How to say "you" in Arabic part one
The Arab world is defined by its famous diglossia - there is an international "standard" language which is nearly identical to the classical Arabic of the Qu'ran and the Hadith, but updated in order to describe the modern world, as well as various local, national and regional dialects which perhaps differ as much as the Romance languages, such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, do from each other.
English is unusual in that in its modern standardised incarnation, it only has one word for you. Granted, in the Midlands people say "youse" and in the American South, there is the famous "y'all", but outside of rural Yorkshire, the only people who use "thou", "thee" and "thy" are committed thespians, regular churchgoers and diehard romantics.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of number (singular, plural and dual) and gender (masculine and feminine) it's worth remembering that the common denominator for the Arabic word for "you" is the two letters, "n" and "t". (ن) and (ت)
The basic part of the word for you in Modern Standard Arabic sounds like one of our favourite six-legged friends "ant".
This stripped back form of the pronoun exists mainly in poetry, such as in this qasida about Jerusalem, with the oft-repeated line,
في القدسِ مَن في القدسِ إلا أنْتْ
English is unusual in that in its modern standardised incarnation, it only has one word for you. Granted, in the Midlands people say "youse" and in the American South, there is the famous "y'all", but outside of rural Yorkshire, the only people who use "thou", "thee" and "thy" are committed thespians, regular churchgoers and diehard romantics.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of number (singular, plural and dual) and gender (masculine and feminine) it's worth remembering that the common denominator for the Arabic word for "you" is the two letters, "n" and "t". (ن) and (ت)
The basic part of the word for you in Modern Standard Arabic sounds like one of our favourite six-legged friends "ant".
This stripped back form of the pronoun exists mainly in poetry, such as in this qasida about Jerusalem, with the oft-repeated line,
في القدسِ مَن في القدسِ إلا أنْتْ
(literally in Jerusalem, who is in Jerusalem but you?)
In Modern Standard Arabic, there are two words for "you" in the singular:
أنتَ (anta)
and
أنتِ (anti)
In this video you can hear the pronunciation for the two words. If you want to learn some moderately complex sentences using the second person singular pronoun , this video may be of use.
When learning languages, it is often useful to learn the question with the answer. This sounds elementary, but it helps with the communicative aspect of this complex bundle of sounds which you are trying to learn and hopefully put to use.
If you are desperate to learn how to ask questions in Arabic, this video may be of use.
من (man) in MSA means "who" and ِاين (eyn rhymes with bane) means where.
In your opinion, what does: من أنت؟ mean?
That's right it means, "who are you?" It's not a Wallace and Gromit remake involving a werewolf, an ant and a scientifically impossible contraction.
Man anta to a man or man anti to a woman is a basic question. Note that there is no need for the verb "to be" in the present tense.
In order to reply, you might want to say, "أنا" and then your name. In my case: Ana Jake.
What do you think
اين انت؟ means?
That's right, it means "Where are you?".
If like me, you are in the confines of your humble abode, you can reply with "انا في البيت" I am at home.
You probably already kind of know the word "beyt" considering that it comes from the same root as the first part of the word "Bethlehem."
In Egyptian Arabic, the above words are similar, but not identical.
اين (eyn) becomes فين (feyn)
أنتَ (anta) becomes إنتَ (inta)
مين (min) is used instead of (man) من
(imagine that the august man has become a mean lean fighting machine)
MSA vocabulary
The syntax between MSA and Egyptian Arabic is also a bit different. In MSA we begin a question with a question word: in Egyptian Arabic, we put them at the end.
How would you say "who are you?" in Egyptian Arabic?
إنت مين؟
(inta min)
إنتي مين؟
(inti min)
What about, "where are you?"
إنت فين؟
(inta feyn)
إنتي فين
(inti feyn)
For more information on pronouns in Egyptian Arabic, watch this video here
من (man) who
في (fi) in
انت (anta/anti) you
Moroccan Arabic is traditionally seen as one of the hardest dialects to learn. Although compared to Egyptian Arabic, it keeps the same word order as Modern Standard Arabic, there is a bit more variation in terms of vocabulary.
You is نتا (unta) for masculine and نتي (unti) for feminine.
The word for "who" is Shkoun شكون and where is فين
For more information on Moroccan pronouns, look here
How would you say, "Who are you?" in darija (Moroccan Arabic)?
That's right:
شكون نتا
shkoune unta
شكون نتي
shkoun unti.
شكون is also used in a similar manner to the Italian Chi è? Who is it? when answering the intercom.
For more information on question words in Moroccan Arabic, this video may be of help
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