You’re studying English, right? Or was it Arabic?

When you look at certain types of Arabic words, it can be hard to notice the difference. 

The English language has left its permanent mark on Arabic, just as it has on many other languages around the world. In every Arabic-speaking country, people at all levels of society mix English with Arabic from time to time. Even people not fluent in English do some mixing now and then.

How exactly does this mixing work? What’s involved, and what should an Arabic learner look out for? That’s exactly what you’ll find out in our guide to English words in Arabic!

Table of Contents

1. The Basics of English Words Used in Arabic
2. Arablish Examples
3. English Loanwords in Arabic
4. How to Pronounce Brand Names in Arabic
5. Arabic Words in English
6. Outro

The Basics of English Words Used in Arabic

As in many societies the world over, English is considered a prestigious language in Arabic-speaking countries. It outpaces French as the most-learned foreign language by a significant margin, and a foreign traveler to the capital cities anywhere between Morocco and Iraq can expect to get around pretty well using English.

Part of this popularity is because of the perceived economic or cultural benefits that come with speaking English as a second language, though necessity also plays a huge role here.

English speakers are spoiled when it comes to global communication. The English language has always been a primary language of software development, and as such, electronic devices tend to support English first and foremost. Arabic has sadly been left far behind in this area. It took a while for popular operating systems to start supporting Arabic, and even in 2020 there are significantly fewer fonts, programs, and websites with Arabic display options.

Therefore, computer usage in Arabic is intrinsically linked with English. Not just in the typing of Romanized Arabic words using the Latin alphabet, but also in the vocabulary of computers, software, and the internet.

In a similar sense, the language of business is also linked with English. With the rise of globalization and internationalization, many firms based in Arabic-speaking countries are used to using English as a common language when dealing with other companies.

And, following the natural progression of the two points mentioned above, prestige and internet culture have led to “new” and “cool” companies readily adopting marketing and business terms from English wholesale—and expecting to be understood.

Naturally, when a word is adopted into another language, there’s not always a perfect equivalent of the original meaning.

Let’s look at a few examples of English words in Arabic whose meanings have shifted slightly along the journey.

Arablish Examples

There are a few domains of language, such as business and technology, where English loanwords have been adopted into Arabic with slightly different meanings. Here are some of the common ones you’ll hear:

1. “Message” / مِسِج 

When you use the word “message” in English, you might mean any number of things: a short note left on someone’s desk, a popup box on a computer program, a voice message on an answering machine, or of course a text message. The Arabic word refers specifically to phones and internet messages. Because the meaning is preserved in these contexts, it would be easy to assume that all the senses of the loanword have been carried over to English, when this is not the case.

2. “Goal” / جول

In a similar way, the word “goal” in English as spoken by Arabs only refers to a sports goal. Since there are other words in the business sphere, like “creative,” that have been totally adopted into modern marketing Arabic, it’s reasonable to assume that a phrase like “meet your quarterly goal” could be used directly in Arabic as well as in English.

How do you learn something like this in depth? Well, you pick it up through immersion. Articles like this are only going to have a couple of examples of these at a time, and the meanings of loanwords change fast in today’s world. There is nothing better than firsthand experience to help you get the hang of how to use something as complex as ‘Arablish.’

English Loanwords in Arabic

Now let’s flip the script a bit. Here are some words that either roughly match the Arabic sound system already, or that have been modified slightly for easier pronunciation.

These pronunciation features allow English words to enter the Arabic language more naturally than if they stood out as “foreign words.” Gulf Arabic speakers, in particular, feel quite at home using the following words.

• شَيِّك (chayek) – “review” 

Note that this first one does not mean “check a box.” It only means to look something over for mistakes or suggestions.

• أَكَنسِل (akansal) – “cancel” 

It’s possible to use this word as an equivalent to the English “to close a program.”

• أَفَرمَت (afarmat) – “format” 
• أَدَلِّت (adallet) – “delete” 

Next, the words “creative,” “confirm,” and “focus” are frequently used in business Arabic—to such an extent that foreign learners can become frustrated at the lack of pure Arabic they get to hear! Here are two example phrases:

First is an example of how “creative” would be used in Egyptian Arabic.

