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siiky
2024/04/21
2024/05/08
2024/05/08
podcast,language
https://arabicunlocked.com/Sam
A podcast in EN about AR.
Similar to other romantic languages (PT, ES, FR, RO, IT), nouns have gender (or sex? who knows): masculine and feminine. Also similar to those languages, there's a bias towards the masculine. For example, in PT, the plural of a group of things (some masculine others feminine) will be the masculine plural. That applies to AR as well. A heuristic to determine if a word is feminine is to see if it ends in ة. If a word doesn't end in ة it's probably masculine. There are exceptions in both ways.
In romantic languages there are two different verbs that in EN are played by the verb "to be". In PT these are "ser" e "estar". "Ser" usually pertains to the essence of some-body or -thing, or for characteristics that don't generally change. In contrast, "estar" is used for characteristics that can/might change, temporary feelings, &c. E.g., "[eu] sou humano" (= "I am human"); "[eu] estou cansado/contente/triste/feliz/molhado" (= "I am tired/glad/sad/happy/wet"); "aquele carro está parado" (= "that car is stopped").
As you may realize by yourself, using the verb "ser" is a big commitment. Saying "he's depressed/fat/dumb" as "ele é deprimido/gordo/burro" is like a life-sentence -- he's never going to change that, it's part of who/how he is. A better translation of this PT sentence would be "he's a depressed/fat/dumb person".
This episode is about the verb "ser" -- generally constant "facts". Similar to JP, the absence of a verb implies the verb "to be" (that doesn't even exist in JP).
For example, 俺は大学生 translates literally to "I student", and means "I'm a student". In AR too: أَنَا طَالِبْ translates literally to "I student", and means "I'm a student". An interesting note: the JP and AR words used for student here mean "University student". In AR there's another word for students before University. In JP there's the more general 学生, and then other specific types of students (e.g., 小学生, 中学生, 高校生, &c).
To say "my name is": 俺の名はシーキ and أَنَا إِسْمِي سِيکِ. The personal pronoun in this sentence is optional because the word for name already has the 1st person possessive suffix, meaning "mine".
Sentences in AR are either "noun sentences" (as detailed in E02 above), or "verb sentences". The latter are VSO (as opposed to SVO, as in EN, PT, &c). A damma at the end of a word indicates the subject.