# I forgot



## ihsaan

Hi,
How do you say "I forgot" in MSA?
I'm struggling with weak verbs, and I wonder if you pronounce it as "nasiitu"?


----------



## Andrew___

It's nasaytu, right?


----------



## ihsaan

Well, I was thinking it was either nasiitu or nasaytu...but the verb conjugation book that I have didn't write anything over the ي so I don't know...


----------



## Josh_

I believe it is _nasiitu_.


----------



## linguist786

Yes it's nasiitu, as it comes from "nasiya-yansa"


----------



## ihsaan

Great, thank you!


----------



## Andrew___

I am very pleased you posted this, because I must have said "nasayt" at least 50 times, and no one has once corrected me. 

Now I know for the future.


----------



## ihsaan

Well, that probably means that you are around very polite people. 

I think maybe what is confusing is the different ways of conjugating verbs like مشى يمشي vs نسي ينسى because in the first type of verb one would say "mash*ai*tu", and so it is easy to get confused, like I did previously.


----------



## elroy

For what it's worth, "nasaytu" doesn't sound awful. I think it's one of those technically incorrect things that even some Arabs say from time to time, so it's not a "typical foreigner mistake." 

(That may also be a reason why you weren't corrected, Al Sulhafa.)


----------



## kifaru

elroy said:


> For what it's worth, "nasaytu" doesn't sound awful. I think it's one of those technically incorrect things that even some Arabs say from time to time, so it's not a "typical foreigner mistake."
> 
> (That may also be a reason why you weren't corrected, Al Sulhafa.)


So you we conjugate it
I         ansa
you(M) tansa
you(F)  tanseena
we       nansa


----------



## lcfatima

Al Sulhafa: I noticed you are in Dubai, I also hear and say nasait, not naseet. I just asked a handful of native U.A.E speakers and they told me nasait is correct in Khaleeji ammiya.


----------



## huhmzah

elroy said:


> For what it's worth, "nasaytu" doesn't sound awful. I think it's one of those technically incorrect things that even some Arabs say from time to time, so it's not a "typical foreigner mistake."



Ahh! I was getting confused myself because I think I say "naseytu" in my head too like "ra'eytu" رأيت, but now I have a way to remember that its "nasîtu" --> I just remember this verse in the Quran, in surah al-kahf from one of the stories of Moses (a.s) where his servant says to him:

*" قال أرءيت إذ أوينا إلى الصخرة فإني نسيت الحوت..."*
_ <Qâla a-*ra'eyta* idh aweyna ila S-Sakhrati fa-innî *nasîtu *l-Hûta..>
"He said: Remember when we sat upon the rock? - I forgot the fish..."_

So could someone explain to me when its "-eyt-" and when its "-ît-" in the past tense?

Is بقيت pronounced "baqeytu" or "baqîtu?". What about لقيت (laqeytu or laqîtu?) -- am I confusing some basic rule?


----------



## elroy

kifaru said:


> I ansa
> you(M) tansa
> you(F) tansayna
> we nansa


 It's different in the present tense. 


huhmzah said:


> So could someone explain to me when its "-ayt-" and when its "-ît-" in the past tense?


 I think you have to look at the هو form:

رأى - رأيْت (ra2*a* - ra2*ay*tu)
بكى - بكيْت (bak*a* - bak*ay*tu)
طوى - طويْت (Taw*a* - Taw*ay*tu)

نسي - نسِيت (nas*iya* - nas*ii*tu)
بقي - بقِيت (baq*iya *- baq*ii*tu)
لقي - لقِيت (laq*iya* - laq*ii*tu)

So if the هو form ends in ى, it's _-ay-_ in the أنا form.
If the هو form ends in ي, it's _-ii-_ in the أنا form.

By the way, you seem to alternate between _a_ and _e_ as transliterations of the fat7a (and as far as I can see, it doesn't have to do with the two different possible phonological realizations of the vowel).  It is usually transliterated as _a_.


----------



## huhmzah

elroy said:


> By the way, you seem to alternate between _a_ and _e_ as transliterations of the fat7a (and as far as I can see, it doesn't have to do with the two different possible phonological realizations of the vowel).  It is usually transliterated as _a_.