الديزاينَر الجِديد كِريِيتيف أَوِي.
el-dīzāynar el-gedīd keryeītīv ʾawī.
The new designer is so creative.

Here is an example of what would be said in a small conversation in an office in Gulf Arabic:

رَح نِنشُر التَحديث بَعدما يِشَيِّكو المُدير.
raḥ nenšor el-taḥdīs baʿdmā yešayyeko el-modīr.
We will publish the update after the manager checks it.

How to Pronounce Brand Names in Arabic

In addition to loanwords, branding often undergoes serious translation and localization as well. Localization as a trend—and even as an academic field—has never been more popular than it is today. More and more brands want to connect with the world on the other side of language barriers.

Many brands have been localized into Arabic with expert logo designers creating great-looking Arabic versions of well-loved logos. Naturally, when people read these words aloud, they’re going to pronounce them in Arabic, which may be odd to hear if you’re only used to the originals.

One of the classic examples of this is “Pepsi.” The Arabic language doesn’t have an aspirated P sound like English does, so this is actually pronounced bebsi in Arabic. If you’re speaking fluent Arabic and you pronounce this word with the original English pronunciation in the middle of a sentence, it may be a bit jarring or sound like you’re being overly correct!

Here are some other examples of Arabic pronunciations of foreign brand names:

McDonald’s
ماكدونالدز
makdonaldz

Olympics
الأولِمبياد
al-olimbiyyad

Facebook
فيسبوك
feisbuk

iPhone
آيفون
ʾāyfūn

In the 1980s and 1990s, it was pretty rare in big metropolitan areas to see an Arabic name for a new and “modern” business, but now there’s a trend toward Arabization of business names. Picking a business name in Arabic is a big deal for companies that want to go global but still want to retain something that speaks to their mother tongue. As Arabic popular culture takes greater hold on the world, the Arabic language is becoming more accessible and will hopefully be even trendier in the future.

Arabic Words in English

Loanwords don’t only flow one direction, you know. And Arabic has had a huge start on English in that regard.

Most Arabic loanwords in English are totally integrated into the language, since they were adopted many centuries ago and have undergone the same vowel shifts and usage changes as native English words have.

One such word is “cotton,” originally from the Arabic word qutun, which was brought to England around the time of the Crusades. Later on, during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the words “algebra” and “algorithm” entered the English language. Their al­- prefix gives them away as Arabic words at first sight. Another example is “elixir,” from the Arabic word al-iksir, which has undergone one of those vowel changes we mentioned.

Words related to Islam and food are among the most common Arabic words used in English today. These include hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), fatwa (religious decree), Fattoush (Levantine salad), and falafel (balls made of chickpeas).

Outro  

When it comes to something as slippery as loanwords, it’s hard to really sit down and study vocabulary.

Sure, you can read articles like this one to get an overview, but it mostly has to come with time. After all, what’s in vogue now may not be nearly as popular in the future.

For that reason, the best way to pick up natural use of English loanwords in Arabic is to have a good understanding of standard Arabic first. Only then should you branch out into consuming more songs, TV, and movies that have more colloquial Arabic in them (complete with loanwords).

And the best way to get this solid knowledge base is to use ArabicPod101, the world-famous podcast-based Arabic course! We’ll lead you step by step from basic to advanced Arabic with vocab lists, flashcards, video lessons, and more, including interesting cultural articles like this one. Sign up now and see just how natural your Arabic can get with ArabicPod101!

Which of these English words in Arabic were you the most surprised to find out about? Are there any we didn’t mention that you think your fellow learners should know about? Let us know in the comments!

Whether you’ve enrolled in a formal Arabic class or are picking up the language out of personal interest, you should probably start getting familiar with the culture as well.

Becoming familiar with Arab culture and traditions means understanding a lifestyle and point of view far removed from what you’re used to.

