ده نوع من الجبنة.

This is a type of cheese.

Breakdown of ده نوع من الجبنة.

• ده: this
• جبنة: cheese
• من: of
• نوع: type; kind

Questions & Answers about ده نوع من الجبنة.

What does ده mean here?

In this sentence, ده is the Egyptian Arabic masculine demonstrative. It often means this, but in everyday speech it can also function like this is or even it’s, depending on context.

So ده نوع من الجبنة is literally something like:

this / this is / it’s a type of the cheese

But the natural English meaning is simply whatever meaning you were already given, such as This is a type of cheese or It’s a type of cheese.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

Because in Arabic, the verb to be is usually omitted in the present tense.

So where English says:

This is a type of cheese

Egyptian Arabic just says:

ده نوع من الجبنة

This is completely normal. Arabic only uses an explicit to be verb in other tenses, such as past or future.

How do you pronounce ده نوع من الجبنة?

A common pronunciation would be:

da nawʿ men el-gebna

A few notes:

• ده = da
• نوع = nawʿ
• من = men
• الجبنة = el-gebna

Important Egyptian pronunciation point:

• The letter in Egyptian Arabic is usually pronounced like in , not like English .