Page 282 - The Rough Guide Phrasebook - Egyptian Arabic

To form the negative imperative take the second person singu-
lar or plural of the verb in the imperfect tense and add ma- at
the beginning and -sh at the end:
HOW
matrohsh! matestannash matbossish
don’t go! don’t wait don’t look
THE
Questions
To change a statement into a question, use the same
intonation at the end as you would in English:
da tohfa da tohfa?
it’s an antique it’s an antique?
LANGUAGE
Interrogatives
fayn? lay? imta? izzay?
where? why? when? how?
WORKS

Interrogatives usually come at the end of a question. They
are sometimes used at the beginning of a sentence for special
emphasis:
el mat-haf fayn?
OR fayn el mat-haf?
where is the museum?

Dates
In business, Egypt uses the Western calendar; for Islamic
holidays and festivals, legal and state affairs the lunar calendar
is used.
Use the numbers on pages 284-285 to form dates. For the first
■ Ve r b s / Q u e s t i o n s / D a t e s
of the month, the ordinal can also be used. The word order
for dates is:
day + month + year

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