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Egyptian Arabic: I don’t understand? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| neok Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4212 days ago 14 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 3 12 May 2014 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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A few months a go I remember using a language program to learn some Egyptian Arabic. I
believe I was using Pimsleur. Anyway, in the course if my memory is correct I remember them saying something like to make something a negative you must add ma before the word and sh at the end of the word. For example to turn I understand (Ana fahem) into I don't understand would sound like this: Ana ma fahemsh. But on another Egyptian Arabic course I was using they simply said I not understand (Ana mish fahem). Which of these is correct? And is the ma and sh prefix correct? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4720 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 2 of 3 13 May 2014 at 1:49am | IP Logged | ||
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As far as I remember, both are correct, but they aren't interchangeable. A native might be more helpful hehe
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| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5325 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 3 of 3 13 May 2014 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||
In Egyptian colloquial Arabic, mish is usually used with the active participle (and future verb forms, e.g. ana mish ḥarūḥ = I won't go): ana mish fāhim = I don't understand OTOH, ma ... sh is usually used with imperfect and perfect verb forms: ana ma afahamsh = I don't understand ana ma fahimtish = I didn't understand BTW, many grammarians believe that ma ... sh was derived from ما ... شيء. However, some grammarians have also hypothesized that this might actually be a Coptic construction adopted by Arabic speakers in Egypt. For more information on the negation of verbs see chapter 8 of An Arabist's Guide to Egyptian Colloquial by Daniel Pipes, which you can download for free from his website. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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