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- Topic: Arabic >
- "بوب كَنَدِيّ."
14 Comments
1556
Arabic does not have a proper "P" sound, only "b". Which's funny when you hear people asking for a "bebsi" drink and a "bizza" to eat while watching Harry "bootter" :)
19
Ok so there's a subtle difference in English when you say "Bob is Canadian" and "Bob is from Canada" (i.e. Bob could be Canadian but never have lived in Canada, whereas "is from" implies that's where Bob lives/lived up until recently). Here, "كَنَدِيّ" means "Canadian" and there is no Arabic word for "is"/"to be" so the sentence is simply "بوب كَنَدِيّ". "Bob is from Canada" would be "بوب مين كَنَدا" with an alif (ا) instead of a shaddah* yā'/yaa2 (يّ). Note that the dāl/daal (د) takes a kasrah (that little dash underneath that marks the short "i" vowel) in "كَنَدِيّ".
I hope this helps :)
*Shaddah is the name of the little w-like symbol that causes gemination (the doubling of the consonant)