Of course, Arabic is spoken in many countries and each of them has its own cultural norms. However, on this page, you’ll get a brief glance at the way culture and language intersect in Arab society.

Table of Contents

1. Values and Beliefs
2. Philosophies and Religions
3. Family
4. Art
5. Food
6. Traditional Holidays
7. Conclusion

1. Values and Beliefs

Generally speaking, Arab culture values tradition and strength. 

You can see that in the language to some extent, where the Classical Arabic language has diverged significantly into the modern dialects spoken by millions of people in different countries today. Even though this change has taken place naturally, the standards and styles of the classical language, or fus’ha, have been artificially preserved as the only correct way to write in Arabic.

Arabs look to their leaders, both religious and political, for guidance. For example, many Arabs living abroad are happy to follow the teachings of religious scholars in their home countries instead of local ones.

Individual strength and power are also considered very desirable qualities in Arab culture. People strongly dislike being embarrassed in public, and so it’s practically unheard of for an employee to directly contradict their superiors in business meetings, for example. Societies, schools, and businesses are organized into rigid hierarchies, and it’s considered quite rude for an outsider to “shake things up” by subverting that hierarchy.

This sense of hierarchy extends into the household, as parents are seen to have absolute authority over their children. Even in households that aren’t particularly conservative, young adults routinely ask for their parents’ advice on life choices in a way that seems unusual to people living in more independent societies. From a Western point of view, this seems overly restrictive, but from an Arab point of view, it provides much-needed structure and allows young people to learn from the mistakes their elders made.

The other side of this, of course, is the famous culture of welcoming and hospitality. No one can say that Arabs are unwilling to receive guests or share what they have with others.

Anyone who’s traveled to an Arab country knows this from experience. People are extremely welcoming to foreigners and strangers in general, showing them great respect and going the extra mile to make sure they’re comfortable. You can see this even in big-name brands like Emirates Airlines, where customer service is a main selling point.

2. Philosophies and Religions

In Arab culture, religion is a cornerstone of society.

The stereotypical person living in the Middle East follows Islam, and indeed an overwhelming majority of Arabs are Muslims. This is hardly surprising, given that the Middle East is the birthplace of Mohammed and the site of the Kaaba in Mecca, the destination for millions of Muslims around the world every year during their Hajj.

Different countries in the Middle East (and different regions in those countries) follow different schools of Islam such as Shia, Sunni, and Khariji.

The Middle East also conceived the other Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity. Virtually none of the Jews in the Middle East identify as Arabs, though they may speak Arabic fluently and live among Arabs.

Arab Christians, on the other hand, number in the millions in Egypt, the Levant, and abroad. Arab Christians, despite their religious minority status, tend to be well-educated and relatively wealthy. Many have also played major roles in the culture and politics in their own countries.

Islam is the official religion in: 

• Algeria
• Egypt
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Libya
• Morocco
• Qatar
• Palestine
• Oman
• Saudi Arabia
• Somalia
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

Of the Arabic-speaking countries, only Lebanon and Syria have no state-mandated religion.

Turning our attention away from religion briefly, philosophers from the Islamic Golden Age (a period from about 700 CE to 1200 CE) have been sorely overlooked in most Western educational curricula. Many, like Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, were extremely well-educated polymaths who wrote on medicine, law, chemistry, and ethics. Although one imagines them as religious scholars, some (like Al-Ma’arri) were agnostic or irreligious.

Today, since most Arabic speakers can read Classical Arabic, their texts are available and read in their original form much more widely than those of European philosophers of comparable times!

→ To learn the names of different religions in Arabic, check out our Religion vocabulary list!

3. Family

In keeping with the more traditional attitudes that have been the norm in many Arab societies, the family, or أسرة (‘usra), is extremely important.

Most families are nuclear, with a husband, a wife, and two kids. Same-sex relationships are strongly looked down upon by society in virtually all of the Arabic-speaking countries in North Africa and the Middle East, and same-sex marriages are illegal in all of them as of 2020.

The father figure is the center of the Arabic family, and he is expected to protect and take care of his wife and children financially. A woman is traditionally expected to focus on her children first, though in modern metropolises it’s becoming more common for the wife to work as well.

