Script
ما اخبارك؟
Unit 3 of Alif Baa teaches you the word اخبار
(news). Take a close look at the question
ما اخبارك؟ (How are you?). Given what you have
learned so far, what do you think this phrase literally means?
Answer
maa ما, as you know, means "what." akhbaar اخبار is a vocabulary word from Unit 3 of Alif Baa.
You may recognize the -ak and -ik endings on akhbaar اخبار from the questions maa ismak?
ما اسمَك؟ and maa ismik? ما اسمِك؟. -ak َك and -ik ِك mean "your (male)" and "your (female)" respectively.
Hence, this question literally asks, "What is your news?"
As you work through this lesson's materials, keep on the look out for the phrase بخير (fine). By the end of Unit 3 in Alif Baa, you should be able to read and write this word in Arabic script. Therefore, we will henceforth not include its transliteration. In its place you will see the symbol ***. The same goes for any other words you should know and be able to read, such as يا (O).