النقاش بيسنفر الجبس.

The house painter is sanding the plaster.

Breakdown of النقاش بيسنفر الجبس.

• النقاش: the house painter
• الجبس: the plaster
• يسنفر: to sand a surface

Questions & Answers about النقاش بيسنفر الجبس.

How would I pronounce the whole sentence in Egyptian Arabic?

A common Cairene-style pronunciation is en-naʔʔaash biyesanfar el-gibs.

A few helpful details:

• النقاش → en-naʔʔaash
• بيسنفر → biyesanfar
• الجبس → el-gibs

Notes:

• The ʔ stands for a glottal stop, like the catch in the middle of uh-oh.
• In Egyptian Arabic, ج is usually pronounced like g in go, so الجبس starts with g, not j.
• In many Egyptian accents, ق is pronounced as a glottal stop ʔ.

Why does النقاش sound like en-na... instead of el-na...?

Because ن is a sun letter.

In Arabic, the definite article is written الـ, but before sun letters, the l sound assimilates to the first consonant of the word. So:

• written: النقاش
• said: en-naʔʔaash

The spelling stays the same, but the pronunciation changes.

By contrast, الجبس keeps the l sound because ج is a moon letter, so you say el-gibs, not eg-gibs.