Egyptian Arabic Grammar and Common Mistakes: Part 1 NOUNS

My habibi... Ukhtis... Common mistakes in Arabic from non-native speakers that drive me insane and make you look kind of stupid in front of native Arabic speakers.  I am going to try to run over some simple grammatical rules and explain some common mistakes (and why you're making them).

Egyptian Arabic words are made of three different parts.  The prefix, the root word, and the suffix. Nouns generally only have the root word (which will be either male or female) and a suffix ( my, your, their, our, etc).

NOUNS

In Arabic, nouns are either male or female.

For the most part, nouns that end in a 'ta' 'a' or 'ah' sound are feminine. Some examples:

ENGLISH WORD	PRONOUNCIATION	ARABIC
SISTER	UKHTA	أخت
APARTMENT	SHA’A	شقة
CAR	ARRIBEYA	عربية
WORD	KILMA	كلمة
JACKET	JAKEETA	جاكيتة

Masculine nouns do not end in  'ta' 'a' or 'ah'.  Some examples:

ENGLISH WORD	PRONOUNCIATION	ARABIC
TEACHER	MUDARRIS	مدرس
ENGINEER	MOHANDIS	مهندس
ACTOR	MUMASSIL	ممثل
ARTIST	FANNAN	فنان
BOOK	KITAB	كتاب
WINDOW	SHOBBAK	شباك

Unlike in English, to make a noun plural you don't just add an 's' or 'es' at the end.

For a masculine word you just add 'ein' to the end of the word to make it plural. An example would be teacher/mudarris. Plural it would be teachers/mudarrisien. With feminine nouns you need to remove the 'a' or 'ta' and make it 'aat'.  For example car/arribeya would be cars/aribeyyaat plural. There are some irregular plurals that don't follow these rules though, sister/ukhta for example is sisters/akwaet when plural or ukteen for two sisters.

To take possession of a noun you also don't add my or s at the end.  Ukhtais and my habibi is incorrect forms to take possession.  The Arabic word for my is 'i'  'ي'.  Simply, for most nouns you add i at the end to take possession of it. For instance, my house is bayti. Habb means love, if you want to say my love you would say habibi (not my habibi because it is already saying my). Some nouns you need to add a word behind to make it belonging, bitaea'i. For example: There is my teacher!/ 'ehu ilmudarris bitaea'i.

To give someone else ownership it depends on whether they are male, female, singular, or a group. For a male you add 'uh' at the end.  His mind would be aa'l uh just as his children would be awlaed uh.  When referring to something that belongs to her you would use 'ha'.  Her voice is soot ha and her siblings would be ikhwaet ha.

When you are referring to your you have add 'ak' (pronounced ik for females).  Your ear would be widnik and your hair would be shaarik. For our you add 'na'.  Our son would be ibn ina and our house would be bayit ina. Finally, their is 'hum'.  Their house is bayit hum and their son is ibna hum.

Hope this helps.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask and watch for my next lesson on Egyptian Arabic verbs.