TART Bites Episode 12: Baby Bottles
Street talk vs Book Talk: How to differentiate dialects from formal Arabic
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In some countries, such as in North Africa, including Egypt, they use the French term for baby bottles. This is a valid translation, but is not to be used in written Arabic, only in spoken Arabic.
– Bouchra Rebiai
Key Takeaways:
- Word-for-word translations often fall flat. It’s worth checking if a phrase already exists in dictionaries before inventing one.
- “Baby bottle” is two words in English, but just one in formal Arabic.
- Dialects refer to spoken Arabic that vary across regions.
- Conversational Arabic is very different from formal Arabic. Always cross-check the context of your project to ensure you’re not using one instead of the other.
Tune in to Episode 12 to learn how to spot the difference between a dialect and formal Arabic, and how to properly translate the word, “baby bottle” to Arabic.
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