Would it not make sense if the first sentance ended just in "التي تحتاج"? Or what about in the past tense "that you needed" "التي احتاجت"? It's not clear to me when or why the "it/her" is necessary.

That is very useful; just using shukran all the time seems wrong.

Minor point - grammatically OK to use plural in

نحن أخوان

I can sympathise with hexagonmoon - funny thing is when you get used to it, it seems completely natural to always add the pronoun!

Hi, I do appriciate the job you do. keep going.
sasha from russia.

Actually, you can say (التي تحتاج) without the pronoun (ها) at the end. Nothing wrong with that at all, the pronoun here is just to emphasise, just like when you say (أنا أكتب), we know that (أكتب) means (I write) and (أنا) means (I), so again the pronoun here is to emphasise as well, which is common thing to happen in Arabic language.

Hi,to all.very useful lesson..i have a question...it just popped into my head..i guess in most asian or atleast south asian countries there is a specific word when addressing a male or female OLDER TO YOU..it could be really rude in certain cultures when you just call them by their name..is there something like that in arabic too..if im younger to you is it ok to just call the person just by the name..

Indeed there is, in fact we might do a lesson about such thing.
General speaking, you address a man as (3am - number 3 is letter Ain ع ) and for a lady you say (7'aalah - 7' is KH).
Just make sure that the lady that you address as 7'aalah is in your mum's age, otherwise you'll be in trouble of accusing her of being old , so if she looks like less than 10 years older than you then you better say (u7'ti) which is Sister.

ماهذاالغني في مقدم الدرس

What is that song (chant?) at the beginning of each lesson?

مشكر

thank you 3am Ehab!!

Patrick, there are details about the nasheed (song) that comes at the beginning of each podcast in the forum, you can find it here:
http://forum.arabicpod.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=73&hilit=hey+yallah

BTW, your question should have been: ما هذه الأغنية في مقدمة الدرس؟

Bettawfeeq (good luck)

Tijo, shukran to you as well ya 3am

Hala Wallah,
First off I would like to thank you guys for doing these podcasts so shukran.
My question is on the last sentence could you use la instead of ma? are they interchangeable ya3ni? I have always heard both used but dont know when they are each supposed to be used. is one used in a specific circumstance and the other is used in a different circumstance?

Hala beek JMarkD89,

The difference between Laa and Maa (in negating verbs) is that Laa (usually) comes before present tense verbs, while Maa comes before past tense verbs. In the last sentence, the verb (qa9-9ar قصّر) is past tense verb, therefore Maa is used before it and not Laa.