Although men hold power over women in theory, they also seek their partners’ opinions on business and financial matters. Spouses generally make decisions as a couple.

Children are taught to respect their elders and assume their gender roles early. In Arab culture, elders (such as a grandparent or elderly aunt or uncle) will live in the same house as the nuclear family to be taken care of in old age.

4. Art

If you’re keen on understanding Arab culture, becoming familiar with its artwork is a must. 

Just as the Classical Arabic language has been preserved in Modern Standard Arabic, the art of writing the language has been finely developed over the centuries. Arabic calligraphy is a highly respected art form, tightly associated with Islam.

Just look at the flag of Saudi Arabia, for instance, featuring a sword under the shahada, or Islamic creed: “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.” That’s perhaps one of the most recognizable phrases in Arabic calligraphy. By the way, since these are holy words, the Saudi flag is never printed on merchandise or lowered to half-mast in order to avoid disrespecting the creed.

The Arab world has an extremely rich architectural heritage. It’s known for richly dyed stone, soaring arches, intricate tilework, and iconic pillars. This design language has spread around the world, so that whether you go to a mosque in New York, Baghdad, or Kuala Lumpur, you’ll see the same types of designs.

5. Food

We’ve actually come out with a separate article on food recently, so we won’t go into too much detail at this point.

However, suffice it to say that Arab food is based on a lot of grains, meats, herbs, and light sauces without being either spicy or bland.

Chickpeas and beans are staples in the Arab diet, as are rice, pocketbreads, and flatbreads.

Some cuisines require the whole family to share! Food is a social activity in Arab culture, way more so than in Western countries. It’s not unusual, for example, for wedding feasts or even birthday celebrations to involve massive consumption of food and drink—on the level of an entire roasted goat or cow!

Out at restaurants, Arabs tend to fight over who gets to pay the bill, not who has to pay the bill. This can cause feelings of discomfort for people who aren’t able to reciprocate, but the message is one of warmth and kindness. If you feel like you need to pay your friends back for a meal, then you’ll be more likely to hang out with them and enjoy their company in the future.

The Arab palate is no stranger to foreign food, such as Italian pasta, American steak, Chinese noodles, and Japanese sushi. Unfortunately, delicious Arab food from either the Middle East or North Africa has yet to make its way to mainstream culture in the rest of the world.

One thing to note is that pork and alcohol are almost never served in restaurants because they’re considered haram (“forbidden”) in Islam. Pigs are considered unclean animals, and devout Muslims are forbidden from touching or eating them. Consumption of alcohol and drunkenness are considered sins in Islam.

Despite that strict proclamation against both, spirits are brewed and pigs are raised in smaller numbers in many Arab countries such as Egypt and Lebanon. In international areas of major cities, it’s also easy to find hotels catering to foreign guests and serving alcohol or the occasional bacon sandwich. Not in Saudi Arabia, though—it’s actually illegal to bring any pork or alcohol into the country.

→ To learn more on this topic, check out our Culture Class lesson on Arab Foods!

6. Traditional Holidays

In Arab culture, holidays are often a time to get together with loved ones and enjoy each other’s presence. 

The most famous holiday in the Middle East is the same for Muslims everywhere: Ramadan, the holy month of the Islamic calendar. From sunup to sunset each day of this month, Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink (though of course, concessions are made in case of illness or emergency). This is a time for joyous celebration and visiting friends and family. These days, it’s also a huge shopping holiday, with brands offering Ramadan specials left and right.

Different Arab countries naturally have their own holidays as well. New Year’s Day is a big one, and since all Arab countries were colonized by European powers at some point, their relative independence days are great cause for celebration!

7. Conclusion

Culture and language are always deeply intertwined.

In order to really get to know Arab customs and culture, you’ve got to learn Arabic. These are things you can’t see through the lens of translation.

Fortunately, you’re already in the best place to do that: ArabicPod101.com. We offer podcasts, videos, vocabulary lists, and flashcards to help you start from zero and get all the way up to an advanced level. 

