# My two cats



## Andrew___

May I ask, to say "My two cats" in Standard Arabic, is it:

قطتيني

or

قطتيّ

(Please assume accusative case).

Many thanks


----------



## Xence

If both are females, it would be:
قِطَّتَيَّ _qiTTatayya_

If one at least is male, then it'd be:
قِطَّيَّ _qiTTayya_


----------



## Mahaodeh

In case it was marfoo3 it would be قطّتاي وقطّاي


----------



## Andrew___

May I ask how we say "My two cats" in *Egyptian Arabic* and *Levantine Arabic*?

Is it uTTatayni in EA?  Or do we need to say "el ottatayn bitaa3ii?

No idea about what we say in Shaami Arabic. 

The context is simply a caption under a photo of my cats which reads "My two cats".


----------



## Outlandish

EA:
usually: القطتين بتوعى   el-ottetain betoo'ei
rarely:  قطتينى  ottetaini


----------



## be.010

Andrew___ said:


> May I ask how we say "My two cats" in *Egyptian Arabic* and *Levantine Arabic*?
> 
> Is it uTTatayni in EA? Or do we need to say "el ottatayn bitaa3ii?
> 
> No idea about what we say in Shaami Arabic.


In places where قطة is used, including Damascus, saying 2əTTəteeni is OK, though saying "l 2əTTəteen taba3i/lli 3andi" sound better...
In many other Levantine areas, as in Lebanon and many Syrian areas, they call the cat بسينة (bsaine or bseene) which become (bsainteeni/bseenteni)...


----------



## Outlandish

And in Kuwait, they call it  el-gatto الجطو


----------



## Andrew___

Many thanks Be!!

May I ask, from where on earth did you guys get this word بسينة?


----------



## Andrew___

Outlandish said:


> EA:
> usually: القطتين بتوعى   el-ottetain betoo'ei
> rarely:  قطتينى  ottetaini



Many thanks also Outlandish. I just saw your post now.


----------



## azeid

be.010 said:


> In many other Levantine areas, as in Lebanon and many Syrian areas, they call the cat بسينة (bsaine or bseene) which become (bsainteeni/bseenteni)...


In upper Egypt, Some people say بِسَة for singular and بِسَس for plural.
In Fusha, there is another name which is هِرَة and the plural is هِرَرة.


----------



## Josh_

Andrew___ said:


> May I ask how we say "My two cats" in *Egyptian Arabic* and *Levantine Arabic*?
> 
> Is it uTTatayni in EA?  Or do we need to say "el ottatayn bitaa3ii?


It would most likely be _il-2uTTateen bituu3i_.  This is because the possessive particles _bitaa3_ (f: _bitaa3a_ and p: _bituu3_) are generally used when a noun ends in the dual ending _-een_ or the human plural ending _-iin _.  In fact I was going to open a thread about this topic.  Maybe I'll get around to it.


----------



## Andrew___

Dear Josh,

Many thanks 

Do you think that one could use this phrase as a caption under a photo of 2 cats?  For some reason, the phrase you wrote sounds too much like the equivalent of the MSA لي قطتين.


----------



## Finland

Hello!



Andrew___ said:


> Dear Josh,
> 
> Many thanks
> 
> Do you think that one could use this phrase as a caption under a photo of 2 cats? For some reason, the phrase you wrote sounds too much like the equivalent of the MSA لي قطتين.


 
In MSA it would be لي قطتان, meaning "I have two cats" whereas the other phrase was القطتين بتوعي, "My two cats". Or did I misunderstand your question?

S


----------



## be.010

azeid said:


> In upper Egypt, Some people say بِسَة for singular and بِسَس for plural.


Interesting! I forgot about بسة/بسس... in some middle Syrian regions, probably Homs, they do say بسة/بسس too... 
I "think!!!" that it'd be بستيني with a stronger stress on the س, something like _bisstaine_...


----------



## londonmasri

Outlandish said:


> And in Kuwait, they call it el-gatto الجطو


 
Without wanting to detract, 'cat' in Spanish = _gato/gata_


----------



## nn.om

Outlandish said:


> And in Kuwait, they call it el-gatto الجطو


 It's قطوة - قطو.


----------



## be.010

Andrew___ said:


> Many thanks Be!!
> 
> May I ask, from where on earth did you guys get this word بسينة?


Hmm... Possibley it has something to do with the way we call cats (bss bss)... Still that's just a supposition!!


----------



## azeid

be.010 said:


> Hmm... Possibley it has something to do with the way we call cats (bss bss)... Still that's just a supposition!!


Me too.


----------



## Josh_

Andrew___ said:


> Dear Josh,
> 
> Many thanks
> 
> Do you think that one could use this phrase as a caption under a photo of 2 cats?  For some reason, the phrase you wrote sounds too much like the equivalent of the MSA لي قطتين.


Yes, I think you can use it.  As far as I'm aware the _bitaa3_ structure always means "my, your, etc." and never "I, you (etc.) have." For that there are other phrases such as _3andi_ and _liyya_.


----------



## nn.om

be.010 said:


> Hmm... Possibley it has something to do with the way we call cats (bss bss)... Still that's just a supposition!!


 
Or "puss, puss," in British English.


----------



## Ghabi

It's worth reading this interesting thread.


----------



## nn.om

Ghabi said:


> It's worth reading this interesting thread.


 
So many thought the same as me =O  Thanks for the link.


----------



## Mahaodeh

Andrew___ said:


> Many thanks Be!!
> 
> May I ask, from where on earth did you guys get this word بسينة?


 


be.010 said:


> Hmm... Possibley it has something to do with the way we call cats (bss bss)... Still that's just a supposition!!


 
I don't think so, I think it more likely has a relation with بزّونة, which is the feminine of بزّون, which in turn is a one of the classical names of cat.

بِسّ وبِسّة comes from the classical way we call pets in generally (in modern times, it's basically cats, but in the old days it was any pet or tamed animal like a sheep or goat).

هِرّ وهِرّة comes from the purring of the cat.

Other names for cat are قطّ وسنور وخيطل وضيون; all are Arabic according to dictionaries except for قطّ which they don't seem to know where it came from (I checked a few dictionaries a while ago).

edit: Oh, so that's when I checked it! (I forgot about that thread).


----------



## PDAZ

Hello!

If you see a cat, and you don't know whether it is male or female, would you call it qitt or qitta (or biss/bissa...)?


----------



## Mahaodeh

While in Arabic the default is supposed to be masculine, for some reason people tend to use the feminine when talking about a cat, maybe it's cultural.


----------



## PDAZ

Thanks for the response


----------

