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hi, is there an exercise with this lesson ?I cannot open it.

correction, thanks I have gotten it sorted..it was hidden behind my ignorance of puters.

Hello there Sierra and Elias,
Could you remind me what the Lebanese equivalent of "bon appétit" is? We heard the expression a number of times in Beirut ...

Of course, KAREN. It's صحتين, which literally means "Two healths" and the appropriate response is على قلبك, pronounced 3ala 2albak/ik. That one literally means "on your heart," but it's basically, wishing them good health back.

Could anyone transliterate "two healths" (what Sierra wrote for "bon appetit") for me? Thanks!

@honduras
صحّتين
9i77atayn

The following can also be used for bon appétit
بالهناء والشفاء / بالهنا والشفا
bil hanaa' washshifaa'

هنيئا مريئا
hanee'an maree'an

شهيّة طيّبة
shaheeyat 6ayyiba

@Honduras - let me give it an educated guess with everything subject to correction by the experts - The Arabic "word" has a core meaning "health" and an ending rendering the meaning dual. I think pronunciation would be something like "9a7tan." You can look at each transcript's top box for a key to transliteration of the Arabic letters, and there is also a good "activity" on the site showing graphically how to pronounce them. The "9" is pronounced roughly like "saw" and the "7" like a breathy "haw." The dual nature of the "healths" is provided by the ending "tan" and there are lessons on these dual form endings. What is confusing to me is the "ya" before the "n" sound at the end - seems like it should be pronounced more like "ee."

Hope this advances the learning a bit.

As Vinod's post reminds me the "ya" can be pronounced in dual as "ay." Also he's doubled the "7" which suggests the presence of an unwritten emphasizing shadda vowel.

Thank you vinod and chaz!