I must say I really appreciated this lesson. I imagine it'll be helpful when I go to Lebanon for the first time this fall. Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed, Karen, and thanks for commenting. There will be more Lebanese lessons before you travel. If there's anything in particular you're curious to learn, let us know!

I recently visited Lebanon for the first time, and would like to go back some day, so I look forward to more lessons! I really like the way you teach Arabic!

This is really excellent. I've been hoping for a lesson like this. Thanks!
I have one question: you mentioned that in Lebanese you put a ب in front of a verb to make it present tense, such as بعرف , however is this only the rule for first person "I know"? What about "you know", "he knows" etc?

Welcome to the new Lebanese teachers who joined this wonderful site, and thank you very much for this great lesson.

I had heard that for some time now Lebanese dialect has dislodged Egyptian dialect in popularity in the Arab world.

Thanks again for making posible for us to discover with these new lessons this beautiful dialect.

Elias and I are really glad that you've enjoyed this lesson, @Peter, @hexagonmoon, and @marc. Hexagonmoon, here is the full conjugation of عرف in the present tense:

أنا بعرف
انتَ بتعرف
انتِ بتعرفي
هو بيعرف
هي بتعرف
نحنا منعرف
انتو بتعرفوا
هن بيعرفوا

Notice that the "نحنا" form begins with a "م" and not a noon.

Thanks for the lesson..How do you say "levantine arabic" in arabic...I noticed that the word for no in arabic was pronounced differently...I mean it was more lah than lae THE vowel more flattened...Does the iraqi dialect also come under the levantine dialects??...I am madly in love with this language...please reply

Dear tijo,

The Arabic equivalent of “Levantine Arabic” is “lahjaat (ﻠﻬﺠﺎﺖ shamiia (ﺸﺎﻤﻴﺔ”. "Lahjaat" is the plural of ﻠﻬﺠﺔ, which means “dialect”, and “shamiia” is an adjective denoting the area where these dialects are spoken.

I forgot to add that Levantine dialects are divided into two groups: (1) North Levantine (spoken in Syria) and (2) South Levantine (spoken in Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Jordan).

This was really an extraordinary lesson (and nice follow-up commentary Desmond). One nit-pick comment on technique: I think that Sierra's and Elias' rapid- fire alternating in their presentation is distracting. I would prefer two or three relaxed sentences from one, before the other starts speaking. But that's not a big deal, and the content of this lesson is outstanding.

thank you for a very helpful lesson, to be able to speak less formally is conducive to communication, especially with the younger folks.

thank you Desmond..

I'm really glad that everyone enjoyed this podcast. Thanks for your feedback and look out for the next podcast in Lebanese dialect coming soon!!!!

I'm so glad you're doing podcasts on the Levantine dialects! It's so hard to find good learning materials on the dialects, and even though most native speakers agree they're not that different from MSA, it can be very confusing to a lower-intermediate learner like myself.