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- Topic: Arabic >
- "دَوود مُمتِع."
29 Comments
According to the dictionary, the word مُمتِع can mean: amusing, agreeable, entertaining, nice, pleasant, pleasurable, readable, rewarding, watchable, enjoyable. So, I don't think 'David is fun' necessarily means that he is funny, but rather that he is a fun person to be with.
343
Thanks. "Nice", "pleasant" or "entertaining" for example sound much better. I never had heard of "a person is fun". But I'm not a native speaker so that doesn't mean that you can't say it.
Yes. It should be Daoud or at least something similar - having to choose/write "David" just makes it confusing.
- 1871
Fun fact: In Indonesian bible, king David is called king Daud. There are other names that are different with the english translation as well such as John=Yohanes, Matthew=Matius, Job=Ayub, etc. (Indonesian got some loanword from Arabic because of the Arab trade, so maybe it got something to do with it)
- 572
It should be dawuudun mumti3 because it is in the nominative/subjective case but I hear dawuuda which is the accusative/objective case.
- 14
It shouldn't be dawuudun, as dawuud is diptotic, so it should be dawuudu. But the audio is mangled.
- 572
Wow! These case endings are way too difficult! I never heard the term "diptotic" until you mentioned it, so I googled it to find out how to do the case endings properly. The articles I came across where short and not presented in a way that made it easy, or even possible, for a beginning Arabic student to grasp. Coupled with the fact that Duolingo does not have in-depth explanations of grammar and that the TTS system is not accurate, I don't know how we students are going to get a handle on it. What are your suggestions?
- 14
If you're serious about learning Arabic, I'd invest in getting a good text book or grammar. The best grammar book I know is by Karin Ryding, which is very thorough and will see you through until you're an expert. There are more user-friendly text books, like Mastering Arabic, but they will skip over the diptosis, case endings, etcetera, because it makes Arabic more complex, and you can learn quite a lot without worrying about them. So it largely depends on the kind of student you are - do you want a good, solid framework, which may be complex, or do you want to learn quite a bit of Arabic quickly without being too fussed about the nitty-gritty? If the former, Duolingo is quickly going to get really frustrating for you. I'd advise on getting a text book, and ideally a teacher. My favourite text book is Cambridge's Standard Arabic - an elementary-intermediate course by Schulz, Krahl, and Reuschel. Translated from German, it's the best and most complete Arabic text book I've ever found. Not for the faint of heart - it's dry and hard work - but it will tell you everything you need to know.
I thought David is a proper noun so it doesn't become nunated, but I'm probably wrong.
Why is و written twice instead of once with the w like sign above it? Also, why does it sound like there's an "un" between the words?
- 11
I think the letter you mentioned can be used as a vowel or as a consonant. Here it is being used as one of each, instead of as a doubled consonant. And the un sound between words can work like an indefinite article or a subject/nominative marker. Can someone confirm that?
- 14
The و is written twice because the first time it functions as the w, the second time as the long u. The un can indeed work as the nominative indefinite marker, but that's not what's going on here - the audio is just mangled.
The -un after certain words sounds more and more different than described. I hear mumutiya3, not mumti3.
David or Dawud? David is English version. Dawud is Arabic. If you are honest, accept both as correct.
Well, "fun" generally means that you can have a good time with him, but "funny" is a bit more specific and suggests that he makes you laugh. If you look at ConchiCastillo's comment above, she explains the distinction. Admittedly, her list of dictionary translations includes "amusing", which is basically the same as "funny". But that is only one among many.
