Episode 13 : طالب في زمان الكرونة (a student in the time of Corona)

Levantine Arabic: Bayni w Baynak

Hi everyone! In this episode me and Razan talk a bit about my first week in London, specifically what it’s like being a student during these strange times. Enjoy!

Also see vocab below or get the PDF here

00:44 Razan said: اليوم رح يكون عنده فحص و على الاغلب رح يكون سلبي (today he (Razan’s brother) is going to have a test and the chances are it will be negative)

00:58 Razan said : عندي صداع (I have a headache) - you can also use it like a verb aka : انا صدعت (I got a headache).

01:34 Razan said: اذا بنغير شي في البيت النفسية بتصير احسن (If we change something in the house, one’s mood improves)

01:44 Razan said : اذا غيرنا الدكور كتير كبير في البيت رح تكون متل كأنو في بيت جديد (if we change the decor a lot at home it will feel a new house)

08:39 Razan said: مستقصدني : this is the active participle from the form 10 verb: استقصد from root قصد. It means to ‘pick on’ (someone).

obviously قصد is a particularly productive route. In form one it means ‘mean/ِintend’

Aka : شو قصدك؟ /shu ‘aSSdik/ (what do you mean?)

As a form 8 masdar it means economy: اقتصاد

9:15 ERROR I said: عم يخفف الوضع (the situation is getting calmer) (literally is getting lighter)

Razan corrected: عم يخف الوضع (or عم بخف الوضع)

11:12 ERROR I say sekin a lot (ساكن) as in : في الساكن . I’m trying to say: in the residence. But it should be without ا aka: في السكن /sakan/

11:35 Razan said: موزعين (distributed) comes from form 2 verb: وزّع

26:02 ERROR I said: عم نحكي عن خيال الي رح يعانوا عن الاحباط

I was trying to say something like: we’re talking about a generation who are going to suffer from depression.

Firstly I got خيال (fiction) mixed up with جيل /jeel/ (generation) (come on it’s easily done! :/)

Secondly: من الاحباط not عن .

So the improved sentence would be something like:

عم نحكي عن جيل/الجيل الي/يلي رح يعاني/ يعانوا من الاحباط

Note: الي could be replaced by يلي which is more Lebanese. Though no relative pronoun is used when the noun it refers to is undefined. So if I say جيل and not الجيل one would normally omit the relative pronoun. That said I feel like in Lebanese يلي is still permitted even with undefined nouns.

It’s also cool to note that you could say: يعاني or يعانوا (it/ they suffer). Just like in English you could say: this generation is/ are totally different. Maybe the singular sounds a bit better but both work. I’m not sure MSA has the same leniency in this regard though :(

27:04: Razan said: التوازن مش موجود تقربا أبدا في كل الدول (the balance/equilibrium is non existent basically in any country/state