Fakr bel Arabi is a series of posts aimed at helping Levantine Arabic learners to speak and sound like natives, by highlighting the little quirks of the spoken language, through the close analysis of sentences structures of everyday speech.

Say whaaaat?! (I promise it’s nothing complicated)

**Note: This is for Levantine Arabic learners who have no prior or little knowledge in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).

So welcome to the first post of Fakr bel Arabi (think in Arabic).

In this post, you will learn how to say the Levantine Arabic equivalent of

“when I was young/little”

Seriously, Lyn? Is it really that hard? You had to create a post about this?

When = لما (lama)

I was = كنت (kunt/kint)

young/little = صغير / صغيرة (zghiir/zghiire)

Khalas! “When I was young/little” ya3ne “لما كنت صغير” (lama kunt / kint zghiir).

Wayn el moshkile? [Where’s the problem? i.e what’s the matter?]

Well, the problem is that I can say this to native speakers and not an eyelid will be batted.

Why?

Simply because the phrase is understandable. They understand what I mean by that.

And it is also technically NOT wrong to say that.

But the thing is, native speakers usually say something different when they want to say “when I was young/little”.

What is it?

The phrase is:

وانا صغير

uu ana zghiir

For example:

كنت مشكلجي وانا صغير

kunt/kint mashkalji uu ana zghiir

I used to be a troublemaker when I was young

قضيت وقت كتير بالمكتبة وانا صغيرة

2aDeyt waqt ktiir bel maktabe uu ana zghiire

I spent a lot of time in the library when I was young

كان حلمي وأنا صغير انه اكون/كون دكتور

kan helmi uu ana zghiir eno akun/kun doktor

When I was young, it was my dream to be a doctor

كنت زيك وانا صغيرة

kunt zaiyak/zaiyek uu ana zghiire

I was like you when I was young

زي = Palestinian/Jordanian Arabic

Alternatively, you can say متلك

كان بحب ياكل مصاصات وهو صغير

kan baHeb yakol mSaaSaat uu huwe zghiir

When he was young, he liked eating lollipops.

كانت تروح لهديك المدرسة وهي صغيرة

kaanat truuH la hadiik el madrase uu hiye zghiire

She used to go to that school when she was young

~~~

Who would have thought that the phrase carries the stated meaning?

Besides, a literal translation will be “and I’m young/little”.

This is why I recommend implementing the chunking method during language learning. Don’t know what that is? Check out this article here.

That’s it. I hope this post has been useful.

It is the little things like this in a language that if you’re aware of and incorporate them into speech, you’ll be a baby step closer to sounding like a native.

Till the next post,

x Lyn