First Words In Arabic - 17 easy to remember words, some similar to English or Hebrew

Flag of UAE

 

You might recall the Hebrew Shalom and the Arabic Salaam. Where can you speak both words and languages? In Israel. Now that some countries have recognized Israel, people who know Hebrew, or are Israeli or Jewish, can travel to Dubai, capital of the UAE, Emirates, and feel welcome. A big boost to hotels, restaurants and travel for Dubai. Time for more people to learn Arabic which is a handy language in many countries. 

If you have seen pictures of the world's tallest tower, Burj Khalif, you might have suspected that the word Burj is tower. I mis-typed it as burg, which is German for mountain and small city. All the better. I can now recall that the correct spelling for the Arabic is like the German for mountain, or city, but with a j.

Arabic varies from country to country. However, these are some common easy to recognize and remember words which it is handy to know.

English - Arabic

(Similar to other Semitic languages such as Aramaic and Hebrew, with variations in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Dubai  capital of United Arab Republic, classical Arabic and spoken Arabic, Malay, Indonesian and some words in other languages) 

God willing/please God - inshallah (run together but incorporating the word Allah)

Hello/peace - salaam (letters s-l-m, compare with Hebrew shalom and English Jerusalem)

1 tower - burj

2 sardines - sardine

3 salmon - salmon

4 thank you - shukran

5 tuna - tuna

Arabic - English

burj - tower

inshallah - God willing/please God

salaam - peace/hello

shukran - thank you

shukran habibi - thank you

So you can now say hello, tower, and goodbye tower, in Arabic.

From Translate Google I created this list, and  found two or three words I already knew or easily remembered. When I reversed back to the English I got the translation which I have put in brackets.

sea

bridge

6 city - madina ( I have also seen the spelling medina)

7 market - suk

square

mosque

building

block

exit

entrance

open

closed

January

name / (noun)

date / (history)

year

8a day - yawm (like yawn - imagine yawning and going back to sleep instead of to work)

month

birthday

birthdate

anniversary

8b -(holi)day - ..... yawm (like yawn)

I recognized the word Eid which is very commonly used on holidays. I typed that in separately and got

9 eid - feast (holiday, festival)

Video of girl showing English words which sound the same but mean something different in Arabic.

I look at it differently, Arabic words which are easy to remember.

English sound (alphabetically)  and Arabic meaning - English translation

sounds like English ' after' - in Arabic eat

what you say in Arabic is 'but' - duck (what you mean, in English)

 'far' - mouse

'fat' - missed 

'feel' - elephant 

' fool' - beans

'feel' - elephant

'hat' - give me

'safe' - sword (also a boy's name)

'wish' - face

English meaning  alphabetically - is the Arabic word (alphabetically) you say - although it sounds like another English word 

9 beans - fool (memory aid - not the English word for a dessert but beans, fooled you) 

10 duck - sounds like 'but/butt'

11 eat breakfast - sounds like  'after': 'after' we eat breakfast

12 elephant - memory aid for elephant - sounds like 'feel'

13 face - say 'wish', touch your face and wish they understand you mean face

14 give me -  'hat' (hold out your hand imploringly and beckon give me my hat, hat, hat

15 missed - sounds like 'fat' (memory aid for missed: after slimming I never missed being fat. How did you miss me? I was so fat that I don't know how you missed me!)

16 Mouse - sounds like far, (if you are scared then you will be glad it is far, or ask if the mouse is far. 'She shouted Fa Fa Fa - is she singing Do re mi fa?'  'No, she's shouting in Arabic that she saw a mouse!')

17 Sword / boy's name - 'Safe' (are you  'Safe' holding that sword?) 

18 bin - son (similar to Hebrew Ben, as in Benjamin, meaning son of my right hand, and Reu-ben see a son, as I saw in an annotated bible telling the story of the 12 sons in the bible Old Testament and there are also other sons in the New Testament. Jesus is accepted as a prophet and holy man by many Muslims but not as the Messiah or Christ and Mohammed takes precedence over all preceding persons just as to the earlier Christians Jesus takes precedence over the characters in the Old Testament.)

19 Inshallah - God willing

If you go into Memrise you can record your memory aids and if you like you can share them)

Quiz

Now test yourself

You hear these words in Arabic. What do they mean?

1 after 

2 but

3 burj

4 eid

5 far

6 fat

7 feel

8 fool

9 hat

10 inshallah

11 madina/medina

12 safe

13 salaam

14 salmon

15 sardine

16 suk 

17 tuna 

18 wish

19 yawn

20 el (conversational) /al Formal - the

21 tel - hill

22 salaam/ma salaam/ salaam aleikum (I recall the Israeli song, shalom alechem - peace to you)

12

13

14

15

16

17

You want to write or say these words in Arabic:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

Useful Websites

https://www.aetnainternational.com/en/about-us/explore/living-abroad/travel/arabic-words-phrases-dubai-expats.html

Useful Websites

https://osxdaily.com/2017/03/22/type-accents-mac-easy/

https://context.reverso.net/translation/windows-mac-app

(Avast sent me a warning about this. My husband told me to ignore that warnings. 'Avast is just trying to sell an upgrade.') 

