Lesson 6: لمستك

New Vocabulary

dah (ده) - this, that (masculine)
di (دي) - this, that (feminine)
dah (دا) - exclamatory particle at the beginning of sentence
feen? (فين؟) - where?
li (ل) - to, for
low (لو) - if
kamaan (كمان) - also, as well, too, more, in addition
makaan (مكان) - place
al-layla (الليلة) - tonight
al-layla di (الليلة دي) - this night (aka tonight)
bidaaya (بداية) - beginning
ta3aali (تعالى) - come on!
yalla (يالله) - let's go!
yoomeen (يومين) - two days

lamas (لَمَس) - to touch
'arrab (قَرَّب) - to get close
ibtada (ابتدى) - to start, for something to begin

In this lesson, you will start to learn about expressing "this" and "that" in Egyptian Arabic. The masculine and feminine words meaning both "this" and "that" are "dah (ده)" and "di (دي)." To say this is a boy, you just have to say "dah waad (ده واد)," however, to say "this boy," you say "al-waad dah (الواد ده)." Do you see how it is affixed to noun? this is a specific feature of Egyptian Arabic, just like the questions coming at the end of the sentence.

The song in this lesson is entitled "lamastak ()," meaning "I Touched You." Notice how once again the singer, Amr Moustafa, is singing to a grammatical male but of course it is meant for a girl or a "generic" person. Watch the video, listen to the song and read the lyrics:

لمستك نسيت الحياة
وانت اللى بحلم اعيش يوم معاه
والليلة هى البداية وخليك معايا
ده عمرى الليلة دى ابتدى

ولازم نعيش يالله قرب كمان
تعالى حبيبى لأبعد مكان
ننسا اللى ضاع من ايدينا نعيش بس لنا
خلاص اللى جوانا بان

سرحت بعيونك لفين
ايوة انت جمبى وهعيشلك سنين
وحياتى قرب عليا يا عمري وعنييا
نعيش الحياة لو يومين

Did you understand anything? Let's find out:

لمستك نسيت الحياة
وانت اللى بحلم اعيش يوم معاه

"I touched you and forgot life. You are the one who I dream to live with one day." Notice that "yoom (يوم)" used in the indefinite sense in this case brings the meaning of "one day."

والليلة هى البداية

"al-layla (الليلة)" means tonight. So this means "tonight, it is the beginning" or "and tonight is the beginning."

وخليك معايا

remember? Next line:

ده عمرى الليلة دى ابتدى

This line is tricky because of the use of "dah (ده)" here for emphasis. When you see this, it is usually easiest to skip over "dah (ده)" to see the rest of the sentnece. "3umri (عمري)" is of course "my lifetime." The verb "ibtada (ابتدى)" means "to begin." "al-layla di (الليلة دي)" literally means "this night," but here you can say tonight. So the sentence means "my lifetime began tonight." The "dah (ده)" just adds the sense of "really!" or "truly!"

Moving to the chorus:

ولازم نعيش يالله قرب كمان

Here we see the familiar "laazim na3ish (لازم نعيش)," "we gotta live." "yalla (يالله)" means basically "let's go!" or "c'mon!" "'arrab (قرّب)" is the command form of the same verb, "to get close." "kamaan (كمان)" means "too, as well, also" and here has the sense of "more." So he says "c'mon, get a little closer."

Next line:

تعالى حبيبى لأبعد مكان

"ta3aala (تعالى)" means "come on," very similar to "yalla (يالله)." "Come on, my darling, to the farthest away place."

ننسا اللى ضاع من ايدينا

"Daa3 (ضاع)" is the verb "to be lost." "iydee (ايدي)" is the plural of "yad (يد)," meaning "hand." So it means "we'll forget that which we have lost," kind of like "we'll forget our past."

نعيش بس لنا

Before we talked about the word "bass ()" meaning "but." However, here is means "just" like "only," so he says, "we'll live just for us" meaning away from everyone else.

خلاص اللى جوانا بان

"baan (بان)" means "to come clear" or "to show" or "to manifest." Understood?

Next verse:

سرحت بعيونك لفين

"saraH (سرح)" is a verb that means "to wander" or "to go astray." "feen (فين)" means "where?" See how it is at the end of the sentence? So he says "where did you wander off to with your eyes." He wants to see them!

ايوة انت جمبى وهعيشلك سنين
وحياتى قرب عليا يا عمري وعنييا

Everything clear there? "'arrab 3alaya (قرب عليا)" means "get close to me."

نعيش الحياة لو يومين

"low (لو)" means "if." "yoomeen (يومين)" means "2 days." As you can see, this is the familiar dual form from Standard Arabic, however, don't worry, it is only used for nouns. So "we'll live life if just two days" is an expression that even if it's a short time, he wants to be with her.

That song was a breeze. Soon we will be able to move onto more complex songs and you will be able to understand with relatively little explanation.

Next lesson, Lesson 7: وماله؟