Saturday

Haifa Wehbe: Laik El Wawa



Another popular song by Haifa Wehbe with some nice vocab and sayings. She's a babysitter and her boyfriend comes over and they have to take the kid out with them to a party. If there are any questions or anything you'd like explained better please ask. I try to comment on the things people might find difficult, but sometimes I miss some things that were difficult or didn't make sense for me when I was first learning but that now I understand.

ليك الواوا بوس الواوا خلي الواوا يصح - Look at the boo boo, kiss the boo boo, let the boo boo heal.

ليك - look
بوس - kiss
خلي الواوا يصح - let the boo boo get better

لما بست الواوا شيلتو صار الواوا بح - When you kissed the boo boo you removed it. The boo boo disappeared.

لما - When
صار - became
بح - gone, vanished, disappeared

بقربك خبيني غمرني و دفيني - Hide me close to you, cover me and keep me warm.

بقربك - in your proximity (close to you)

انا من دونك انا بردانة اح
- Without you I am cold. Ah!

من دون - without

ليك الواوا ليك - Look at the boo boo, look!

الليلة احلى سهرة عند حبابي
- Tonight there's the greatest party at my boyfriend's

سهرة - the verb سهر means "to stay up all night". A سهرة is a party where you stay up all night.
عند - this literally means "at" but if you wanted to say "at my friend's house" you could say عند صديقي without saying house, بيت
الليلة - you'll notice that she says الليلي . In Levantine they change the ة to a ي in many (but not all) words. The word for "a kiss" is بوسة but they say بَوسي

بدو ياني البس احلى تيابي - He wants me to wear my nicest clothes.

بدو - in MSA this means Bedouin, but in Levantine this means "he wants". بدي would be "I want".
ياني - me

بلبس لعيونك يا حبيبي كل جديد و دح - I'll wear them for your eyes, my baby, all new and nice.

دح - nice, good

بوثق فيك و بدي تبقى حدي - I trust in you and want you to stay by my side.

بوثق - she says بوسق which is common. In Levantine (and Egyptian) they change the ث to a س in a lot of words. Another example would beثابت

انت بين الناس الاغلى عندي - Among the people you are the most precious to me.

و آخر همي شو ما يقولوا غلط ولا صح - And my last concern is what they (people) say, whether it's wrong or right.

ما - in a lot of places ما means "don't" or "not" like in ما بدي "I don't want", but in other situations, like this one, it isn't a negation. It means "that" or "what". Another example is عمل شو ما بدك "do whatever you want". It's kind of confusing but after hearing it many times you get used to when it means "not" and when it means "that" or "what".
ولا - or. They used this a lot more commonly in the dialects than أو

5 comments:

Matt said...

hey arabicstudent i was wondering if you knew of a way to add just one song to your webpage or blog, I have been trying with no luck, let me know if you know

The Arabic Student said...

A song that will automatically play when someone comes to the blog or what?

Matt said...

yes, man thanks for putting up the newest post those are great for me to learn. I have a question, at the DLI how did you learn MSA, because at Arab academy, they give us articles on a variety of topics, we have a main vocab, the vocab word in a new sentence, and then we read the article as well as listen to it a bunch, and they have an english translation that is not a literal translation of the arabic but how you say certain concepts in arabic.

Then ofcourse just conversation classes as well

by the way, the song thing is not a big deal, I am almost done here in cairo anyway, although maybe I will transfrom the blog into some sort of arabic language thing or use it to practice writing about certain topics.

Saffor said...

Believe it or not !

I'm Arabian .

I don't know what does it mean "Wawa"

I knew the meaning from you .

Pursnickitty said...

I took two years of Classical and two years of Levantine dialect at university years and years ago. Wish you were around then. I've been watching some of your you-tube videos, too. Just wanted to let you know that you've been a great big help. Shukran ikteer, ya seedi. Also, I'm sure you already know about Matloub Rijal, but in case you haven't, it's a Dubai-based soap opera. There are many different characters from around the region, and it has also improved my understanding of other Arabic dialects. The series can be seen on you-tube. Thanks again.