In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express your needs and make polite requests in a Lebanese setting.
- “I want…” In Lebanese Arabic, the word for “I want” or “I need” is بدّي (báddi).
- Grammar Tip: Unlike Egyptian Arabic, the word بدّي stays the same regardless of whether a man or a woman is speaking.
- Essential Vocabulary
- قهْوِة (ʔáhwi) — Coffee.
- ميّ (mayy) — Water.
- Being Polite: “Please” Lebanon is known for its blend of languages, and you will often hear these two ways to say “please”:
- بْليز (plīz) — Very common and borrowed from English.
- مِن فضْلك (min fáɖlak) — A more traditional way to say “please” when speaking to a man.
Putting it all together:
بدّي قهْوِة بْليز.
(báddi ʔáhwi plīz.)
“I want coffee, please.”
Did you know? بدّي is what grammarians call a “pseudo-verb.” While it translates to the verb “want” in English, in Arabic, it is technically a combination of a base word and a pronoun suffix (ـي/ -i) that means “my”.
Source: The Beginning Learner’s Levantine Arabic Dictionary
Beginning Learner’s Levantine Arabic Dictionary
An alphabetical Levantine Arabic eBook dictionary featuring over 1,600 words and phrases with example sentences and phonemic transcription for beginning learners.
Lovely!!! Please make levantine lessons!!🙏🙏That would marvellous!!❤️
Great. More of this please!
Matt,
Great idea! In Palestinian/Jordanian dialect if you plan to make the adjustments for this group as well, let me suggest the following. Shireen Sayyad. Qudsi Arabic, has scenarios like this in her book, “All the Small and the Big”, but no audio. For the Jordanian component, I think it might be useful to have a male voice using ‘q/g’ while the female is speaking normally with a glottal stop to get the ear acquainted to the hearing same word with the phonetic difference in context.
I’ve said this before, Great material!!