So Here's all the Arabic we're working on with this story:
1. Country: الْبَحْرَيْن
To remember this work, we note that it's pretty much a cognate--we just have to remember the article 1st "el" and that it has the H for Hammerhead. Watch out then, and make sure the sharks don't get you in Ba-H-rain! It's "The island of the Hammerhead sharks!"
2. Pronoun, We = نَحْنُ
It sounds like "Neigh-New," so that's why we pictured a horse Neighing at a New clay bowl in our story.
3. Past (Perfect) suffix: ــنَا...
The reason the horse was Neighing with excitement earlier in the story when it saw the new clay bowl is that it thought we were going to feed it pasta, which it loves. In the past it's been feed pasta in bowls, but today it was bait and switch with some stinky fish.
4. Present (Imperfect) prefix: ...نَــ
The horse it use to lots of tricky salesmen, so if we try to give it a present, it just thinks it's another Trojan Horse gimmick and it says, "Nay" curtly (short vowel hint) and turns away. Did he say Yeah or Nay? He said Nay, abruptly, and turned away. It wasn't even a long, horse's neigh.
I. to sell (p.43 Barron's 501 Arabic Verbs) b-yi-A - be, ye, Ayn.
We will sell = سَنَبِيعُ
The middle vowel we have to memorize with this is kasRa, but since the middle Radical is "Ye," it seems to fall back on the first Radical "be." To daydream this into my memory, I think of a Yak (Y) on the beach in Bahrain (B) at night trying to sell Marshmellows (i) at night to an Owl (A). B +Yi + A.
II. to refrigerate, to chill (p.64 Hans Wehr Dictionary) b-Ru-d - (be, Ra, del)
We refrigerated = بَرَّدْنَا
Since these are all English-like sounds (except for the R) we will try to make a direct link between the Arabic and English association. The secretly brewed a lot of bear in the refrigerator. That's another reason why the horse thought the fish meat smelled bad and wouldn't eat it. Or perhaps the horse felt bad that the chilled little baby Hammerhead was hauled away from a young brood of babies to his icy refrigerated death.
III. to hurry up with s.th.; to rush or hurry to s.o. or to a place; to come to s.o.'s mind, occur to s.o. all of the sudden, strike s.o. (idea, notion); to embark, enter upon s.th. without delay; to snap rudely at s.o.; to take advantage unhesitatingly of chances; to react, respond to s.th.; to set out to fulfill a promise. (p. 57 Hans Wehr Dictionary). b-du-R
We are rushing = نَبَادِرُ
Imagine that in the potter's shop there is a bead-door-way that separates the commercial part of the establishment where customers shop from the private area in the back. We rush through the beads hanging in the doorway and they smack us in the face (ouch!) while we try to get more greens to mix into the horse's fishy lunch.
Notice how I conjugated the verb above with a kasRa rather than a Damma on the second radical? My native Arabic speaking wife says this word with a kasRa but Hans Wehr seems to indicate there is a Damma. In my preliminary investigations, it seems that this word is found extensively on Google spelled both ways. Furthermore, the discussion forums online seem to indicate that this flexibility on the middle short vowel seems to happen with a lot of words--not surprising, since it's the only vowel in the word that is relatively arbitrary and not in line with any general rule like everything else. To be continued...
IV. to be slow, tardy; to make slow (p.34 Barron's, p.76 Hans Wehr), b-Tu-w/hamza
The (male) horse is tarrying = يُبْطِئُ
So what was the horse thinking about while we was eating so slowly? Was he conscious that he was foiling our plan to get him to eat his fish? No, actually, he was watching the big black but of a Tarantula wiggling away under the wall of his stall trying to dig his way out. The horse was more afraid of the Tarantula giving up on digging his way out and coming back into his stall than he actually was afraid of eating fish flesh. So, But + T + w(iggle) gives us the root form of b-Tu-w.
V. to remain, to be left over (food) (p.39 Barron's, p.84 Hans Wehr), b-Qa-y
The meat (masculine) was left over = تَبَقَّى
All the left over fish scraps eventually get eaten up by the back-ally Queen Cat youth pussy posse. It was actually part of the Back-ally Queen of the Youth master plan to make sure the crack under the wall was too tight for the tarantula to crawl through to make sure that the horse would be distracted and that there would be lots of left-overs.
VI. to swap, exchange (p.30 Barron's, p.58 Hans Wehr), b-du-l
We swap, we exchange = نَتَبَادَلُ
When we took the horses bowl to swap the meat with him for more greens we noticed he was thirsty, so we also give him a bottle of water to cool his thirst in the hot Bahrain sun. (Bottle is pronounced with the "D" sound in the American accent, so we'll base our mnemonics on the way words sound, not the way they are spelled.)
VII. to stretch out, to enjoy o.s.; to spread, extend, expand (intran.); to spread out flat, to open up (the palm of the hand), be open; to broaden, become broader (content); to be merry, gay; to be glad, be delighted, be or become happy (p.72 Hans Wehr). b-su-Ta.
We stretch out and enjoy ourselves = نَنْبَسِطُ
As we Basked in the Sun, the Tarantula who was finally free looked longingly at our juicy legs lying on the ground and wondered how he could enjoy himself as well by stretching over to us and taking a big bite out of our flesh!
VIII. to begin (p.29 Barron's), b-d-e'
We begin = نَبْتَدِئُ
The new bud of the day is -- the green buds of the plants is what everyone wanted to begin their meal with in this story.
IX. to be or become white (p.42 Barron's), b-y-D
The meat (masculine) was whitened = إِبْيَضَّ
As we looked in disgust at the whitened fish, suddenly I imagined how nice it would be to eat Berry syrup glazed Yams for desert after roast Duck if I were back home for Thanksgiving in the U.S. instead of on a dessert island.
X. to rid oneself of, to restore to health, to heal, to cure (p.62 Hans Wehr), b-R-elif/maksurra/hamza
We are ridding ourselves of = نَسْتَبْرَأُ
We didn't actually throw the meal out back to the back-ally Queen Cat youth though as they had planned. Instead, we decided to burry the dead and disgusting left overs to truly rid ourselves of them and to restore ourselves to health of body and mind.
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