Arabic · Unit 8 · Lesson 8

Work

One win: hold the conversation people actually have when they meet. What do you do, where, how many hours, do you like it, do you have children. Then say, once, what you studied, with the first “I” the past tense has given you.

Source: the class textbook, Unit 8 (book pp.189–214) · ≈25 minutes · builds on Lesson 7 · counting and the clock to twelve are in the numbers chapter, the new “have” in the prepositions chapter

1. What do you do?

Dialogue 1 opens with two men comparing jobs. Four lines carry it. Say each one before the caption:

The book's two frames (p.201, frames 3 and 4):

🔊 A woman says أَعْمَلُ طَبيبَةً 🔊 (p.209), and is asked ماذا تَعْمَلينَ؟, with Unit 4's ـينَ.

There is a second way to ask, with a noun instead of a verb:

The noun is مِهْنَة, and its ة opens to ت before the ending, exactly as صَديقَة became صَديقَتي in Unit 2. The answer to either is the same: أَنا مُدَرِّسَةٌ.

2. The faculty tells you the job

Dialogue 2 is six students, each saying one sentence in three parts: what I study, where, and what I will work as. Watch one assemble:

Each subject has its job, and five of the six pairs share a root. Read across, then say the whole three-part sentence for each row:

The last row is the odd one: التَّرْبِيَة and مُدَرِّس share no letters. Everywhere else, if you know the subject you can hear the job inside it. The question that starts it all: ماذا سَتَعْمَلُ بَعْدَ الدِّراسَةِ؟ 🔊 What will you do after your studies?

3. How many hours, how many children

Page 201 prints two frames side by side, and they are the counting rule made visible. Same numbers, two nouns, and the ة on one side only:

🔊 the hours · 🔊 the children. Say each column straight through and the ة becomes something your mouth expects, which is the only way it will come out right in conversation.

The questions take Unit 3's كَمْ + one of it, ending -an; the answers take the plural:

And the reading passage on p.210 puts both halves in one breath, the way Unit 7's listening text did:

يَعْمَلُ عُمَرُ سَبْعَ ساعاتٍ في اليَوْمِ، ويَعْمَلُ خَمْسَةَ أَيّامٍ في الأُسْبوعِ. 🔊

Omar works seven hours a day, and five days a week. Hours: no ة. Days: ة. The whole picture, bands and all, is in the numbers chapter.

4. Study, or teach?

This is the pair your ear has to catch. Unit 7's verb is study. Double its middle letter and it becomes teach, which is “make someone study”:

Two things change, and both are audible: the first vowel turns from أَ to أُ, and the ر doubles. Every person moves the same way:

And you have known the doer since Unit 1: مُدَرِّس, the one who teaches, with the same doubled ر. Dialogue 3 is two teachers, so it is all teach: في أَيِّ مَرْحَلَةٍ تُدَرِّسينَ؟ 🔊 Which stage do you teach in? Unvowelled, أدرس is both words, and the dictionary lists to erase under the same letters too. Only the marks and your ear tell them apart.

5. Do you like your work?

Every dialogue in the unit ends on the same exchange:

هَلْ تُحِبُّ عَمَلَكَ؟ نَعَمْ، أُحِبُّ عَمَلي. وأَنا أُحِبُّ عَمَلي أَيْضاً. 🔊

Do you like your work? Yes, I like my work. And I like my work too. أُحِبُّ means both like and love. Its last two letters are one doubled ب, and like أُريدُ and أُصَلّي it opens on ـُ. The work is عَمَل, the noun of the verb you already have, wearing whoever owns it:

The last row brings a new ending: ـها, her. Until now you had my, your and his. Note also that the book's question about the women is مَنْ تُحِبُّ عَمَلَها؟ (p.195): مَنْ takes a she-verb when the answer is a woman.

6. Do you have children?

Unit 3 gave you one way to say have: لَدَيْنا, “at us”. Unit 8 gives a second, built on the little word لِـ, “to, for”. I have children is “to me (are) children”:

One sound shift to hear: on its own the word is لِـ, with -i, but before every ending except me it turns to لَـ: لَكَ · لَكِ · لَهُ · لَها, and only لي keeps the i. Frame 5 runs the question over Unit 2's family (أَوْلادٌ · أَخٌ · أُخْتٌ · عَمَّةٌ), so you can now ask anyone what family they have. Page 213 also prints لَدَيَّ طِفْلٌ واحِدٌ, “I have one child”: Unit 3's word with the I ending. Both are in the prepositions chapter.

