The genitive construct and other ways to express possession in Egyptian Arabic

• The genitive construct - الإضافة (il-iDaafa)
• Other ways to express possession

The genitive construct

In Arabic, two nouns can be placed one after the other in what is called a genitive construct (الإضافة) to indicate possession. First comes the noun being possessed (المضاف), then comes the noun referring to the owner (المضاف اليه). For example:

If المضاف ends in a taa' marbuuTa, then the end of that word will be pronounced -it instead of -a.

In Egyptian Arabic, المضاف must be indefinite, but المضاف اليه may be definite or indefinite.

Whether an adjective modifies المضاف or المضاف اليه, it will come at the very end, after المضاف اليه. As usual, it will agree in gender, number, and definiteness with the noun it modifies.

But sometimes, if both المضاف or المضاف اليه are the same gender and number, there can be confusion over what noun is being modified by the adjective, as with this phrase:

Fortunately, Egyptian Arabic has a solution for this kind of ambiguity: use of the بتاع (bitaa3) construction. The word بتاع (female form بتاعة bitaa3a, plural form بتوع bituu3) indicates possession.

This construction is also used if you want to modify both terms of the اضافة with adjectives.

Other ways to express possession

There are also other ways to express possession. Of course, you can use possessive pronouns.

Arabic has no verb for "to have," but you can express this idea with three different prepositions, with possessive pronoun suffixes added:

• عند (3and-) - used to talk about "having" something in the sense of owning or possessing it. This is the most commonly-used of these three choices.
  
  الراجل ده عنده بيت كبير (ir-raagil da 3andu beit kibiir)
  That man has a big house.
  
  
• لـ (li-) - used to refer to something intended for somebody or something "owned" by an inanimate object.
  
  ليك جواب في البوسطة (liik gawaab fil-bosTa)
  You have a letter in the mail.
  
  الأوضة لها تلات شبابيك (il-ooDa liiha talat šababiik)
  The room has three windows.
  
  
• مع (ma3a) - used to talk about something you physically have with you.
  
  معاك فلوس؟ (ma3aak filuus?)
  Do you have money (with you)?

Here are the "conjugations" of these words:

And here are the negations:

To shift into the past tense, you say كان (kaan) or ماكانش (makanš) followed by the preposition + pronoun suffix.