Moving on to our eleventh letter of the Arabic alphabet (ز), we will look at various words beginning with (ز) along with more culture/language related facts.

Let’s begin with looking at your basic forms of the letter ز.

Initial ز‎, as in the word “زُجاج” meaning “glass”.

Medial ـﺰ‎ ‍, as in the word “وَزير” meaning “minister”.

Final ـﺰ‎, as in the word “أُرْز” meaning “rice”.

Before looking at the following words, can you think of words beginning with ز?

زَميل :mate, fellow, colleague, coworker    .دعاني زَميلي لِتناول طعام الغَداء لِمناقشة المَشروع الجَّديد

My colleague invited me for lunch to discuss the new project.

زَهْرة :flower   .انا ذاهِب لِشراء الزُّهور لِعيد الأم

I’m going to buy flowers for Mother’s Day.💐

Note: Another word for flower is وَردة. 🌻

زَمَن: time, age, era        .في زَمَن جدي، كانوا النَّاس مُهذَّبون جِداً

In my Grandpa’s time, people were very polite.

زارَ :to visit       هل زُرتَ صديقك في المُستشفى؟      Did you visit your friend at the hospital?

Hence, a guest or visitor is زائِر and a visit is زِيارة.

زُبْدة :butter       .لا تحتاج وصفة الكيك هذه إلى البَيض أو الزُبدة

This cake recipe does not need eggs or butter.

زُبون :client, customer   .سأعطيك خصماً لأنك زُبوني المُفَضَل

I’ll give you a discount since you’re my favorite customer.

زَعتَر: thyme    زَيْتون : olive     زَيْت: oil – as in vegetable oil or olive oil

In a typical تقليدي Middle Eastern breakfast, you are bound to find “zaatar” زعتر which is thyme mixed with sesame seeds بُذور السمسم and spices such as sumac السُّماق and cumin كَمون. Bread is dipped in olive oil زَيت الزَّيتون then into the zaatar. Sometimes it is sprinkled on baked dough called “manakish” مَناقيش as you can see in the photo.

Every time I go home to Jordan to visit family, I pack my suitcase with lots of زعتر to last me a while before I go back. If you haven’t already tried it, I hope you get the chance to. Turns out there are many health benefits فَوائِد صحية to زعتر  such as improving تَحسين the immune system جِهاز المَناعة, building strong bones عظام, boosting energy تَعزيز الطاقة and improving your mood مِزاج to name a few.

Note that to refer to oil as in petrol, you would use the word نِفط or بِتْرول.

👰🤵 Many words related to marriage begin with ز making it easy to remember. Wedding is زَفاف and marriage is زَواج. Husband is زَوج and wife is زَوجة. At the beginning of the زَفاف, you have what you call a زفـّـة which is when the bride and groom have a grand entry while traditional music is played.

When invited to an Arabic wedding, expect تَوَقَّع it to be at a wedding hall قاعة الزَّفاف or hotel فُنْدُق or even a house. Wedding parties can either be mixed مُختَلَط or segregated مُنفَصِل where men and women are in separate halls. Depending on the bride and groom’s budget ميزانية, either a dinner is served or sometimes only simple pastries and a dessert. When going up to the bride and groom to congratulate يُهَنِّيء them, you can say this:

!مَبْروك

!الله يبارك فيك (response)

Note that another word for wedding is عُرْس.

🎇الزَّكاة: It is the act of giving alms to the poor الفُقَراء and المُحتاج needy, and is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Chapter (2) sūrat l-baqarah (The Cow)-Verse (43)

وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَارْكَعُوا مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ

And be steadfast in prayer; practice regular charity; and bow down your heads with those who bow down (in worship).

زين can be used as an adjective to mean beautiful, handsome, graceful. Both girls and boys can be named زين, sometimes زين is made more feminine by adding a ة to the end making it زينة.

It is also used to reply to the question, “How are you?” in the Gulf. For example, Iraqis reply with زين meaning “good” or “fine”, when asking them how they are doing. In Levantine countries though, it is not used in this way. To reply to “How are you?”, one can say تمام، منيح، كويس.

Here is a short song in Iraqi dialect advertising a cellular company called Zain زين in Iraq. The title of the song is اني زين…انت زين؟ meaning I’m good…Are you good?

اني زين … انت زين؟

Till next time, happy Arabic learning! 😊