An Arabic Lesson Learned, A Good Laugh Had By All

This is another one of my Arabic mess ups:

Feel free to laugh out loud at me, all the Arabs mentioned below did and probably still are.

Arabic has a root word for nouns and adjectives. It then adds things or rearranges things for the masculine singular, or the feminine singular, or the dual tense, and the plural. So for each noun and/or adjective you could have as many as four words to memorize. So here is my mistake.

Sometimes after school B goes out with a girl or girls from school and goes shopping or to buy fruit or things like this. When I come home alone the family we live with (henceforth: The Family) always ask, “Where is Bethany?” So I’ve always told them, “Hiyyi ma9 sadiiqha (She is with her friend)” Mama always smiles and just leaves it alone when I tell her that. This has been going on for the past month.

Tonight it all hit the fan. One of Mama’s daughters that live in another town came to visit and Mama evidently told her what I would say about where Bethany was. Then they laughed and told the rest of The Family sitting on the porch. Well, apparently I’ve been using the masculine word for friend instead of the feminine word for friend. So I should be saying, “Hiyyi ma9 sadiiqitha” See the difference? A little "it" makes a big difference. Do you see where I am headed?

For the past month when people have been asking me where’s Bethany, instead of saying, “she is with her friend.” I’ve been saying, “she is with her boyfriend.”

So the past month The Family has been laughing about the mystery boyfriend that Bethany has that her husband not only knows about, but obviously approves of.

More bloopers to come. Allah kariim (God is generous)