Learn Arabic as it is really spoken. Listen to and read Egyptian Colloquial Arabic.

Salman, age 7, has a story for us. What was Captain America’s fate?

السلام عليكم. أنا سلمان. هحكيلكم قصة عن لعبة كابتن أميركا. كان يوم في الأيام أنا كنت بلعب. فا بابايا نده عليا و ورّاني لعبة على النت. فا عجبتني. و قلت لبابايا: بابا ينفع تشتريهالي؟ قام قالّى ماشي. اشتراهالي. قام لعبت بيها. و بعدين بعد ما لعبت بيها بشوية، بقت مش عجبتني. فا أنا فا إدتها هدية لاخويا. توتة توتة خلصت الحدوتة. حلوة ولا ممتوتة*. حلوه. مع السلامة!

*جملة “توتة توتة حلوة ولا ملتوتة” هي جملة معروفة تقال في نهاية الحواديت. هنا سلمان نطقها ممتوتة.

Hello! l am Salman. l will tell you a story about a Captain America toy. One day, I was playing. My father called me and showed me a toy on the internet. l liked it. And I said to my father, “Dad, would you buy it for me? He said okay. He bought it for me. Then I played with it. After playing with it for a while, I started not to like it, so I gave as a gift to my brother. The end. Is it nice or boring?* Nice! Goodbye!

* The phrase توته توته حلوه ولا ملتوته is a common closing to a children’s story. Salman mispronounced the word maltūta as mamtūta. (ملْتوت is the past participle of the verb لتّ (to knead dough), and ‘kneaded’ figuratively means boring and repetitive (speech).)

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