Hello everyone,
I will be posting some Arabic expressions from greetings to basic conversations hoping that they will be handy when visiting an Arabic country.
As the Arabic text / alphabet might be hieroglyphic for most, I will restrain the sentences to Latin letters.
Spelling or accent will be that of a Lebanese, an understandable accent all over the Arab world.
NB: I will be using numbers as well. We usually use them when writing among us:
2 refers to the so called "Hamza". it is usually spelled like the i in inn or like eh.
3 refers to the 'ayn , similar to 3ali = Ali
5 refers to Kh, and would sound like Khan or Bach
7 refers to the ḥāʾ, like that of Mohammed Salah --> Mo7amed Sala7
9 refers to the ghayn, spelled like the French R
ou = oo
Here comes your first few expressions:
- Hello = mar7aba / al salamou 3alaykoum
- Good morning = bonjour (would do in Lebnon and the Maghreb) / Saba7 il5er (elswehere)
- Good evening = bonsoir / masa il5er (same as above)
- How are you = Kifak (m) / Kifik (f) / kifkoun (p) ...Kif can be substituted with shlon giving rise to shlonak for instance.
- to say that I am fine, i would say: l7amdlla mni7 or l7amdlla b5er (which will translate to thanks to God I am fine)
That's all for today.
Cheers!
Memorizing suffix and prefix will make your life easier as they will be the same for most words/expression!
Worth noting that the picture used in here is not mine. it was found on TAU International website