Which lady?	ayyatu imra’a?
Who are you?	man anta?
Why did the girl leave?	limaadhaa kharajat al-bintu?
When did the plane land?	mataa habatat at-taa’ira?
Where did he buy a shirt?	ayna ishtaraa qamiis?

An affirmative sentence (statement) may be turned into an interrogative one (question) by means of the word hal, e.g.:

The boy ate	akala al-waladu
Did the boy eat?	hal akala al-waladu?

NEGATION

Negation is expressed differently for nominal as opposed to verbal sentences.

When negating nominal and adjectival phrases, laysa or one of its variants is inserted after the noun or pronoun to which it refers, e.g:

I am not angry

lastu ghaadiban (literally “not I angry”)

Laysa combines with the personal pronouns as follows:

I	lastu
You (singular, masculine)	lasta
You (singuar, feminine)	lasti
He	laysa
She	laysat
We	lasnaa
You (plural, masculine)	lastum
You (plural, feminine)	lastunna
They	laysuu

In addition, there are four verbal negation words used according to the tense of the verb, e.g.:

laa	present	laa ashrab	I’m not drinking
lan	future	lan ashrab	I won’t drink
lam	past	lam ashrab	I didn’t drink
maa	past/continuing	maa sharibtu	I haven’t drunk