Is Maryam in the room, under the fan, or behind the bed? Learn to express these basic prepositions by watching a simple story video by Nadia Selim, entitled أين أنتِ؟ ’ayna ’anti ‘Where are you?’. This video is ideal for someone who has just worked through the Bite-Size Arabic book. In this article I present the vocabulary used in this video.
The video is available both here on her Arabic with Nadia website and here on YouTube. Here is the video:
You can download a PDF version of the booklet version of the video for free here from Lulu. (You have to go through a “purchase” process, but it’s free, easy, and totally painless.)
While the video is relatively self-explanatory, it doesn’t hurt to work through a list of the vocabulary used in it for maximum comprehension. We’ll do this by looking at the words used in two separate categories: the prepositions and objects.
Prepositions
Here are all of the prepositions used in this video. In the pronunciation, the vowel in parentheses would not normally be pronounced in informal Arabic.
| داخِلَ | عَلى | فِي |
| daakhil(a) | ʕalaa | fii |
| ‘inside’ | ‘on’ | ‘in’ |
| تَحْتَ | بَيْنَ | بِجانِبِ |
| taḥt(a) | bayn(a) | bi jaanib(i) |
| ‘under’ | ‘between’ | ‘next to’ |
| أَمامَ | خَلْفَ | فَوْقَ |
| ’amaam(a) | khalf(a) | fawq(a) |
| ‘in front of’ | ‘behind’ | ‘above’ |
| خارِجَ | ||
| khaarij(a) | ||
| ‘outside’ |
With respect to the word َخَلْف khalf(a) ‘behind’, you may know a different word to express the same concept: وَراءَ waraa’(a). Both words are correct, and they mean the same thing.
Objects
Here is a list of the objects mentioned in this video:
| خَزانَة | سَرِير | غُرْفَة |
| khazaana | sariir | ghurfa |
| ‘cupboard, closet’ | ‘bed’ | ‘room’ |
| أُلْوان | دُمْيَة | دَرّاجَة |
| ’alwaan | dumya | darraaja |
| ‘colors; crayons, colored pens/pencils, paints, etc.’ | ‘doll’ | ‘bicycle’ |
| مِرْوَحَة | ||
| mirwaḥa | ||
| ‘fan’ |
Note that the word ألوان ’alwaan, which in this video is used to refer to colored pencils, literally means ‘colors’. It is the plural of the noun لَوْن lawn ‘color’.
What next?
Once you have mastered these prepositions and objects, why not check out some of the other useful learning materials on the Arabic with Nadia website?
