# All dialects: verb prefix بـ b-/bi-/be-



## AM2013

Hi all,

I have been studying MSA for a year or so, but have now signed up for a new course in Arabic which I was expecting to be MSA. However the instructor said it will be in the Gulf dialect, and I accepted it as it would help me with talking in Arabic at work (in Qatar).

What has caught me off guard is that all the verbs start with a conjugation with ب. For example, أبا بروح، انت بتروح، انت بتروحي

I don't mind learning the dialect, but I can't get my head around the ب and it's making the whole exercise more difficult. Also when I listen to people at work, only a few people seem to use ب (i.e. it's not that widespread) so I'm even more confused about it.

Could you advise whether this is a feature of the Gulf dialect or where would I find people using it... I don't want to be laughed at if I start saying أبا بروح rather than أبا روح for example.

Thanks.


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## Hemza

Hello, actually, those verbs don't start with "b", it's only some dialects who use this prefix for two functions:
 -the present tense, in Egyptian, Sudanese, Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian and (I'm not sure for this last) Eastern Libyan.
-for the future, in Qatari, Bahraini, bedouin Hejazi (Western Saudi), Najdi (Central Saudi), Emirati, Omani.

So as you can see, it's not a "Gulf" feature, but the use of it depends of the dialect.

I don't want to confuse you, so I won't give you forms of Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Kuwait, which are differents.

In Qatari, "انا بروح" means "I will go", while "انا اروح" (and not "انا روح" as you wrote) means "I go". if you want to say "I'm going", you must say "انا قاعد اروح". And if you want to say "I went", it's "انا روحت'


I hope it will help you and won't confuse you. As I'm not a Gulf dialectS speaker (there is many Gulf dialects, not one) but I speak Hejazi (assuming it's not too far) I can be wrong, but I think that my list is complete .


Also, all those "rules" concern ONLY dialects, "اروح" doesn't exist in MSA to say "to go".

Ps: sorry for my mistakes in English, I'm not a native speaker.


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## eastren

In most dialects like Egyptian, Jordian, Leventine، Moroccan and Urban hijazi the word " baب ‏" is constant in present tenses only and must use in all verb conjugation steps. 
انا بحبك يا حبيبي.
إنت بتروح الى المدرسة.
هي بتستلقي على السرير.
It is little attempt for you. read and explain again


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## vinyljunkie619

Ba-/Mn- prefix can mean the future, habitual present, and present progressive in Gulf Arabic, although most of its use is for future tense.
Barou7 can mean "I will go" "I go (on a regular basis)" or "I am going"

Where there is a sentence where "ba" isn't used to imply the future and a future statement is added, you add "ra7" to avoid ambiguity.
EX... hal7een barou7 walaakin baacher ra7 arou7 thani - Right now, I am going, but tomorrow I will go again.


eastren said:


> إنت بتروح الى المدرسة.


The word "الى" in Egyptian, I don't think they use it in Lebanon, either.
The equivalent word is "ل" pronounced "li"


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## k8an

I'll just repeat what everyone else has said - "b" is present tense in Lebanese/Palestinian/Jordanian/Syrian/Egyptian and future tense in Gulf. 

For example in Lebanese - Egytian 
I love
Ana b7ibb - ana ba7eb

In Lebanese the plural first person begins with "min"
We love = min7ibb

There is also continuous in Lebanese which is 3am (the "b-" prefix is sometimes used)
I am thinking = 3am fakker
What are you doing? = shu 3am t3mol?
What are they saying? = shu 3am by2oulou? 

I am not an expert in Gulf but as everyone else seems to have also said, "b-" indicates future tense. 

