A Bundle of Five Carrots

So in Arabic, to make a word plural you don't just add an 's' to the end of a word (or some similar form like that within the grammar world). Maybe there is some reasonable sort of logic to making the words plural; I just haven't figured out the logic yet. Right now, it just seems easier to muster up the resolve to just memorize everything given to me. So every word I learn, I'm memorizing it times four: the singular, the plural, the gender, and the French version of the word (just to review and make sure I don't lose my French).

Well, yesterday, Teacher gives me a list with a whole schlew of vocabulary for vegetables. Pumpkin, cabbage, onions, turnips, (turnips? really?), carrots. You get the drift. Today, Teacher explains that there are different words that go with the different types of vegetables.

Like in English when we say, "a head of lettuce," or "a bunch of bananas," or a "celery stalk." But again, for each word like 'head,' and 'bunch' and 'stalk' I had to learn the form for one, two, or more than two, plus the gender. Eegads. AND--which word went with which vegetable. Because, just like in English, we wouldn't use 'head' with a bell pepper or a 'bunch' with cauliflower.

Enter my confusion. Or Teacher's. Or maybe both.

"So is this word you taught me here, for example, for radish, is that the single form or the plural form?"

"Well, it's plural. Unless you use the single form of 'head' with it, which would mean just one radish."

"So if I go to the vegetable man and say I want five carrots, I say 'khamsa kaebet sfn.nairia'?"

Teacher says, "Why would you buy just five carrots?"

"Because I am just one person and if I buy more than five carrots, they go bad and I've wasted my money."

She replies, "You can't buy just five carrots from the vegetable man. You buy a kilo, or a half kilo, or however many grams. You can't go to him and say that you want five carrots."

"I can and I have. And if I'm supposed to just say however many grams I want, why are you teaching me to say these 'head' and 'bunch' words? Why not just practice my numbers some more?"

"If you want just five carrots, you should just go to the grocery store and not the vegetable man."

I reply in my very ethnocentric mentality, "I don't want to go to the grocery store. I like going to the vegetable man. It's cheaper, better produce, and I get to speak to a person. Don't you want me to practice my language?"

"Yes, but if you go ask the vegetable man for five carrots, he will think you're crazy. What are you going to do? Ask him for one green bean?! He will laugh and give it to you for free."

"That is the beauty in being a foreigner. People already think I'm crazy. I can get away with alot more weirdness than you can. That's why I CAN go to the vegetable man and ask for five carrots, and he WILL sell them to me. I just need to know how to say 'a bundle of five carrots.'"

"Khamsa kaebet sfn.nairia."

I reminded her that she said the other day that she likes my personality... She gave me a "hmphf!" look. That was just 20 minutes of my language class. And I go for 3 hours, 5 days a week. I don't know who's more exhausted after class--me or Teacher.