LESSON EIGHT : Where are you from?

[.: Anna :.]

We already learned all the vocab used in asking this question :

من أين أنت؟
(min ayna anta/anti?)
where are you from?

To answer it, firstly we need a list of the countries

إنجلترا
(ingiltera) England

إرلندا
(irlanda) Ireland

فرنسا
(faransaa) france

المانيا
(almaania) Germany

باكستان
(baakistaan) Pakistan

الهند
(alhind) India

بنغلاديش
(banghlaadeesh) Bangladesh

لبنان
(lubnaan) Lebanon

الأردن
(al urdunn) Jordan

فلسطين
(filasteen) Palestine

الصومال
(as soomaal) Somalia

(If the country you want is not on the list, ask in your thread for this lesson in excersise book)

An example answer would be

أنا من الهند
(ana min al hind)
I am from India

If instead you wanted to say "I am Indian" then you need to make an adjective (describing word) from the country name. You do this by adding the letter yaa (with a shadda)to end of the word. If there is any alif on the end, remove this first.
(Remember to add ta marbuta if talking about a female)

eg:

إرلنديّ
فرنسيّ
المانيّ
باكستانيّ
هنديّ
بنغلاديشيّ
لبنانيّ
أردنّيّ
فلسطينيّ
صوماليّ

The word for English is slightly irregular :

إنجليزيّ
(ingleeziyy)


In order to say where abouts in the country, we need these words...

شمال
(shimaal) north
جنوب
(janoob) south
شرق
(sharq) east
غرب
(gharb) west

These words are inserted before the country name. Eg

لندن في جنوب إنجلترا
((landan fi janoob ingiltera)
London is in the south of England

The following will also be useful

مدينة كبيرة
(madeena kabeera) a big city
مدينة صغيرة
(madeena sagheera) a small city
الريف
(ar reef) the country side
قريب من البحر
(qareeb min al bahr) near the sea

أسكن في
(askun fee) I live in..
[this is a verb (doing word). That topic will be dealt with next lesson but for now just learn it as a phrase.]

[.: Anna :.]

Vocab : Learn all the country names and new vocabulary mentioned in the lesson.

Exercises
1.) write a small passage about yourself in Arabic giving the following information [if you dont like giving personal info over the net, just make up the answers... I'm not gonna know if it is not the truth :p ]

name
what country you live in
your origin (eg pakistani, lebanese.. etc)
where abouts in the country (north, south etc)
If you live in a big or small city, countryside etc
Say a few words about your area or your house
your job or occupation
any other relevent information that you have learned to say in Arabic.
2.) Follow this model (in blue), to make adjectives from the country names :

أحمد من الهند
أحمد هنديّ

a)
نورة من فرنسا
b)
عليّ من بنغلاديش
c)
عائشة من لبنان
d)
محمد من أمريكا
e)
يوسف من باكستان

3.) As a supplement since we are talking about countries in this lesson, here is a basic map of the middle East, where Arabic is mainly spoken.

http://www.ummah.com/arabic/middleeastmap.gif

[.: Anna :.]

vocab audio here