Arabic A1.10 Listening Practice: One Question
Listen to a A1 Arabic dialogue about one question, with audio, transcript, and grammar notes for language learning.
Podcast listening pages are in beta while chapter audio, transcripts, and discussion flows are still being completed.
Level
A1.10
Audio
1m 49s
Transcript
19 segments
A short Arabic listening chapter with transcript.
A1: Turn known statements into questions without changing everything. The learner keeps Arabic word order steady and adds a question signal.
Read while you listen.
1. Teacher
Welcome to ChickyTutor. Today, we are practicing how to ask simple questions in Arabic using 'hal' for yes-no questions, and 'maa' for 'what'. Let's listen to a short conversation between two friends, Sami and Mona, at a library.
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2. Native Speaker 1
هل أنت هنا؟
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3. Native Speaker 2
نعم، أنا هنا. ما هذا؟
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4. Native Speaker 1
هذا كتاب. هل عندك كتاب؟
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5. Native Speaker 2
لا، ليس عندي كتاب. ما هذه؟
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6. Native Speaker 1
هذه حقيبة.
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7. Teacher
Let's break that down. First, Sami asked: 'Hal anta huna?' which means 'Are you here?' He starts with 'hal', which is a tool we put at the beginning of a sentence to turn it into a yes-or-no question.
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8. Student
Does 'hal' change depending on whether we are talking to a man or a woman?
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9. Teacher
No, 'hal' never changes! You just change the pronoun after it, like 'anta' for a male, or 'anti' for a female.
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10. Teacher
Next, Mona asked: 'Maa haadha?' which means 'What is this?' She used 'maa' for 'what', and 'haadha' for 'this' when referring to a masculine object.
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11. Student
How do we know if an object is masculine in Arabic?
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12. Teacher
Generally, masculine nouns like 'kitaab', which means book, do not end with the feminine 'ah' sound.
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13. Teacher
Then, Sami asked: 'Hal indak kitaab?' which means 'Do you have a book?' Here, 'indak' means 'you have' when speaking to a male.
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14. Student
How would we ask a female if she has a book?
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15. Teacher
You would simply change 'indak' to 'indik'. So, you would say: 'Hal indik kitaab?'
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16. Teacher
Finally, Mona pointed to a bag and asked: 'Maa haadhihi?' which means 'What is this?'
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17. Student
Ah, so we use 'haadhihi' instead of 'haadha' because a bag is feminine?
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18. Teacher
Exactly! 'Haqiybah', meaning bag, ends in the feminine 'ah' sound, so we use 'haadhihi' for 'this'.
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19. Teacher
Great job today! Keep listening to these patterns, and you will master Arabic questions in no time.
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