Lesson 22

Nationality (Part I)

Each one in this world has its own nationality. Today, I will teach you how to talk about your nationality.

First, let me teach you some useful words about this topic:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
Nationality	جنسية
Nationalities	جنسيات
Citizen	مواطن
Citizens	مواطنين

Do you know how to say “جنسية” with all possessive pronouns? Okay, let's take a look at them:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
My nationality	جنسيتى
His nationality	جنسيته
Her nationality	جنسيتها
Your nationality (SM)	جنسيتك
Your nationality (SF)	جنسيتك
Your nationality (P)	جنسيتكم
Our nationality	جنسيتنا
Their nationality	جنسيتهم

What if you want to ask me in Arabic: What is your nationality?

How you will say this question in Arabic, and how I answer you in Arabic, too. Let’s learn how we will do this:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
What is your nationality?  (SM)	جنسيتك ايه؟
I am Egyptian	انا مصرى
I am an Egyptian citizen	انا مواطن مصرى

Note: We can answer this question with one of these two ways, but the first one is more common.

Now, how will you say your nationality?

When we want to give the nationality, we just add letter “ى” at the end of the country’s name. Like this:

الجنسية	اسم الدولة
مصرى	مصر

But there are some exceptions here.

First, if the country’s name ends with letter “ا” or “ة”, we delete this letter and add letter “ى”, but if letter “ا” or “ة” is preceded by letter “ى”, we do not add any letter. Like this:

الجنسية	اسم الدولة
فرنسى	فرنسا
روسى	روسيا

Second, if the country’s name starts with “الـ”, we delete these two letters and apply one of the above rules. Like this:

الجنسية	اسم الدولة
هندى	الهند
سعودى	السعودية

The last case is “England”, where we use a special word for it:

اسم الدولة	الجنسية	pronunciation
إنجلترا	انجليزى

Remember, if the person is female, we must add the letter “ة” at the end of the nationality. Like this:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
I am Ukrainian (F)	انا اوكرانية
She is Turkish	هى تركية
You are English (F)	انتى انجليزية