Useful Language learning Websites

duolingo.com

Interlingua

An artificial language using commonly used words from mainly romance languages. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua

Not to be confused with interlingo

MEMRISE

A system which allows you to save your memory aids for each word, and see memory aids from other people.

memrise.com

earworms.com

mondly.com

You can learn half a dozen words of a new language to see how the system works.

For 134 dollars you get a lifetime's membership to learn more than 30 languages.

Bella, 7 languages at the age of 4, shopping on stage on TV in Australian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd9u9N7Z4TU

Song Shalom Aleichem in Hebrew with English transcription, female singer with guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDj-wAAtCvPnQ&v=j-wAAtCvPnQ

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages and gives talks and workshops on language and learning languages. For workshops contact annalondon8@gmail.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Translate For Fun - Hotel de Ville in France

After WW2 French was once of the most popular languages. In earlier times is it was German.

GERMAN

My father learned basic German at school. 

FRANCE

 I earnestly learned to sing Frere Jacques in primary school but that was not much help to us when we wanted to find a hotel in France. Frustration In France My first experience of misunderstanding languages, nowadays called Lost In Translation, was when my parents took a trip from England to Northern France by car. We drove around looking for a hotel. 

 The Word Hotel The word hotel is the same in English and French, and most of the world. Even in Japanese it is h o t e r u. (The Asians have difficulty saying the letter L.) So, in France, where the letters for hotel are identical (never mind the added accent in French) what could possibly go wrong? 

 Hotel De Ville In the centre of the town was a big sign on a large building: Hotel de Ville. it was a large place, and we feared it might be expensive, but first chance to ask somebody for help. The lights in the building were blazing but the light in the sky was fading, time to stop for dinner and find a bedroom. 

So we drove around hoping to find an entrance, with all the innocent expectation of British tourists abroad. The Hotel De Ville Had Shut Unfortunately, by the time we found the entrance, the lights had all turned off. The sign was lit but the gates were locked. Why? Was there another entrance? Had the place gone out of business? Were the lights simply to deter burglars? 

 Eventually we found a passer-by who spoke some English. They directed us around the corner to a nearby hotel. When we reached our small hotel, we asked why the Hotel de Ville was closed. 

The receptionist burst out laughing. Why? 

The Town Hall 

Hotel de Ville means town hall. 

Eventually we unpacked, found our dictionary and looked up hotel de ville. Then we started laughing. Hotel de Ville is town hall. I now watch out for words which sound similar. Are they really the same? 

If so, that's easy. I love translating: - The ingredients on chocolate bars, wine labels. - On the coach or bus or car or train, sign posts on motorways in foreign cities, graffiti. - Speeches of thanks, and toasts, at a wedding. - Newspaper headlines in supermarkets and airport lounges.

 I love stories of disasters from misunderstandings. In the last year I have been learning or learning about (alphabetically): American English Australian and New Zealand English Arabic Chinese (Mandarin) French German Greek Hebrew Indonesian Italian Romanian Russian S i n g l i s h (spaced to correct the autocorrect which inserted signalise) South African English Spanish Swedish Tamil Welsh Yiddish Borrowed Words In English I also list words in English which are derived from other languages. 

For example, yacht is Dutch. Safari is Swahili. 

 Translating French I have translated French into English at conferences and press trips in France and India. I start with fluent French, French A level. I have translated English into French for packaging - then got asked to translate the same material into Spanish and German when mockups were needed in a hurry for a presentation and no other translator could be found quickly. 

 Teaching English 

I have taught English language and literature, first in a Grammar School in England, later English language and literature as a home tutor, then to foreign parents and schoolchildren, singles and groups, ages ranging from five year old Japanese children sitting beside mother or on her lap, Sri Lankans, and intermediate English in four schools in Singapore, plus volunteering in a Singapore state secondary school coaching pupils to pass English O Level. 

 Speeches 

I visit Toastmasters International speakers' groups in Europe and Asia, speaking, training speakers, and judging speech contests. Singapore has several bilingual clubs.

Duolingo

I have been learning other languages on Duolingo, by watching foreign language films with subtitles, translating. I hope you will enjoy my posts and find them a help in learning languages and adding new words to your vocabulary, just for fun. 

 Every restaurant outing is a language trip. I pick up the takeaway menu and business card to translate. I listen to the waiters calling to each other.

 I sit in the sauna at a gym or club and ask other people about their language, their second language and what they find difficult or easy about pronouncing and speaking and learning English. Learning languages is a daily joy for me and I hope you will find my posts on language a daily amusement.

 Helpful Websites 

TRANSLATION

google translate 

translate Google

duolingo.com (free) 

 CDs Earworms: I have French, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish. You can buy one disc or two, new or secondhand from Ebay. If buying secondhand, make sure your disc comes with the booklet. 

About the Author

 Angela Lansbury, language teacher.

Please share links to your favourite blogs and individual posts.