Town, Region and Country

A place, and the people from it

English has no rule for this. Egypt gives Egyptian, but France gives French, Spain gives Spanish and the Netherlands gives Dutch. You simply have to learn each one. Arabic has a rule, and it works nearly every time. Add one letter to the place name and you have the word for the people, the language and anything else from there. Once you know it, you can read words you have never met.

Where you live

Six words for the places this topic is about. A seventh, سوق (suq), you already half know, since English borrowed it as "souk".

Match each word to its meaning

Add one letter

To say someone or something is from a place, Arabic adds an ending to the place name. It is called the nisba. مصر (Misr) is Egypt. مصري (misri) is Egyptian, for a man. مصرية (misriyya) is Egyptian, for a woman. So the rule is: ي for a man, ية for a woman, added to the end of the place name. It works for لبنان giving لبناني, and for تونس giving تونسي. One extra detail. You have already met ال, the word for "the" joined to the front. When a country name carries it, it disappears in the nisba: المغرب (al-Maghrib, Morocco) gives مغربي (maghribi), not المغربي.

What does مصري mean?

You see the word مصري (misri) in a text. What does it tell you?

• That someone or something is Egyptian
• That the writer is naming the country Egypt itself
• That there is more than one Egypt
• That something happened in Egypt in the past

Find the describing word

Here is a short sentence. Tap the word that describes the PERSON rather than naming a place.

• أنا
• من مصر
• . أنا
• مصري
• وأسكن في
• مدينة كبيرة
• .

The place, and the word from it

Read across. The place is on the left, and what one added ending does to it is on the right.

The rule

To turn a place into a word for the people from it, Arabic adds _____ for a man and _____ for a woman. So مصر gives _____. And when a country name begins with _____, that part disappears in the new word, so المغرب gives _____.

Order them by size

Put these four places in order, smallest first.

• قرية (qarya) - village
• مدينة (madina) - city
• منطقة (mintaqa) - region
• بلد (balad) - country

Which are formed correctly?

Select the TWO words that are correctly formed.

• لبناني (lubnani), for a Lebanese man
• مغربية (maghribiyya), for a Moroccan woman
• مصرة (misra), for an Egyptian woman
• مصرون (misrun), by adding ون to the place name

Use it

Three moments where the rule earns its keep.

• You want to say that a woman is Moroccan. Which word do you use?
• You want to say you live in a big city. Which is right?
• You meet the word تونسي in a text and have never seen it before. What do you do?

City, village and country in Arabic

A city is _____ and a village is _____. A country is _____, while a region or area is _____. To say that someone comes from a place, add ي or ية to the place name: that ending is called the _____, and it lets you work out words you have never met.

Your place, and the Arabic rule

Write in English about the place you live and one place you would like to visit. Then explain the Arabic rule you have met in this module.

• Say whether you live in a village, a town or a city, and give the Arabic word for it
• Name a country you would like to visit, and say what someone from there would be called in Arabic
• Explain the nisba rule in your own words, including what changes for a woman
• Say what happens to ال when a country name that has it forms a nisba, and give the example