What does “جاب” (gāb) mean in Egyptian Arabic?

بابا جاب ساندوتش وايس كريم

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A1 Arabic listening practice · Egyptian Arabic · Picked for people who know a little

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جاب (gāb)
Egyptian everyday "bring"
“he brought”; Egyptian for MSA أحضر, from جاء بـ “came with”

Egyptians say جاب (gāb) for “he brought.” بابا جابلي ساندوتش is “Dad brought me a sandwich”: جاب plus لي (“to me”) fused into جابلي (gablī). It is worth learning early because the textbook verb أحضر almost never turns up in speech. The word began as جاء بـ, “came with,” so bringing something is literally coming with it.

The other persons follow the same short stem: جبت (“I brought”), جبتي (“you brought,” to a woman), هجيب (“I’ll bring”), بيجيب (“he brings”). In this scene one child protests when Dad brings a sandwich for only one of them (بابا جاب لك ساندوتش ولا لأ؟, “did Dad bring you a sandwich or not?”) and the clip ends on a chant of بابا جابلي ايس كريم (“Dad brought me ice cream”).

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A1 Arabic listening practice video?

93.4%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Arabic words
Most of the words in this video are common Arabic words.

How common in Arabic

61.8%
Top 1,000
93.4%
Top 2,000
98.7%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Arabic

71.2%
Top 1,000
100%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A1. Here is what they mean.

سندوتش
7×
Not in top 5,000
sandwich
ايس
3×
Not in top 5,000
(brand) وايس — ice cream
تديني
1×
Not in top 5,000
give (to me)

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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