Lower Intermediate - Shoe size

مقاسي الحذاءعشرة و نصف او احد عشر - درس ممتاز أصدقاء

مقاس الحذاء
= the shoe size

مقاس حذائي
= my shoe size

On analyzing, both are simple definite i9’aafah (each consists of only two nouns, and, ONLY the last noun is definite.)

الحذاء (= the shoe) is obviously definite, due to الـ

حذائي (= my shoe) is also definite, because, when a possessive pronoun is attached to a noun, it becomes definite.

Thank you very much Vinod - I need to put some time into learning the rules of i9’aafah. As a beginner Arabic student it is very valuable to get insight from advanced students like yourself! Shukran!

@durruti, well done on the sentence. I must say size 11 is big, but that's a good thing, for a man anyway :-)

There was a slight mistake in your sentence however, what you really said was

My size the shoe is 10.5 or 11

You should have added the possessive pronoun 'yaa2' to the word that means shoe. So the correct way to say it is

مقاس حذائي...

Notice you remove the definite particle 'al' once you add the possessive pronoun. Like in English, you can't say 'My the shoe size', but you say 'my shoe size'. You've kind of defined it anyway once you say 'my' shoe...

Silly me, Vinod beat me to it anyway. How come I missed that? Way to go Vinod!

Very nice lesson. Cultural comment - we use the English sizes in the U.S. (9, 9.5, etc.), not the European sizes as I believe was suggested. The shoes are often now double marked.

@chazyouwin... not quite. British shoe sizes plus 1 are the same as American Men's shoe sizes. Watch out for women's sizes... it may be 1.5 difference. Also children's sizes are differnet still.

For men's sizes, here's the logic:

EMEA (i.e. Europe, Middle East, Africa) uses a system that came from the French called Paris Points. One Paris Point equals two-thirds of a centimeter. The system starts at zero centimeters and increases. There are no half sizes. American size 0 is the same as 15 Paris Points.

1 Inch is 2.54 Centimeters (Centimetres).
Length in Inches = 71/3 + (US Men's shoe size)*1/3

EMEA shoe size (i.e. Paris Points) = 311/3 + (UK shoe size)*4/3.
or
EMEA shoe size (i.e. Paris Points) = 307/3 + (US shoe size)*4/3.

@Moshaya.

إذا دوروطي هو أمريكي ومقاسه هو أحد عشرة، فمقاسه حذائه قي أنكلترة عشرة... هل عشرة (بريطانية) في رأيك كبير؟

If durutti is American, and his shoe size is 11, then in England he has size 10. Is size ten (U.K.) big, in your opinion?

@jenkki, a minor point...

The conditional particle إذا should be followed by a PAST TENSE verb.

So, ‘if he is..’ = إذا كان

إذا أردت
= if you want

اذا كان لديك سؤال
= if you have a question

Thanks Vinod... yeah, I realized this after I submitted, but there is no edit button for making corrections after the fact. I don't think the use of subjunctive mood in Arabic (i.e. past tense) has really sunk in for me yet. By the way, does the then clause also get past tense, i.e. if he is..., then he is...
So, in other words "if he is" is in past tense, but what about "then he is"... what should I use there?

So let's try to fix it assuming I use past tense in both if and then:

إذا كان دوروطي أمريكي ومقاسه أحده عشرة، فكان مقاسه حذائه عشرة قي أنكلترة... هل عشرة (بريطانية) في رأيك كبير؟

@jenkki

As far as I know, when إذا is used in a conditional sentence, the protasis (the if-clause) (the condition clause starting with idhaa) (جملة الشرط) is ALWAYS in the past tense.

The apodosis (the then-clause) (the consequence clause) (جواب الشرط) is in the present tense / future tense / nominal sentence.

In other words, if the first clause starts with إذا then past tense is NOT used in the second clause.

Please note that the rules of tense switch of clauses are different, when the other two conditional particles in Arabic (إن and لو) are used.

His shoe size = مقاس حذائه