On the “Learn with Zakaria – تَعَلَّمْ مَعَ زَكَرِيّا” channel on YouTube there are quite a few short instructional videos for children that can teach you some basic vocabulary.
In this post I’ll talk a bit about the video about the days of the week. This video is very simple and straightforward. First, the days of the week are presented slowly, as individual words. After that, there is a little quiz: you are asked questions of the form “What day comes after Monday?” Here is the video:
The title of this video is:
| تعلّم أيّام الأسبوع بالعربية للأطفال |
| taʕallam ’ayyaam il-’usbuuʕ bi l-ʕarabiyya li l-’aṭfaal |
| ‘Learn the days of the week for children.’ |
Three useful words here before we get to the days of the week are the following:
| أُسْبُوع | أَيّام | يَوْم |
| ’usbuuʕ | ’ayyaam | yawm |
| ‘week’ | ‘days’ | ‘day’ |
So, ‘days of the week’ is أيّام الأسبوع ’ayyaam il-’usbuuʕ. If you have trouble with the word أسبوع ’usbuuʕ ‘week’, just remember that it is related to سبعة sabʕa ‘seven’.
Now let’s get to the meat of the matter. Here are the seven days of the week, starting with Saturday, as in the video:
| الجمعة | الخميس | الأربعاء | الثلاثاء | الاِثنين | الأحد | السبت |
| ’al-jum(u)ʕa | ’al-khamiis | ’al-’arbiʕaa’ | ’ath-thulathaa’ | ’al-ithnayn | ’al-’aḥad | ’as-sabt |
| ‘Friday’ | ‘Thursday’ | ‘Wednesday’ | ‘Tuesday’ | ‘Monday’ | ‘Sunday’ | ‘Saturday’ |
It is quite normal to precede any of these with the word يوع yawm ‘day’, e.g., يوم السبت yawm is-sabt ‘Saturday’, as you will see in the quiz.
Watch the first half of the video a couple of times, repeating the words. Now comes the quiz, which is introduced by the following words:
| اِلْعَب مَعَنا الآن. |
| ’ilʕab maʕa-naa l-’aan. |
| ‘Play with us now.’ |
You are now presented with a quiz consisting of seven questions. They all have the very same form. Here is first question:
| أيّ يوم يأتي بعد يوم السبت؟ |
| ’ayyu yawm ya’tii baʕda yawmi s-sabt? more formal: ’ayy yawm ya’tii baʕd yawm is-sabt? |
| ‘What day comes after Saturday?’ |
The questions follow the order of the days of the week, so it is a nice, easy exercise if you are just learning these words.
Now let’s back up and look at what is said before the days of the week are introduced. The narrator begins with this familiar phrase:
| الْسَّلامُ عَلَيْكُم. |
| ’as-salaamu ʕalay-kum. |
| ‘Peace be on you.’ |
He then says:
| الْيَوْمَ سَوْفَ نَتَعَلَّمُ أيّام الأسبوع باللغة العربية. |
|
’al-yawma sawfa nataʕallamu ’ayyaama l-’usbuuʕ bi l-lughati l-ʕarabiyya. less formal: ’al-yawm sawfa nataʕallam ’ayyaam il-’usbuuʕ bi l-lugha l-ʕarabiyya. |
| ‘Today we will learn days of the week in Arabic.’ |
| هَلْ أَنْتَ مُسْتَعِدّ؟ هَيّا نَبْدَأ. |
| hal ’anta mustaʕidd? hayyaa nabda’. |
| ‘Are you ready? Let’s start.’ |
These phrases are explained in greater detail on the page dealing with another video in this series Now the narrator has finished and the little boy Zakaria starts introducing the ten professions covered above.
I hope this was helpful. If it was, why not work through some other videos in this series?
