Posts in April 2009

Worried!

Posted by Aziza
Apr
30
2009

The emergence of swine flu has caused a lot of concerns and worries for many people around the world, including me. I check the news websites every few hours to know if new cases have been discovered and I hope and pray that this situation is resolved before more suffering happens. I am worried and frightened, and I thought in this posting to give some words and expressions that can be used to express fear and worry in Arabic. It should be noted that some of these expressions are very close in meaning, and one of them can be used for the other, just like the case with English.

This list contains adjectives that describe states of being worried and frightened. The are all in singular masculine form, and care should be taken to use the appropriate person and number when using them in sentences, e.g.

أنا خائفة، هل أنت خائف؟

I am afraid, are you afraid as well?

أختي قلقة على نتيجة الامتحان.

My sister is worried about the result of the examination.

الأطفال مروعون بعد رؤية الحادث.

The children are horrified after seeing the accident.

Afraid

خائف

Alarmed

وَجِل

Anxious

قلِق

Bothered

منزعج

Concerned

مُهْتَمّ

Discouraged

يائِس

Dismayed

مُتَخَوِّف

Distracted

مُشَتَّت الفِكْر

Distressed

مَكْرُوْب

Disturbed

مُتَضَايِق

Fearful

خائف

Frightened

مَرْعُوب

Horrified

مذعور

Intimidated

مرَوَّعَ

Nervous

عصبي

Perplexed

متحير

Perturbed

مُبَلْبَل

Scared

خائِف

Shocked

مَصْعُوق

Tense

مُتَوَتِّر

Terrified

مُرْتاع

Tormented

معذَّب

Trembling

مرتعد

Upset

مُنْزَعِج

Worried

قَلِق
 
Posted under Vocabulary 2 Comments | Post a Comment

Swine flu -translation

Posted by Aziza
Apr
29
2009

This posting is part 2 of my previous posting about swine flu. In the previous post, I cited a section from the BBC Arabic website about swine flu to give some useful vocabulary and timely expressions about this important topic. in this post, I present my translation of the information presented in the previous post.

After you have read the previous post, you can check your understanding of the text using the translation below.

The WHO has confirmed that the emergence of the swine flu virus which is transferred to humans represents “an urgent case for public health.”

What is swine flu?

Swine flu spreads through inhalation, and it is a severe epidemic that primarily infects pigs.

Type A flu virus causes this disease. The world has been witnessing repeated spreads of the disease among pigs causing nausea; however, it rarely becomes a deadly epidemic.

This disease spreads in autumn and spring in particular; nevertheless, it can spread at other times of the year as well.

There are many types of swine flu virus, similar to bird flu, and the virus is constantly changing.

Can people get swine flu?

Usually, swine flu does not affect humans; however, in outspread cases infection with swine flu has been recorded in people who have close contacts with pigs.

Additionally, few cases of bird flu infections among humans have been documented.

This virus spreads among people in ways that are similar to seasonal flu. i.e. through coughing and sneezing.

 
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Swine flu

Posted by Aziza
Apr
28
2009

News media is nowadays dominated by swine flu (انفلونزا الخنازير). The World Health Organization (منظمة الصحة العالمية) has issued alerts and raised the level of alert in response to the increasing number of people contracting the disease and dying by it. It is tragic and worrying!

In this posting, I present an excerpt from the BBC Arabic website about swine flu. It presents some interesting and timely vocabulary. At the end of the posting, I present the translation of some words and expressions presented in the news report. Use the words provided and world knowledge to try and understand the information presented. In my next posting, I will give a translation of the text below.

اكدت منظمة الصحة العالمية ان ظهور فيروس انفلونزا الخنازير الذي ينتقل الى الانسان يمثل “حالة ملحة في مجال الصحة العامة“.

ما هي انفلونزا الخنازير؟

تنتشر انفلونزا الخنازير عبر الاستنشاق. وهي مرض وبائي بشكل حاد يصيب الخنازير بشكل رئيسي.

ويؤدي فيروس الانفلونزا من فئة (أ) للاصابة بهذا المرض، ويشهد العالم انتشارا متكررا لهذا المرض بين الخنازير مسببا حالة عالية من الاعياء الا انه نادرا ما يتحول لوباء قاتل.

