SEVEN LIFEHACKS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPOKEN ARABIC SKILLS

Hi.

Before you proceed please read my Disclaimer.

This post by itself will NOT make you sound like a native, BUT it WILL get you one step closer to that.

Disclaimer. This post assumes some level of skill and might be either not that useful or even totally useless for beginners.

Let’s get down to business.

Lifehack No. 1
Use the wa-based structures to express even-based discontent :)

Sounds misleading, right? Lemme give you a couple of examples:
a) بيتنا وإيجار (من “دبي لندن دبي”)
Which can be rephrased as
حتى بيتنا نستأجره
Even our house is rented (i.e. We don’t even own one.).

b) مكتبي ولزميلي
which is a more Arabic version of
حتى مكتبي يملكه زميلي
Even my office is owned by my friend.

c) سيارتي ولصاحبي
which means
سيارتي ليست لي وإنما هي لصديقي
Even my car is owned by my friend.

I hope this has made things clear :)

Lifehack No. 2
Use the general-to-specific formula which I described in one of my previous posts. Please read it. But in case you wanna do that later, here are some examples that will give you the idea:

a) شوفلي رامونا إزا وعيت
which was used in the show instead of
شوفلي إزا وعيت رامونا
Check for me if Ramona is awake.
As you can see first comes the general word (Ramona) and then we see the details describing it (is she already awake or no).

b) صاحبتك أياها؟
which was used instead of something like
أي صاحبة تبعك؟
or
أي صاحبة من صاحبات؟
Which one of your friends?
Again first comes the general word and then follows the one that requires to get more specific.

Lifehack No. 3
Use the اِن + the-3-root-consonants-with-the-fat7a-above-the-2nd-one pattern to render a verb passive.

a) هيك بينقال عن
It is said so about…

YES, verbs like انضم are used in fos7a too, BUT colloquial and MSA-based passives do not always match.

Lifehack No. 4
Skip the THAT + PRONOUN part.

Examples:

a) ليش ما خبّرتيني بتروحين الشغل؟
Why didn’t you tell me THAT YOU were gonna go to the office?

YES, the word that is often skept in Eglish too, BUT not the pronoun. Not sure, but probably that happens in Arabic in order to keep things short, AND because you can figure out from the verb who the sentence is addressed to.

Lifehack No. 5
Use the doubled-2nd-consonant type of verbs when someone or something makes something happen.
Tricky wording once again :)

Some examples to make things easy and understandable:

a) سَمَّعْنَا شي
Sing/play/say something for/to us.
So, literally it means Make us listen to something.

b) رَجَّعْنِي عَ لبنان
He made me come back to Lebanon.

c) يگعّدك للصبح بلا نوم (من البشير شو)
… keeps you awake until morning (Literally, … makes you sit sleepless until morning.)

Lifehack No. 6
Use the letter ba2 for future verbs.

In Emarati Arabic this is the only classical way to express future, however it is also used for the same purpose in Lebanese Arabic where ra7 and 7a are the traditional ones.

Example: برجع بحكيك بعدين
Talk to you later.

Lifehack No. 7
Use ism fa3el to express future, present and even past.

Future: صاحَبْتِي جاية لعندي (“أبطال وحرامية”)
My friend is coming over to my place.

Present: ليه مصرة؟ (“فادي وراضي”)
Why do you insist?

Past: بركي مش جايبُن معك من الأساس (“مافي متلو”)
Maybe you never had it (it = money, which is plural in Lebanese Arabic) with you. Literally, You just did not bring (or have not brought) it with you. YES, have + verb = PRESENT perfect, BUT this tense means that something happened in the past :)

Hope this helps. Stay tuned for more.

This post is a work in progress, so as soon as I spot another lifehack, I will add it hereto :)