Travel and Tourist Transactions
Buy the ticket, ask the price, find the platform, take the key. The words a traveller actually uses, plus what happens to the word for "the" when you say them.
Practise it out loud, together
A free interactive activity you can put in front of a class in a few minutes.
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At the ticket window
A tourist transaction is a short exchange with a stranger, and it needs three things: the noun for what you want, a question word, and enough politeness to make it a request. Every word below is shown three ways: the Arabic script, a transliteration in brackets to help you say it, and the English meaning. Remember Arabic reads from right to left.
Travel words in Arabic
The nouns a traveller reaches for again and again:
Match each word to its meaning
- تذكرة (tadhkira)
- محطة (mahatta)
- غرفة (ghurfa)
- مفتاح (miftah)
- ticket
- station
- room
- key
What happens to al
You already know that al (ال) is the word for "the", joined to the front of a word. Here is the part that surprises everyone: sometimes you do not hear the l. Before a sun letter, the l assimilates into the letter that follows. So التذكرة is read at-tadhkira, and الثمن is read ath-thaman. Before a moon letter, nothing changes: المحطة is al-mahatta and القطار is al-qitar. The SPELLING is identical in both cases, with the same ال written on the front. Only the sound changes.
How is it read?
The written form is التذكرة. How is it read aloud?
- at-tadhkira
- al-tadhkira
- ta-tadhkira
- tadhkira, with no prefix sound at all
Moon letters keep the l
Select the TWO words where the prefix is still read as al.
- المحطة (the station)
- القطار (the train)
- الثمن (the price)
- التذكرة (the ticket)
Saying it politely
Four expressions turn those nouns into a transaction:
Complete the request
To ask for a ticket politely you would say tadhkira, then _____. To ask the price you would say _____. To ask where the station is you would start with _____. And to say a ticket TO Cairo you need the word _____.
Match each expression to when you would use it
- بكم؟ (bikam)
- أين؟ (ayna)
- من فضلك (min fadlik)
- إلى (ila)
- You want to know what something costs
- You are lost and need to find a place
- You are turning a demand into a request
- You are naming the place you are travelling to
في المحطة
You are at the station in an Arabic-speaking city. Work through the transaction.
- You want to buy a ticket. Which word do you need first?
- The clerk hands it over and you want to know what it costs. What do you ask?
- That evening you reach your hotel, الفندق (al-funduq), and need to get into your room. What do you ask the receptionist for?
Tickets and prices in Arabic
The Arabic for a ticket is _____ and the word for a station is _____. To ask how much something costs you say _____. The prefix al is written the same way every time, but before a _____ letter the l is not pronounced, which is why التذكرة is read _____.
Your turn: ask for it in Arabic
Write the questions you would actually ask IN ARABIC, using the ones this module taught. Write in Arabic script - the transliteration in brackets is a reading aid only.
- Ask where something is with أين؟ (ayna - where?): أين المحطة؟ (ayna al-mahatta - where is the station?)
- Ask the price with بكم؟ (bikam - how much is it?): بكم التذكرة؟ (bikam at-tadhkira - how much is the ticket?)
- Say where you are going with إلى (ila - to): تذكرة إلى المطار (tadhkira ila al-matar - a ticket to the airport)
- Add من فضلك (min fadlik - please) to one of your questions, and you may use غرفة (ghurfa - a room) or مفتاح (miftah - a key)