وينتشر هذا المرض بشكل خاص في موسمي الخريف والشتاء، الا انه يمكن ان ينتشر في اوقات اخرى من العام.

وهناك عدة سلالات لانفلونزا الخنازير، شأنه في ذلك شأن الانفلونزا التي تصيب الانسان، وتتحول طبيعة الفيروس بشكل مستمر.

هل يمكن ان يصاب الانسان بانفلونزا الخنازير؟

في العادة، لا تصيب انفلونزا الخنازير البشر، الا انه وفي حالات متفرقة، تم تسجيل اصابات بين الاشخاص الذين يكون لهم اتصال قريب مع الخنازير.

كما تم توثيق حالات نادرة لانتشار فيروس انفلونزا الطيور بين البشر.

وينتقل هذا الفيروس بين البشر بطريقة مشابهة لانتشار الانفلونزا الموسمية اي عبر السعال والعطاس.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/world_news/newsid_8018000/8018942.stm

اكدت

Confirmed /stressed

مرض وبائي

Epidemic

فيروس

Virus

يصيب

Affects

ظهور

Emergence/appearance

بشكل رئيسي

Primarily

ينتقل

Transfer

يؤدي

Lead

الانسان

Human beings/Man

الاعياء

Fatigue

حالة ملحة

Urgent case

نادرا

Rarely

تنتشر

Spread

قاتل

Killer

الاستنشاق

Inhaling

سلالات

strands

 
Posted under Culture, Vocabulary 5 Comments | Post a Comment

Practice agreement … plural

Posted by Aziza
Apr
24
2009

In one of my older posts, I explained that number agreement is very important in Arabic, and when we write or speak about one person or object, it is different from writing or speaking about 2 (dual), or about 3 or more (plural). Number agreement affects all parts of the sentence; nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc. Older posts in grammar explain a lot of things about these.

In this posting, I aim to put this knowledge into practice by providing some sentences in the singular and then changing them into plural. The best thing to do would be to try and change the sentences into plural yourself and then scroll down the page to check your answers.

Here are the sentences to change into plural. The underlined words are the ones you need to change and then change the sentence accordingly. When you have finishes, scroll down to check your answers. If you have any questions, please ask using the comment section!

1. أخي مشغول بالعمل.

(My brother is busy with his work)

2. هي بنت مصرية.

(She is an Egyptian girl)

3. أنت طالب انجليزي تسكن وتدرس في نيويورك.

(You are an English student and you live and study in New York)

4. هذا شارع واسع وجميل.

(This is a wide and beautiful street.)

5. هو استاذ عربي يدرّس في جامعة أوكسفورد.

(He is an Arab professor who teaches at Oxford University)

A

N

S

W

E

R

S

1. إخوتي مشغولون بالعمل.

2. هن بنات مصريات.

3. أنتم طلاب إنجليز تسكنون وتدرسون في نيويورك.

4. هذه شوارع واسعة وجميلة.

5. هم أساتذة عرب يدرّسون في جامعة أوكسفورد.

 
Posted under Grammar 3 Comments | Post a Comment

“But where are the camels?!!!”

Posted by Aziza
Apr
21
2009

The other day I was giving a presentation about the Arab world, and I showed my audiences some images of different Arab countries, but then one of them exclaimed, “But where are the camels!” She was really surprised to see how modern Arab cities are. I think that a lot of people in the West are still influenced by stereotypical images of an old, nomad, rough and underdeveloped Arab world. A great deal of development has taken place and is still taking place in the Arab world. Arab societies are being modernized and globalization has affected what people eat, wear, sing, dance, etc. It is amazing how modern and sometimes also westernized are many Arab youths! This does not mean that traditional values are no longer there, but there is a great deal of diversity in the Arab world now, and I think that we need to improve awareness on both ends of the things we have in common.

The following clip from youtube shows some images from the Arab world and also plays some Arabic music. I think it is fun to watch. I cannot see enough of it, and I hope you enjoy it too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4kTNk31Tk4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtcdYAdEBQ

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