welyonlin
Site Admin
Joined: 10 Mar 2008
Posts: 34
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 Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject: Lesson 3 |
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4. In the hotel
ayna l-funduq salâm?
Where is the Hotel Salam?
hal ladayka ghurfa?
Have you got vacant rooms?
min aiyyati l-darja hâdhâ l-funduq?
Of which class is the hotel?
hal 'al-ghurfa maca l-hammâm?
Is there a bathroom coming with the room?
hal 'al-ghurfa maca l-hâtif?
Is there a telephone in the room?
hal tilîfizyűn fî l-funduq?
Is there a TV-set in the hotel?
kam sacri l-layla
What's the price for one night?
uktub min fadlik
Please write
lâ 'afham
I don't understand
'afham
I understand
ghâlî
Expensive!
sa'askun hunâ li muddati th-thalâthati l-laylât
I'm going to stay here for three nights
'awwalân, urîd manzaru l-ghurfa, min fadlik
First, I want to see the room, please
shukran. al-ghurfa mumtâz
Thank you. The room is very nice
Grammar: The definite article
One of the things many should have noticed before embarking on learning the Arabic language, is the frequent use of prefixes like "Al" or "El". "Al" and "El" are the same two letters "a" and "l" put together, which indicate the definite article for a noun. But what is considered definite and what is not, is often different from many Western languages. Briefly one could make this as a rule: If it is not particularly important to stress the indefinite form, the definite article should be used. But this is only a valid rule at your present stage in learning Arabic.
When a noun is indefinite, no prefixes or suffixes are added, you simply use the core form of the noun.
Just to complicate things a bit here: In Arabic there are a group of "sun letters", letters which standing first in a noun, eat the "l" of the definite article. These are the following letters:
t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, S, D, T, Z, n.
The result is that you never write, nor pronounce: "al-t.....", "al-th....", "al-d....", "al-dh....", "al-r....", "al-z....", "al-s....", "al-sh...." and so on.
You do write and pronounce: "at-t....", "ath-th....", "ad-d....", "adh-dh....", "ar-r....", "az-z....", "as-s....", "ash-sha....." and so on.
For the remainder of the letters, you leave the "l" of the definite article intact. |
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