"هَل أَنْتِ مُهَنْدِسة يا أُسْتاذة؟"

Translation: Are you an engineer, ma'am?

[TomTJBegus]

yeah, not digging the choice of 'am and ma

[Ollie-Benson]

It's a bug with Duolingo. The makers of the course can't fix it, only the programmers of Duolingo. Send them a bug report here: https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Here's an example of a bug report I've sent: https://imgur.com/gallery/JdHZkXK

[Sadeeeq]

Yeah, they shouldn't separate it

[DaRealAdamM]

أُسْتاذة means teacher

[tsuj1g1r1]

It is also a polite term of address for anybody you meet on the street.

[fehrerdef]

or professor

[ATHARQURES4]

Exactly

[Raggie6]

I have never heard of ustaadha used in any other way than professor! Where is this used?

[LauraKrenz]

Likewise. I was taught in 1st year Arabic to use HaDritak/ik. I think sayd/a could also be acceptable.

[tsuj1g1r1]

7aDritak/ik is the equivalent of German "Sie," not German "Herr/Frau." sayyid/sayyida should also be accepted, yes.

[tsuj1g1r1]

All over the Arab World. It is very common.

[oberljn]

I heard it a bit for politeness in Saudi

[Mi_amas_Noha]

مهندسةٌ* يا أستاذةُ

[Salsmachev]

Yeah the lack of Fuṣḥá endings is annoying me, too. I want to learn formal Arabic first, and then branch out into less formal language.

[LauraKrenz]

If the speaker is addressing a stranger, why aren't they using the formal ending for 'your.' As in اسمُكو?

[tsuj1g1r1]

There is no such thing as a formal ending for "your." The word you used doesn't mean anything in MSA. In dialect, it could mean "y'all's names"; it's not formal, just plural.

[Lyndon25xx]

Ma'am should be one word together.

[Arwa366859]

Wtf?! Why the word is separated?!

[khan128959]

Exactly

[khan128959]

The other frustating thing is the repeatition of words like.... kab bak awee3 baa2...

[khan128959]

In other language's courses... there are books and conversations and tips and lot more...

[JamesTWils]

Is ustaadha used of a woman who is not a teacher?

[tsuj1g1r1]

Yes.

[Renat.Su]

Hm... this is a bug. Professor/ma'am

[fehrerdef]

I don't think it's a bug. The word originally means "professor", but it can also be used to address other persons in a respectful manner.

[lia558212]

???

[khan128959]

Ostada means a professor or in other language like urdu it means teacher... even in arabic it means professor ok i got it.... but MAAM seriously, this is so confusing...

[khan128959]

Like i was thinking what should i chose next... it was surprise.... ostada means maam... and another thing is the keep repeating the simplest alphabets like kab bak, etc... it is so irritating.. instead they should add some stories and books like in other courses

[ATHARQURES4]

This cant be right

[AlauddinMo]

I learnt Ushtaja means teacher?

[eman321253]

Dhur

[Khalid300171]

First off, the word is teacher, not ma'am. Second, why is "ma" and "am" separate words? Please fix this.

[MarleenVer19]

The word professor was not available