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On several occasions Ehab has drawn attention to the importance of patterns in Arabic, but he seems to have overlooked the importance of word combinations such as "fasl a(l)-rabii'". As far as its grammatical behaviour is concerned, "fasl" bears a strong resemblance to "madiina", "wajba" and "zahra".

Let's consider a few examples from Ehab's podcasts:

fasl a(l)_rabii': spring
madiina ghranaata: Granada
wajba al-ghadaa': lunch
zahra al-yaasamiin: jasmine

In Arabic a hypernym is placed before a hyponym. In English the hypernyms (the words for "season", "city", "meal" and "flower") are generally omitted.

Can someone explain about the use of "doon" and "bidoon"? When is each used? Thanks.

Also, what about "bella"?

@dcundy - I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but I would think the "bella" may mean confirming a negative. The lower intermediate Boy and The Sea Part I lesson discusses "bella" in contrast to "ajel" in the middle of the podcast.

@dcundy, the word (doon) could mean (just below/under) or (without). You would say the rainfall this year is (doon almustawaa - below the level). Also you could say I went to the market (doon Ahmad - without Ahmed). The word (bidoon) shares the second meaning with (doon) so it only means (without) and it is more of a colloquial word.
About (bila) it simply has the same meaning as bidoon which is (without) but it can't be followed by a word that starts with (al), so you can say I came (bila 7aqeebah) but not (bila al7aqeebah).
@chazyouwin , I guess you mean (bala) not (bila).

So bila only works with the indefinite. Thank you very much, Ehab.

Hi, I have a question about "dhalik" (that). Can this be used in the sense of "that" in the English sentence " I believe that falafal is tasty" or is it only demonstrative as in "that boy"? Thanks people.

@ oranggila

If you want to say something like “I think that our house has been burgled” you have to use ﺃﻦ (see the second sentence in the dialogue). You can’t use ﺬﻠﻚ because ﺬﻠﻚ is a demonstrative pronoun, not a subordinator. If, however, you want to say “I think so”, you can indeed use ﺬﻠﻚ (see the podcast entitled “The easiest lesson”). And if you want to say “that boy” you can employ the demonstrative adjective ﻫﺬﺍ (hadhaa) + definite article + noun (in this case ﻮﻠﺪ or ﻏﻼﻢ.

There are special rules for equative clauses introduced by verba putandi (verbs of thinking). Look at the last sentence in the podcast entitled “Spending the holiday”. If you want to say “I thought you were an Arab” you don’t need a subordinator. Instead of using a clause operator like ﺃﻦ you attach a pronominal suffix to the verbum putandi, and you don’t need to translate the verb “to be”.

Thanks for the help Desmond.

Could Ehab or Mohd explain the difference between أتي and اجي? Don't they both mean "I come?"

@shebab, yes they both mean "I come", but أتي is mostly used in classical and not in colloquial whereas the other word is used a lot in the street.

The roots for these verbs are أتى and جاء and they both mean Came

(Just FYI) -The audio appears corrupted at about the 5:15 mark of this mp3, right before they explain the line " without feeling the winter." - I may be mistaken. Thanks for the great content o/w!