Unit 3 · Numbers, phones and the time

Two nouns: "a box of tissues"

Capitals mark the emphatic letters, 3 is ع and 7 is ح, and ' is the glottal stop that Cairo uses for q.

Put two nouns side by side and the first belongs to the second: nimrit tilifoon (a phone number), 3ilbit manaadeel (a box of tissues). If the first noun ends in -a, it turns into -it when something follows it: nimra becomes nimrit, 3ilba becomes 3ilbit, ma7aTTa becomes ma7aTTit. Only the last noun can take el-: nimrit et-tilifoon is "the phone number".