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Introduction to Arabic Alphabet: 11

There is no way to know whether it ends in ak or ik because they look exactly the same when you leave out the vowels. That said "bintik" or "bintak".

The Egyptian Arabic word for possible or can is mumkin.

The Egyptian Arabic word for from is min.

The Egyptian Arabic word for office is maktab.

The letter M looks like a mouth. A very small mouth though.

Basically it just loops around in a tiny circle. Sometimes the mouth will be open in the top left corner, depending on the font.

ﻤ

But at the end of a word the mouth starts to drool and dribble in a long stream. There is a long vertical line coming down from the left hand side of the M. This is it’s version of the flourishy tail, but it goes straight down. You can think of it as a mouth on the end of a stick if you prefer. The vertical line going down is very distinctive, because other letters don’t have it. But it is only used at the end of a word, or when the following letter can’t link to it.

Here are three M’s in a row, at the beginning, middle and end of a word:

ﻣﻤﻢ

If your web browser is using the Tahoma font, which is quite likely, the last M will not look very typical. It normally has a long straight stick. Other Arabic fonts are better.

What are these words?

ممكن

من

  1. This is six letters long, the Egyptian word for "possible" or "allowed".
  2. This is three letters long.
  3. This is six letters long when transliterated.
  4. Two words, corresponding to the word "sugar" (but watch out for the double "k").
  5. This means "my name" in Arabic.
  6. This is an article and a word, synonym for "movie theatre". But watch out for the Arabic spelling.
  7. Watch out for the double "a".
  8. In the transcription, you will have a double "j".
  9. This means "my brother".
  10. This is two words, the name of an American corporation (and you have already encountered the second part of that name).
  11. This is the word for "market".
  12. Watch out for the double "l".
  13. The American spelling is "Ghana".
  14. This word is "manager" in Egyptian Arabic.
  15. This is the word for she, similar to the English "hey ya!"
  16. This is the Egyptian Arabic word for Egypt.
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