دقينا جرس الجارة، بس ما فتحت الباب.

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Breakdown of دقينا جرس الجارة، بس ما فتحت الباب.

• ال: the
• ما: not
• بس: but

Questions & Answers about دقينا جرس الجارة، بس ما فتحت الباب.

How would I pronounce this sentence in Levantine Arabic?

A natural pronunciation is:

daʔʔeena jaras il-jaara, bas ma fataḥet il-baab.

A few notes:

• دقّينا is often pronounced daʔʔeena in many urban Levantine accents because ق often becomes a glottal stop.
• In some other Levantine varieties, you may hear daqqeena.
• الـ is usually pronounced il- or el- in Levantine, not classical al-.

Word by word:

• دقّينا = daʔʔeena / daqqeena
• جرس = jaras
• الجارة = il-jaara
• بس = bas
• ما فتحت = ma fataḥet
• الباب = il-baab

What does دقّينا mean exactly, and how is it formed?

دقّينا is the past tense of the verb دقّ, and here it means we rang or literally we struck/knocked.

How it is built:

• دقّ = the basic verb
• -نا = we

So:

• دقّيت = I rang / knocked
• دقّينا = we rang / knocked

With جرس after it, the meaning becomes specifically we rang the bell.

So دقّينا جرس... is a very natural way to say we rang ...'s bell.

Why is جرس الجارة used for the neighbor's bell? Where is the word of or the apostrophe ?