Egyptian arabic dicionary phrasebook

Page 281

Negatives

To form the negative, add ma- to the beginning of the verb and -sh to the end: bashrab

I drink

aamalt

I did

mabashrabsh

I don’t drink

maaamaltish

I haven’t done

Another way of making a verb negative is to place the word mish before the verb: ana māshee

I am going

mish māshee

I am not going

I am not going

mish fāhim

I don’t understand

mish gīya

I am not coming

Ve r b s

mish rīeh

There are a few verbs which must take the mish form of the negative. For example, ‘to want’ and the alternatives of the present tense mentioned above (i.e. ‘to go’, ‘to come’ and ‘to understand’).

HOW THE LANGUAGE WORKS

ana mish rīeh I’m not going

Imperative

To form an imperative, take the second person singular or plural of the imperfect tense and remove the initial t-: ishrab!

drink up!

Some other useful imperatives are: o’aod!

sit down! imshee!

go away!

warrehālee

show it to me o’af!

stop!

estanna hena

stay here

taaala hena!

come here!

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