Word
الغلاف جديد والطبعة قديمة.
Meaning
The book cover is new and the edition is old.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Breakdown of الغلاف جديد والطبعة قديمة.
جديد
new
قديمqadim
old
الغلافel-ghelâf
the book cover
الطبعةet-tab'a
the edition
Questions & Answers about الغلاف جديد والطبعة قديمة.
How would an Egyptian speaker pronounce this sentence?
A common Egyptian-style pronunciation would be:
il-ghilāf gidīd wiṭ-ṭabʿa ʔadīma
A few quick notes:
- جديد is usually pronounced gidīd in Egyptian, with a hard g.
- قديمة is often pronounced ʔadīma in Cairene Egyptian, because ق often becomes a glottal stop.
- الطبعة is pronounced iṭ-ṭabʿa / eṭ-ṭabʿa, not al-tabʿa, because of sound assimilation.
- Exact vowels can vary a bit by region and speaker.
Why is there no word for is in this sentence?
In Arabic, present-tense sentences like this often do not use a separate word for is/are.
So:
- الغلاف جديد = The cover is new
- الطبعة قديمة = The edition is old
This is very normal in both Egyptian Arabic and Standard Arabic.
If you wanted past tense, then you would use a verb such as كان:
- الغلاف كان جديد = The cover was new
Why do الغلاف and الطبعة have الـ, but جديد and قديمة do not?