Marhaba! If you happen to visit any country in the Middle East or anywhere in the world for that matter, you always meet new people. It could be at work (عمل), school (مدرسة) or just at a random social gathering (لقاء اجتماعي). You might land a new job in the Middle East or go on a study abroad program for a semester or simply decide to visit one of the many beautiful destinations. You could be going into a store for some shopping or just browsing around for restaurants, some random individual might ask you: ‘where are you from?’ I am dedicating this post to teach you two obvious things that come to mind when meeting new people. First, the basic common greeting of ‘Hello’; and the second refers to introducing yourself by ‘my name is…’ After this post, I am confident you will be able to say ‘hello… and my name is…’ I am sure that we have all had our fair share of such encounters. Some might not go beyond the hello part, while others might evolve beyond this basic point of conversation. Well these might be easy to many folks that follow the blog; I feel it is important to spend some time on these basic fundamentals, especially for folks that just began learning Arabic.
Let’s Say Hello!
Let’s begin with formal and informal ways of saying hello. In a previous post, I discussed the The and here I will discuss one of them and an additional one. The most formal way of greeting someone in Arabic is ‘assalaamu ‘alaykoom’ (السلام عليكم). You can pronounce it this way: AA-SA-LAA-MU AA-LAY-KOOM. In an Arabic conversation it seems to many as the exact substitute of Hello. As many of you know already, the actual literal translation is ‘May peace be upon you.’ It is appropriate for greeting someone at a formal event or when you meet someone for the first time in an Arab country. What happens if someone says it first? How do you reply? You can reply by saying ‘wa ‘alaykoom ‘as-salaam,’(وعليكم السلام) which literally means ‘and upon you peace.’ You can pronounce it this way WA-AA-LAY-KOOM EL-SA-LAM. In an informal situation, you can greet someone by saying ‘Marhaba’(مرحبا). This is appropriate for friends at school, family relatives or colleagues at work. You can pronounce it this way, MAR-HAH-BAA. You can also greet someone by saying ‘Ahlan wa sahlan,’(أهلآ وسهلآ) which literally means welcome. You can pronounce it this way: AH-LAN WA- SAH-LAN.
What’s Your Name? My Name is…
To ask someone what’s your name, you need to say two words: the what (ma) and name (ism). If you are talking to a woman, you would need to say ‘ma ismuki?’ (ما اسمكِ) and to a man, you would say ‘ma ismuka’ (ما اسمكَ). You can pronounce it this way: MA-ISS-MUKEE (when addressing women) and MA-ISS-MUKA (when addressing men). How about responding to someone after they have told you their name? To say ‘my name is..’ you will need to say ‘ismi’ (إسمي)and then your name. You can pronounce it this way: ISS-ME. So for example: ismi John or ismi Lauren or ismi Mohammad or ismi Tony or ismi Fatima or ismi Catherine or ismi Sarah.
Hope you make use of these basics and try to practice with your Arab friends or in a class or at work with colleagues that share your passion for learning Arabic. These might also come in handy if you happen to plan a visit to any of the beautiful destinations in the Arab world.
Stay tuned for upcoming posts.
Have a nice day!
نهاركم سعيد