7. The clock reaches twelve

Lesson 7 finished the ranking words at ten. Page 197 prints the whole clock face, and the last two hours are two words each:

Look at the endings. Every other hour on the page is السّاعَةُ الخامِسَةُ, with -u. These two end -a on both words, and they never change, whatever the sentence around them does. Grammars say the numbers 11 to 19 are always in that one fixed shape.

Fatima's day, from the reading passage on p.210, puts the clock to work. Say each time before the caption:

8. I studied

Lesson 7 opened the past tense with two endings, he and she, and said the rest was a later unit's business. Page 207 is that unit, for one verb. Its speaking drill gives you this model to say about four different people:

دَرَسْتُ الطِّبَّ في كُلِّيَّةِ الطِّبِّ، وأَعْمَلُ الآنَ طَبيباً في المُسْتَشْفى، أَعْمَلُ في اليَوْمِ ثَمانِيَ ساعاتٍ، أَنا أُحِبُّ عَمَلي. 🔊

I studied medicine at the faculty of medicine, and now I work as a doctor at the hospital. I work eight hours a day, and I love my work. The whole unit, in one breath, and it starts in the past.

9. Your turn: thirteen questions about you

Page 207's last drill is the whole unit as thirteen questions, and none has a printed answer, because they are about you. Play each, pause, and answer aloud in a full sentence about yourself. Open a line only to compare with one possible answer built from the unit's frames. Then trade them with someone (the book's part ب).

• ١ماذا تَعْمَلُ؟🔊
  one answer

  أَعْمَلُ مُهَنْدِساً.

  What do you do?

• ٢أَيْنَ تَعْمَلُ؟🔊
  one answer

  أَعْمَلُ في شَرِكَةٍ.

  Where do you work?

• ٣هَلْ أَنْتَ طَبيبٌ؟🔊
  one answer

  لا، أَنا مُهَنْدِسٌ.

  Are you a doctor? Answer with Unit 1's frame: no verb, so ـٌ.

• ٤كَمْ ساعَةً تَعْمَلُ في اليَوْمِ؟🔊
  one answer

  أَعْمَلُ ثَمانِيَ ساعاتٍ في اليَوْمِ.

  How many hours do you work a day?

• ٥هَلْ تُحِبُّ عَمَلَكَ؟🔊
  one answer

  نَعَمْ، أُحِبُّ عَمَلي.

  Do you like your work?

• ٦أَيْنَ تَدْرُسُ؟🔊
  one answer

  أَدْرُسُ في كُلِّيَّةِ الهَنْدَسَةِ.

  Where do you study? (If you have finished, the past is ready: دَرَسْتُ في …)

• ٧ماذا تَدْرُسُ؟🔊
  one answer

  أَدْرُسُ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ.

  What do you study? Your Arabic class is a true answer.

• ٨ماذا سَتَعْمَلُ بَعْدَ الدِّراسَةِ إِنْ شاءَ اللهُ؟🔊
  one answer

  سَأَعْمَلُ مُهَنْدِساً، إِنْ شاءَ اللهُ.

  What will you do after your studies, God willing?

• ٩هَلْ لَكَ أَطْفالٌ؟🔊
  one answer

  نَعَمْ، لي أَطْفالٌ.

  Do you have children?

• ١٠كَمْ طِفْلاً لَكَ؟🔊
  one answer

  لي ثَلاثَةُ أَطْفالٍ.

  How many children do you have? A he-noun: the number keeps its ة.

• ١١ما مِهْنَتُكَ؟🔊
  one answer

  أَنا مُهَنْدِسٌ.

  What is your profession?

• ١٢كَمْ ساعَةً تَدْرُسُ في اليَوْمِ؟🔊
  one answer

  أَدْرُسُ ساعَةً في اليَوْمِ.

  How many hours do you study a day? One hour is just ساعَةً; numbers 3 to 10 take ساعاتٍ.

• ١٣هَلْ تُحِبُّ الدِّراسَةَ؟🔊
  one answer

  نَعَمْ، أُحِبُّ الدِّراسَةَ.

  Do you like studying?

Then say the p.207 paragraph about yourself, with your own subject, job, place and hours. That paragraph is the unit's finish line.

10. Build it yourself

Tap chips right-to-left, say it aloud as you build. The later ones are whole exchanges; build both roles.

11. Quick check

12. Where this came from

Next: the Unit 8 flashcard deck (27 cards), then speak all three dialogues and both reading passages in the dialogue reader, and see what this unit added to the numbers and prepositions chapters. Anything unclear? Bring it to your teacher, in class.