Page 272 - The Rough Guide Phrasebook - Egyptian Arabic
P. 272
In Arabic, subject pronouns may be omitted when the form of
the verb makes it obvious who the subject of the sentence is.
ana (I) is most likely to be omitted:
HOW
katabt I wrote
Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns
THE
direct object (me, you etc) or indirect object (to me, to you
etc) personal pronouns in Arabic are in the form of suffixes
that are added to the verb:
direct object indirect object
-ee me -nee to me
-ak you (m sing) -lak to you (m sing)
LANGUAGE
-ik you (f sing) -lik to you (f sing)
-oo him; it -loo to him; to it
-ha her; it -lha to her; to it
-na us -lina to us
-koo you (pl) -likoo to you (pl)
WORKS
-hom them -lihom to them
sallimt aalayhom bahebboo/bahebbaha (m/f)
I greeted them I like it
haddeelak/haddeelik el wahda bekhamsa genayh
(to man/woman)
■ P r o n o u n s
I’ll give it to you for five pounds
When a sentence contains both direct and indirect object pro-
nouns, the word order is the same as in English:
verb + direct object + indirect object
eddeehanee!
give it to me!
Pronouns and Prepositions
Pronoun suffixes are often added to prepositions. The suffixes
vary depending on whether the preposition ends in a conso-
nant or a vowel:
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