Other countries have their own favoured alternative (e.g. In Egyptian Arabic the second question is a case where you’d use “ba’a”: “3aamil eeh ba’a?”Īnother area where you can observe a slight difference in usage between Egyptian and other Arabic dialects is that Egyptians tend to use “mafrooD” to express necessity instead of “laazim”. For example, in English you could ask “What are you doing?” or “What are you doing anyways?”. Generally speaking it only occurs at the end of a question and is used to make the question more attenuated and less blunt.

The word ba’a is often used in Egyptian Arabic, but it’s hard to explain its function. Istanna! is used for “wait!” instead of the MSA انتظر (intaZir!) “itkallam 3arabi shwaya” – I speak a little bit of Arabic.īas means “but” or “enough” whereas buSS! means look! The opposite of ‘awwi is shweya, or “a little”. For example, “ana mashghool ‘awwi” means “I’m very busy”. In MSA “very” is جداً (djiddan), but in EA it’s ‘awwi. Likewise, “yesterday” is embaariH rather than the MSA البارحة (al-baariHa) Miscellaneous The word “today” is in-nahaar da rather than the MSA اليوم (al-yawm). The MSA for “now” is اللآن (al-aan) in Egyptian Arabic (EA) it becomes dil wa’ti. “How are you?”, then, is “izzayak?” when addressing a man, “izzayik?” when addressing a woman, and “izzaykum?” when addressing two or more persons. In the first part of this introduction you learned that “how” is izzay in Egyptian Arabic. It’s a pretty versatile word and can be used in conjunction with “ya”- “ya raagil!” – which might translate best as “dude!” The word “raagil” is a twist of the standard Arabic رجل (radjul), or “man”. For example, “muHammad baasha”, or “faaTima Haanim”. If the name of the interlocutor is known then “baasha” or “Hanim” can be added to the end of the name. Both words are relics of Turkish rule in Egypt.

The word baasha is a common way to address a man. The most frequent word you’ll hear is aywa, which is the Egyptian Arabic equivalent of the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) نعم ( na3am), or “yes”.Īnother extremely common word is 3aysh (pronounce the “3” like our “a”, but more hihg-pitched and from the back of the throat), or “bread”. In this article I’ll show you some of the most important Egyptian phrases and expressions that you’ll come across daily in Egypt. See Part I here.Ī substantial part of learning an Arabic dialect is to learn a number of key words that are specific to that dialect. This is the second part of an introduction to Egyptian Arabic.

Arabic common phrases