In this way, "bashoufak" for example has two meanings depending on dialect:
Egyptian: I see you
Gulf: I WILL see you 


If you need to get used to it, you should listen to Arabic pop music - most of it is in Lebanese and Egyptian dialects


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## Hemza

eastren said:


> In most dialects like Egyptian, Jordian, Leventine، Moroccan and Urban hijazi the word " baب ‏" is constant in present tenses only and must use in all verb conjugation steps.
> انا بحبك يا حبيبي.
> إنت بتروح الى المدرسة.
> هي بتستلقي على السرير.
> It is little attempt for you. read and explain again



Sorry my friend, there is some mistakes in what you said:

First, "ba" is not used in Moroccan, which use "ta" or "ka" or nothing (like Algerian). Also, in Urban 7ejazi, the present tense is formed with "قاعد" and "ba" is not always used


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## vinyljunkie619

Ba- is typical in Urban Hijazi.  Bedouin Hijazi and the other dialects of KSA "Ga3ed" is used. In upper Egyptian "3a-" is used.


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## Hemza

No, we use "ga3id" too . "ba" is "optionnal". Example:

"ga3id aru7 ila al madrassa" is said in 7ejazi, and Najdi.

I speak bedouin 7ejazi, but my friend from Jeddah who speaks Urban 7ejazi, doesn't use "ba" all the time, and she told me that it's kind of "optionnal". But she's half Egyptian too, so may be, Egyptian influenced her speech, I don't know, I must ask her...


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## eastren

I often heared egyptian speakers of alexandaria and cairo they use (baب) in start of the verb. there are many examples in daily life.
بشرب، بروح، بكتب
sometime they speak in standard language.


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## Hemza

Alexandria dialect is (or was, I don't know) different from Cairo. Example with "I'm going to the Mosque" would be:

Cairo: "ana baru7 al masgid"
Alexandria: "ana bnaru7 al masgid"

Alexandrian dialect use the "n-" of the first person, of Maghrebian dialects ^^.


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## vinyljunkie619

Yeah that's the old generation... the new generation speaks more like Cairo.
Sa3eedi dialects use N- for first person as well


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## Hemza

Yes, unfortunately, it's the same case in Morocco, a looot of people leave their speech to adopt Casablanca speech which I find ugly (sorry for people from there).

Really? Thank you for the information!!! I know about Western Egypt, but I didn't for Sa3idi, even if I have doubts, because I have a sa3idi song, and when I'm listening to it, I have the impression to hear "n" at the beginning of verbs, so thank you for confirming it to me ^^


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## vinyljunkie619

N- conjugation is also heard in areas in Sudan as well.


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## eastren

The Cairo dialect is much near to syrian and lebanese dialect and many words are same. while the other Alexandrian dialect is close to Westren Arabic and effective with many Greek French and Turkish words. indeed "baب" or "noonن" is constant in present tenses only.


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## WadiH

AM2013 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I have been studying MSA for a year or so, but have now signed up for a new course in Arabic which I was expecting to be MSA. However the instructor said it will be in the Gulf dialect, and I accepted it as it would help me with talking in Arabic at work (in Qatar).
> 
> What has caught me off guard is that all the verbs start with a conjugation with ب. For example, أبا بروح، انت بتروح، انت بتروحي
> 
> I don't mind learning the dialect, but I can't get my head around the ب and it's making the whole exercise more difficult. Also when I listen to people at work, only a few people seem to use ب (i.e. it's not that widespread) so I'm even more confused about it.
> 
> Could you advise whether this is a feature of the Gulf dialect or where would I find people using it... I don't want to be laughed at if I start saying أبا بروح rather than أبا روح for example.
> 
> Thanks.



Ok, here's the deal: in Gulf dialects the b- is a marker for the future and ONLY the future.  It is a shortened form of aba-.  So, you can say أبا روح OR بروح, but NOT أبا بروح because b- and aba- are the same thing.  You should not hesitate to use either one of them. I think aba- may signify a more distant future than b-, but I wouldn't worry too much about that for now.

No disrespect to my colleagues above, but for your narrow purposes I would advise you to ignore what was written above.  It's too confusing (the b- in Gulf and Peninsular dialects has no relationship whatsoever with the one used in Egyptian, etc.) and has a lot of inaccuracies.


