- Forum >
- Topic: Arabic >
- "رَواد وَبوب"
36 Comments
This is really difficult. When I turn the slow one it sounds what it is - رَواد وَبوب But I`ve listened many times to the faster one and it continues to sound like there is some "uhn" sound before وَ وَبوبun رَواد
584
I read the other day that nunation was used in MSA. How true is this? I've seen sentences here that use it and others that don't. Since Duolingo is teaching MSA, what will the policy be regarding it's use?
Yes. Using nunation will make you seem educated and formal. As far as the course, I'm not sure.
That's because the b sound in Arabic is pronounced with a wider range than in English (because it doesn't have to contrast with p as English does). Also, since there is no letter for "p" in Arabic, obviously foreign words like Bob might be pronounced buub/buup/puub/puup or even with a slightly shorter vowel sound as in pop/soda pop. To a native Arabic speaker who hasn't been exposed to much/any English (or other language with a b/p distinction) b/p probably sound very very similar and may be hard to tell apart. Like native English speakers may have trouble hearing the th/dh difference since we use the dh sound so infrequently in English (mostly at the beginning of words like this, that, and the). Try saying "theater" like dhiatar and you may notice that while you can tell it's not quite the right sound...it still sounds enough like th/theater that that's just the way your brain wants to parse it.
In some Arab countries, they don't put a space between وَ and the following word and in some, like Lebanon, they do. I'm Lebanese, so I prefer adding a space to make it clearer that it's a separate word :-)
The audio adds a "un" sound at the end of rawaad. Is it the correct pronounciation?
Yes, when you want to sound very formal and educated. Nunation suffixes are used for the nominative, genative, and accusative cases. I don't think it is used in spoken Arabic.
The audio for Bob is wrong. Please report it using the “Report” button next time :-)
Sounds like Rawad and Pop on the audio. I only got it right based on the other Arabic letters spelling out Bob, as that was the only thing that fit the other sounds in the second name.
Aug 2020 Earlier there was only one computer voice but now we have got two after update and they both pronounce some words a little bit different from each other
Most likely. I've gotten things wrong due to autocorrect in the past. It's aggravating, but it happens. I've learned to double check before I enter my response.
The "wa" should be separate from the name. It makes the right answer too obvious.
