Today’s Arabic

I only studied the Modern Standard Arabic at the University of Arizona and Indiana University. Here in Egypt, though, they speak the Egyptian dialect. Many words are the same and they’re just pronounced differently. Other times, it’s beyond my comprehension and it’s beyond the capacity of my dictionary which I never remember to bring to Egypt anyway. (^^)
So today, let me introduce the idea of “mush”. “mush (pronounced like MOO-sh)” is a very simple word which negates the words that follow it. (Note here that I usually write foreign words the way they are pronounced rather than how they’re spelled. So if I write some non-English words, please try to read them like Spanish words.) You can put a verb after it or a noun after it. In class, though, I learned to put “leisa(t)” before a noun or an adjective and “laa” or “lem” or “len” before a verb depending on the tense. “mush” seems to take care of all these different cases. Horray!
Some of the useful expressions are:
Mush muhimm = not important
Mush ‘aizz(a) = I don’t want (add “a” at the end if the speaker is a woman)
Mush gaalii = not expensive
Mush Harr = not hot (but I don’t think you’ll ever use this in Egypt)
Egyptians seem to distinguish things that are “muhimm (important)” and those that are “mush muhimm (not important)” before they waste any time worrying about things that are “mush muhimm”. I can learn from them.