Unit 2 · What's this?

el-: the

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

el- means "the" and is written joined to its noun: kitaab is "a book", el-kitaab is "the book". There's no word for "a". A bare noun already means one of something. For "the book is new", put el- on the noun and leave the adjective bare: el-kitaab gideed. With el- on both, el-kitaab el-gideed, it means "the new book" and isn't a sentence yet.