Lesson 23

Nationality (Part II)

We talked about singular nationality, but what about plural. How we say “We are Egyptian”, “They are English”…etc. In fact there is a rule we can follow when we make plural forms of nationality.

We add “ين” at the end of the singular masculine of nationality name to convert it to plural masculine.

We add “ات” at the end of singular masculine of nationality name to convert it to plural feminine.

Here are some examples:

SM	PM	PF	Pronunciation
مصرى	مصريين	مصريات
ايطالى	ايطاليين	ايطاليات
فرنسى	فرنسيين	فرنسيات
اوكرانى	اوكرانيين	اوكرانيات

But there are some exceptions here, too. I will show some of them in the table below:

SM	PM (wrong)	PM (right)	PF	Pronunciation
المانى	المانيين	المان	المانيات
انجليزى	انجليزيين	انجليز	انجليزيات
اسبانى	اسبانيين	اسبان	اسبانيات
روسى	روسيين	روس	روسيات
تركى	تركيين	اتراك / ترك	تركيات
امريكانى	امريكانيين	امريكان	امريكانيات
هندى	هنديين	هنود	هنديات

Now, let’s take some examples:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
I am Egyptian (SM)	انا مصرى
They are American (PF)	هم امريكانيات
He is Australian	هو استرالى
She is Turkish	هى تركية
We are Brazilian (PF)	احنا برازيليات
We are Russian (PM)	احنا روس

The last thing I want to talk about is having nationality. We add the letter “ة” at the end of the singular masculine form of nationality. Here are some examples:

I have Turkish nationality

معايه الجنسية التركية                                                 

I am Turkish and I have American nationality

انا تركى ومعايه الجنسية الامريكية                                

He is Russian and he has English and American nationalities

هو روسى ومعاه الجنسية الانجليزية والامريكية                

Note: In the last sentence, when I wrote “English and American nationalities” in Arabic, I wrote “الجنسية الانجليزية والامريكية” not “الجنسيات الانجليزية والامريكية”. This is more common in real life.

I hear someone says: You do not teach me verb “Have” yet.

You are right.

This verb is “يملك” in Arabic, but we often use another word in slang. Let's get to know this word:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
I have	انا معايه / معايه
He has	هو معاه / معاه
She has	هى معاها / معاها
You have (SM)	انت معاك / معاك
You have (SF)	انتى معاكى / معاكى
You have (P)	انتوا معاكم / معاكم
We have	احنا معانا / معانا
They have	هم معاهم / معاهم

This verb in classical Arabic has two words; we can use any one of them. Here they are:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
I have	لدى / أنا أملك
He has	لديه / هو يملك
She has	لديها / هى تملك
You have (SM)	لديك / أنت تملك
You have (SF)	لديك / أنت تملكى
You have (P)	لديكم / أنتم تملكوا
We have	لدينا / نحن نملك
They have	لديهم / هم يملكوا

Note: We can use the pronouns with two words. The first word “لدى”, “لديه”…etc., is more common than “يملك” when we talk in classical Arabic

Here are some examples:

لدى كتاب وكراسة.

هى تملك بيت.

نحن لدينا مزرعة.

I hope you understand this lesson.