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- "أَيْن كَري؟"
17 Comments
619
The first word is "2aii-na", which means "where". There is not a feminine ending on it. It is just how the word, which is an adverb, is spelled. Duolingo is not putting all the vowel markings in the words. There would be a fattah over the nuun if it were fully voweled: نَ
Here's a couple links here https://www.arabicgenie.com/2013/05/arabic-question-words and also here http://arabic.speak7.com/arabic_phrases101.htm
619
@AnthPalm. No. The alif in the first word is a glottal stop with the glottal stop marker "hamza" on top, which is transliterated "2": 2aayn. The second word starts with the letter 'ayn which is transliterated "3". This letter makes a sound we don't have in English. You tighten your vocal cords and vibrate them, kind of like gargling, to pronounce whichever vowel it is paired with; "ii" here. The second word is transliterated 3iid.
I hope this helps a bit. There are some good YouTube videos on how to pronounce 'ayn: Arabic Pod 101 youtube.com/watch?v=Tn8STTxsThU.com and Learn Arabic With Maha. The link I saw on Google wasn't correct, so just google "Learn Arabic with Maha, a'yn".
There is a similarity between أَيْن and Hebrew אן / אין. There's a discussion here: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/hebrew-etymology-of-%D7%9B%D7%90%D7%9F-here.1574536/