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- "مَساء اَلْخَيْر يا سامْية! م…
"مَساء اَلْخَيْر يا سامْية! مَساء اَلْنّور يا مُحَمَّد!"
Translation:Good evening, Samia! Good evening to you, Mohamed!
15 Comments
936
The second sentence is how to reply to the first sentence. "Good evening." "Bright evening." That's how the exchange goes in Arabic.
A bit confusing. In Arabic they are wishing good morning. And why "to you" to the man, when both wishes are the same?
A written explanation is needed to say that اَلْخَيْر is used by the initiator of the conversation and اَلْنّور is used by the responder. Otherwise the student just thinks they are equivalent expressions. In general, more explanation is needed in this course.
- 339
Good news! They have explain this matter in the TIPS skill :)) We can visit it via this link: https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ar/Introductions_greetings/tips-and-notes
- 339
AlexHruzew,
If you have really heard tanween in the proper name after "yaa", it is grammatically incorrect.
If I know, that نور literally means light, it is totally logical to use it as reply to good morning. What's the logic behind using it as reply to good evening as well...? There should be darkness by evening and not light, shouldn't it...?
it's not meant to be logical or literal. the word نور is often used to mean brightness, happiness, good things, etc. for example, my mom often calls my brother "نور عيني" (literally, the brightness of my eye). there is no نور or brightness in my mom's eye; she just uses that word as a term of endearment.
And the answer arbitrarily chooses the "to you" to be for only one of the lines.
I find the gap between the two sentences annoying. I start answering the first half and do not realize there is a second half so i get the question wrong.