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## Tracer

Hi - 

I think we're jumping the gun on AM2013.  This is to say, I think we need more information on his exact situation and background. Here are a couple of questions that
immediately come to mind and which I would want to know before I answered his question.

1.  You say you work in Qatar but are you actually working WITH Qataris?  I mean, with citizens of Qatar?   If so, that would be an extremely rare situation, in my experience.

Usually when a FOREIGNER (like myself) says he's working alongside Arabic speakers (anywhere in the Gulf), he means he's really working with Egyptians or Palestinians or Lebanese or something else.  His boss might be Kuwaiti or Qatari or Bahraini, but you'd rarely see him (after all, he's your boss).

Most likely AM2013 is working with several nationalities all speaking different Arabic dialects which is leading to his confusion.

2.  You say your instructor says he will be teaching "the Gulf dialect".  Really?  May I ask what nationality your instructor is?  If he is a native Qatari, that again would be an extremely rare situation.  I don't think I have ever met any Gulf national teaching HIS dialect to a bunch of foreigners.  (In fact, not a chance, in my experience).  Most likely, your instructor is really Egyptian or something else.  If that is the case, you're not going to learn true Qatari or Gulf Arabic.

Once AM2013 clears up his "linguistic situation" then perhaps relevant comments can be made.
=================

PS- AM2013 has now cleared up his situation and my questions are answered.  I don't have any specific suggestions for him/her unfortunately if he wants to learn Gulf or Qatari Arabic.  I'd say it's a nearly impossible goal to reach given the living situation of most foreigners in the Gulf.  There is a book, however, that you might find quite useful:  COLLOQUIAL ARABIC of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia by Clive Holes - probably the best self-teaching book on Gulf (Bahraini) Arabic there is.  (Despite the title, it is not a book on Saudi Arabic.)  I don't know of any specifically Qatari text of any value for a beginner.


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## AM2013

All very confusing  but thanks to everyone for their contributions.

1) I work in a hospital in Qatar, so a lot of the staff are from all  over the Arabic-speaking countries - Egyptians, Palestinians etc. The  patients are also mixed - many expats, but also quite a few Qataris. So I  am exposed to the whole spectrum. (Some of the Egyptians, and some of  the older Qataris are completely unintelligible to me - but that's a  different story!)

2) One instructor was Lebanese, the other Moroccan (teaching from the  same materials), not Qatari. Thinking about it again, maybe they didn't  actually say "Gulf Arabic" but called it "Spoken Arabic" as opposed to  "Classical Arabic". The instructors hate it when I utter even a single  word from Classical Arabic, saying it is very old-fashioned.

=================
Thanks Tracer, I will look for that book.


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## aisha93

This is how it works in Bahraini which is very similar to Qatari:
- باروح > I will go
- آروح > I go
- رحت > I went
- كنت قاعدة اروح > I was going كنت اروح also works
- كنت اروح can also mean > I used to go
- آنا رايحة/آنا قاعدة اروح> I am going 
- كان/چان رحت > for example: If you had told me, I would have gone > لو كنت قايل لي کان/چان رحت
- كنت رايحة > I had gone > example: I had gone by the time he arrived > كنت رايحة يوم هو وصل

In Bahraini, words are exaggerated..especially long vowels and الحروف المشددة 



> So, you can say أبا روح OR بروح, but NOT أبا بروح because b- and aba- are the same thing.



Hello Wadi Hanifa
Do you know where ب/أبا came from? I am thinking of بغى > to want/to desire..


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## Hemza

aisha93 said:


> Hello Wadi Hanifa
> Do you know where ب/أبا came from? I am thinking of بغى > to want/to desire..



Hello, you're right, it comes from "بغى" which is used beside "أبا" in Arabian peninsula. It's also used in Morocco and Mauritania (pronounced "nibghi" or "baghit")
Sorry, I forgot to say that "أبا" is also used in Tunisia and Libya and some areas in Morocco (pronounced "nibbi")


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## WadiH

Yes, it went from أبغى/أبغي > أبى/أبي > أبا > بـ.


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