Ah ok - its jst because the fat7a in the diphthong sounds like an /e/ to my ear - the word sounds like "/raʔ*e*jtuː/" (in IPA) to me more than /raʔ*a*jtuː/, so I translate the dipthong as "ey" rather than "ay" -->  شيء "shey" /ʃej/ rather than "shay" /ʃaj/

It's also probably because the only Arabic speakers that I use arabic w/ online are are my friends who are originally from Tunisia or Morocco, and they tend to transliterate fat7a as "e" a lot and reserve the "a" for an alif with a madd 
_
" weqt illi ktibt 'e' 3al internet, innas qalou li: 3alech mektibtch 'a'? 3ad qolt khatir ittwensa wil mghariba yektbou 'e'."_


----------



## Nikola

huhmzah said:


> Ah ok - its jst because the fat7a in the diphthong sounds like an /e/ to my ear - the word sounds like "/raʔ*e*jtuː/" (in IPA) to me more than /raʔ*a*jtuː/, so I translate the dipthong as "ey" rather than "ay" -->  شيء "shey" /ʃej/ rather than "shay" /ʃaj/
> 
> It's also probably because the only Arabic speakers that I use arabic w/ online are are my friends who are originally from Tunisia or Morocco, and they tend to transliterate fat7a as "e" a lot and reserve the "a" for an alif with a madd
> _
> " weqt illi ktibt 'e' 3al internet, innas qalou li: 3alech mektibtch 'a'? 3ad qolt khatir ittwensa wil mghariba yektbou 'e'."_


If you look at your transliterations you will see the western Arabs normally use French phonetics and easterners normally use English. Lebanese and Syrians sometimes use both.


----------



## elroy

huhmzah said:


> Ah ok - its jst because the fat7a in the diphthong sounds like an /e/ to my ear - the word sounds like "/raʔ*e*jtuː/" (in IPA) to me more than /raʔ*a*jtuː/, so I translate the dipthong as "ey" rather than "ay" -->  شيء "shey" /ʃej/ rather than "shay" /ʃaj/


 The IPA symbol for the fat7a sound we are discussing is actually /æ/, so the diphthong is /æj/.


----------



## Andrew___

Hi guys,

I asked my Moroccan teacher about this, and he said that it is pronounced nasaytu (in the same way as ra2aytu or bakaytu), and said that naseetu is a خطا شائع

I asked another Moroccan tutor and he said the same thing.

أنا متلخبط جدا
أندرو


----------



## ayed

Josh_ said:


> I believe it is _nasiitu_.


Yes, na/see/two
*نا/سي/تو*


----------



## cherine

Al Sulhafa said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I asked my Moroccan teacher about this, and he said that it is pronounced nasaytu (in the same way as ra2aytu or bakaytu), and said that naseetu is a خطا شائع
> 
> I asked another Moroccan tutor and he said the same thing.
> 
> أنا متلخبط جدا
> أندرو


Hi Andrew,

I'm sorry about your confusion. But please remind your teachers of the Quranic verses where the verb is nasiitu نسيتُ: in surat al-kahf (verses 63, 73) and nasiita نسيتَ (al kahf, 24), also nasiitaha نسيتها (surat Taha, 126) and nasiitum نسيتم in surat السجدة (verse 14) and surat الجاثية (verse 34).


----------



## Mahaodeh

It's a very common mistake among Arabs, you will find many insisting that it is 'nasaytu' (نَسَيْتُ), 'baqaytu' (بَقَيْتُ) and 'laqaytu' (لَقَيْتُ); but it's still a mistake.

What makes it even more confusing for native Arabic speakers is that these words are pronounced in the same way in most collequal dialects as bakaytu (بَكَيْتُ) and Tawaytu (طَوَيْتُ).

Example: in Iraq its buqait (بقيت) bichait (بكيت) and nisait (نسيت); in Jordan it's b'eet, bkeet, nseet; and so on.


----------



## Andrew___

Thanks Cherine and Maha.

OK that's clear, and thankfully it's very helpful that we pronounce it the same way as in MSA and Egyptian and Moroccan daarija.

Andrew


----------



## ayed

Mahaodeh said:


> nseet


Surely, so do poeple in Saudi.


----------



## Josh_

I will clear up the confusion forever with this rule of thumb --  think about the third person singular form of the verb -- if it ends in a يl(yaa2), then the other conjugations will be pronounce ــِـيـت (iit), whereas if it end in an ى (alif maqSuura) they will be pronounced ـَـيـت (ayt).  In other words, if you pronounce the last part of the 3rd person masculine singular as '-iya' then the other conjugations are 'iit' and if it is pronounced 'a' then the rest is 'ayt'.  For example:

بقي baqiya, and so بقِيت baqiitu, etc.
نسي nasiya, and so نسِيت nasiitu, etc.
لقي laqiya, and so لقِيت laqiitu, etc.

بنى bana, and so بنَيت banaytu, etc.
جرى jara, and so جرَيت jaraytu, etc.
رمى rama, and so رمَيت ramaytu, etc.


----------



## elroy

Yup, that's what I said in post #13.


----------



## Josh_

Well, I'll be damned.  I skipped right over that.  I guess I can't claim to be the one who came up with this rule of thumb, then.


----------

