Egyptian Arabic

In the Mansours' living room, Uncle Mahmoud and Madame Nadia set the engagement for a Friday at home and Leo learns what a groom brings: supposed to, must, essential, no need and you don't have to.

On the gold street of the Khan el-Khalili, Madame Nadia, Salma and Leo buy the engagement gold: karats, grams and the price per gram, and how Egyptian Arabic counts things: three to ten take the plural, from eleven the singular comes back, and a measure word stays singular.

At the Mansours' flat, Grandma, Mona and Karim surround Leo and Salma on the engagement night: the wishes Egyptians say with the bare present, may God make you happy, may God bring it to a good end, God bless you, and the answer to every congratulation, may yours be next.

At the workshop in al-Darb al-Ahmar, Leo asks his boss for a letter and for days off: the polite openers to a boss, if you permit, could you with the polite you, I'd love, if there is no objection, and the boss's as long as.

On Karim's laptop at the Mansours', the marriage office's page lists the papers a foreigner needs, in Standard Arabic, and Karim puts them into Egyptian: the noun chain that names a document, certificate of no objection, copy of the passport, medical examination certificate.

At a translation office Downtown, Leo hands over the embassy's certificate and learns what gets done without saying who: the it-verbs, it gets translated, it gets stamped, it gets done, it will get handed over.

At the window of the marriage office for foreigners at Lazoghly, Downtown, a clerk checks Leo and Salma's file and gives them a date: how long a paper is valid, within two weeks, no later than nine, before the date.

At the Mansours' dining table, custom says who brings what to a marriage: the flat and the gold on the groom, the furniture on the bride's family, the hall half and half, and the little word for on that says what someone owes or takes on.

In the workshop yard, Leo asks Karim and Mister Fathi to be his two witnesses: the little word that joins a sentence to a noun, the one who, that, which, in every position.

At the marriage office for foreigners, the registrar checks who is present, the contract is read in Standard Arabic, the first party and the second party, and Leo, Salma and her father agree in Egyptian: the participle of state by gender, present, agreeing, married.

Leo and Salma price a wedding hall in Heliopolis: the hall takes up to two hundred, the price is per person, the band is separate, the cake by the kilo, and the deposit a quarter.

Uncle Mahmoud picks navy wool for Leo's suit and his tailor measures him: let me measure you, make it longer, make him a groom, leave it to me, and the bill is on Uncle Mahmoud.

The printed invitation comes in Standard Arabic, Karim teaches Leo the Egyptian words you say when you hand it over, honour us, you and the family, and Leo invites Sayed and his children at the door.

The evening before the wedding at the Mansours' flat: Mona sends the groom out, Grandma sits Leo down for her advice, don't ever upset her, don't let a quarrel sleep over, don't forget her on Mother's Day, and Mona guards the dress.

The wedding procession into the hall in Heliopolis: walk in while the drums beat, smile while you walk, holding her hand, stop while the singer sings, Grandma dancing while sitting, and Leo tells it afterwards.

At the wedding table Leo carries the questions across: ask your mother whether she's tired, he asks whether the drums are at every wedding, tell her that the dress is from here, tell them that the house is theirs.

The week after the wedding, in Leo's small Dokki flat, the three of them weigh where to live: the flat looks small, Maadi probably, it seems far from Mum, the rent has gone up, maybe an old flat with a balcony, it seems we agree.

Karim reads flat adverts off his phone in the Dokki flat: flat for rent, fourth floor, the second is without a lift, a balcony, the seventh is a ground floor, and the second sounds like us.

Leo phones the agent about the old building on Road Nine, then the couple sees a freshly painted flat on a loud street: is it still free, we haven't seen it yet, the owner no longer lives here, it still smells of paint, the lift is still broken, we no longer want this one.

The landlady shows the couple her mother's flat in an old building off Road Nine: this was Mum's flat, she used to sit here every day, the shutters used to be oiled, since she died nobody has lived here, the kitchen used to be here, since you said shutters, I like you.

In the landlady's kitchen off Road 9, the agent lays out the money and the lease is read: fourteen a month, two months' deposit, thirteen if Leo oils the shutters, the owner and the tenant as the two parties, who undertakes what, a year's contract from June.

Moving day in the old building in Maadi: the doorman offers to take the boxes up, the wardrobe comes in through the balcony with a rope, the mirror is not taken down like that, the lift was taken out long ago, and the doorman is asked up for tea.

In the workshop office, Mr. Fathi counts Leo's three years, says he has become the one who draws everything, and offers him a merchant's house behind Bab Zuweila as the architect in charge, with a bigger salary from the first of July.

Behind Bab Zuweila, Madame Hanan shows her grandfather's house: the roof leaks, the wooden screen needs cleaning, the roof needs opening, the walls need the damp treated, six months of work and a month of drawings, and a house that must live on for her grandchildren.

In the workshop's office the accountant reads Leo's new terms: a contract from the first of July, three months' probation because the law wants it, twenty-four thousand, twenty-one days' leave, a bonus if the project is finished on time, and the papers to bring.

At the accountant's desk Leo reads his contract clause by clause: the Standard first, then the Egyptian: in the event of termination, notice two months before; it renews by itself unless you say no; the drawings are the workshop's provided that his name is on them; sick leave with a doctor's paper.

At a bank in Maadi, Leo opens a salary account: the name in full, as it is written in the passport, in Arabic like this, the address in full, the amount in figures and in letters, a signature as in the passport, and the card in a week, collected in person.

Leo's first morning as the architect in charge, in the courtyard of the merchant's house: the men are ready, the scaffolding must be ready and will be ready Wednesday, the roof stays closed, the wooden screen is to be in the workshop by Saturday, the furniture is to be covered, and nothing gets thrown away.

Leo's first pay slip as the architect in charge: twenty-four gross, twenty-one after the deduction of insurance and taxes, payment after signing, signing before receiving as every time; then at home in Maadi, after the rent a dinner out is left, and after dinner, they talk.

A Friday in al-Darb al-Ahmar: when Leo finishes the merchant's house, Grandma's is next; a little shop in the lane says for rent, forty metres; if he opens a place one day it will be here, and Grandma brings the tea either way; and when they get home, Salma has something to tell him.