Lebanese Food (Mdardra)/Taa Thaa

In this video I’ll be showing you some of the Lebanese food, and will be teaching the next 2 letters in the alphabet: Taa and Thaa

Transcript:

Hello!
So today we are in the kitchen. I’m not cooking, I just want to show you what I will be eating today for lunch.
So the plat du jour is Mdardara and cabbage salad. Cabbage salad is salatit malfoof and Mdardara is a very traditional dish here in Lebanon and it’s made with lentils and rice together. They are mixed. And on the top we have the fried onions, and it’s very delicious. Yummy, yummy! I will tell you that lentils means 3adas and rice means rizz. So 3adas and riz together they make Mdardara, this dish, and fried onions:
Onions: basal.
Fried: me2leh.
So basal me2leh on top.
And with it, it’s very delicious if you eat pickles. A big pickle like you see. And this is it, the pickles.
So what is pickles in Arabic? It’s kabeess.
And the cabbage salad is a regular cabbage salad but they all go together.
We eat Mdardara and salatit malfoof.
Because malfoof means cabbage (choux in French).
Salad means salata.
Actually, today I don’t have a lesson really for you. I just want to show you this, and like I said last time, I will write for you two new letters. And today the two letters – say goodbye to the plat du jour -today’s letters are ت (t) and ث (th).
Last time we learned how to write أ (a), if you remember, this is the hamza ء and ب (b).
So today we will learn how to write the ت (t) and in Arabic, it’s very similar to the ب (b) but we put a [dash] like this. This is the ت (t).
Not like this, we put this and we have the ت (t).
Now we learn the ث (th).
What is the ث (th)?
In English it’s the th like thinking and in Arabic it’s like this. So for now we have three similar shapes but with different toppings, hmm! Okay so I will tell you how to pronounce the th because it’s in English, for example you have swimming and you have thinking so the ث (th) is like thinking, not swimming. So now I want to give you little words using ت (t).
First of all, because we you know by now how to write ت (t) and أ (a), I will give you this. How do you read it? Who knows? I know!
We read it تاتا (teta), which means grandmother.
In Fusha it’s jadda.
Jaddati: my grandmother (Fusha).
But in the Lebanese Arabic it’s teta (or setteh). So this is teta.
I will give you another word when the ت (t) is in the end of the word.
It’s بنت (binet).
Binet: girl.
So now you know, we write different kinds of t. At the beginning of the word and at the end of the word, it’s different.
Now with the ث (th).
Okay I will use now a weird – not a weird, but not very used – word using the ث (th), because you know how to write it all and it’s ثبات (thabeit).
Wwhat is thabeit? It’s stability.
Okay so thabeit, it’s stability.
And I will tell you that thabeit it is in Fusha. In the Lebanese dialect it’s not very different, but it’s sabeit because we don’t stress on the ث (th) (We either pronounce it as an “s” or a “t”).
It’s sabeit but when you have to read good Arabic you don’t say sabeit, you say thabet.
Okay and I will show you how to write it.
You know how to write the ث (th), the أ (a), ب (b) and the ت (t):
ثبات (thabeit)
Okay, stability.
So guys this is my lesson for today. It’s about Mdardara, salatit malfoof, pickles and some letters.
I will write it a last time.
It’s ثبات.
What did I do?
So the Arabic

alphabet for now it’s أ (a), ب (b) and the ت (t), and ث (th).
So we say tha2 and ta2 the ت (t) in Arabic is ta2 and the ث (th) is tha2.
Don’t mix the th with the s.
The s is later on. Now it’s the ث (th)
So goodbye! I will eat now my delicious Mdardara and I’ll see you soon.
Goodbye!

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