Each of our podcast episodes and most of our blog articles have a heavy focus on cultural notes, too. By the end of your Arabic education, you’ll feel like you’ve developed a deep and comfortable understanding of Arab culture. Create your free lifetime account today and start uncovering Arabic with ArabicPod101!

After reading this page, what are your thoughts on Arab culture? Is there any aspect we didn’t include that you want to learn about? Let us know in the comments!

The best way to remember things is to connect them with your senses in some way. Remembering new words and rules on paper is a tough task unless you also have something you can feel. Something in the heart.

And they always say food is the best way to the heart.

Fortunately for you, you’ve chosen to learn Arabic—a language spoken across an enormous cultural and culinary tapestry.

In this article, you’ll get the barest glimpse at the amazing diversity on display in the world of Arab food. You’ll even learn some interesting Arabic phrases to go along with your meal!

Table of Contents

1. What They Eat in Arabic-Speaking Countries
2. In-Country vs. Overseas
3. Unique Food You Can Only Get Abroad
4. Food-Related Vocabulary
5. Bonus: Simple Recipes to Practice at Home
6. Conclusion

1. What They Eat in Arabic-Speaking Countries

Every country has a national dish (whether or not it’s actually favored by most of the citizens). Since the Arabic language is spoken in so many different places, it’s only fitting that we introduce several different national dishes across the spectrum.

A- كُسْكُس‎ (Kuskus) – Couscous 

Algerian national dish. 

You’ve probably had couscous before, even if you had no idea what it was made of or where it came from. That’s because this grain dish of tiny wheat balls is also used in French cooking and is a staple in some American supermarkets. The name itself comes from the Berber languages, spoken in different areas of North Africa.

B- كبسة‎ (Kabsah) – Kabsa 

Saudi national dish. 

The word كبس‎ (kabasa) means “to press” or “to squeeze,” referring to the way rice, meat, vegetables, and spices are all pressed into one pot. It’s sometimes served with tomato sauce.

C- المسكوف (Masgouf) 

Iraqi national dish. 

The Tigris and Euphrates are massive rivers flowing through Iraq into the Persian Gulf, and they’re also home to huge numbers of carp. To prepare masgouf, one splits open a carp, seasons it with various spices and olive oil, and then slow-cooks it in a special grill for several hours.

D- كشري‎ (Koshari)

Egyptian national dish. 

Kushari is hardly an ancient Egyptian recipe. Rather, it has its roots in the beginning of Egypt’s economic boom of the 1800s when people were coming to the country from all over the world. It’s a street food with rice, pasta, and lentils mixed together, and served with spicy tomato sauce and vinegar.

E- منسف‎ (Mansaf) 

Jordanian national dish. 

This one may be what you think of when you imagine “Arab cuisine.” It’s a large platter of stewed lamb and rice topped with fermented goat’s milk. Traditionally, it’s eaten standing up with the right hand only, though you can also eat it with spoons and plates.

2. In-Country vs. Overseas

It’s not just words that can be lost in translation. Recipes that get exported around the world definitely undergo some changes on the journey, whether to suit local palates or just because different ingredients are available in different places.

Take the popular Middle Eastern food حُمُّص‎ (hummus), for example. In the United States, you can find it in the grocery store next to salsas and guacamoles as a refrigerated dip for appetizers. In the Middle East, though, it’s usually prepared fresh and eaten the same day.

Also, you can forget about finding carrot hummus, cauliflower hummus, or sweet potato hummus in ordinary restaurants in the Middle East. The word itself means “chickpeas,” and that’s exactly what you’re going to get.

Next, most people are used to seeing white rice on the menu in Middle Eastern restaurants abroad. That’s definitely a staple, but other grains made from wheat are also quite popular. برغل‎ (Bulgur) and semolina are two more grains that commonly show up in traditional Arab cuisine, as well as فريكة‎ (freekeh), a cereal made from green wheat.

3. Unique Food You Can Only Get Abroad

Some foods can only be found in one country, yet they’re so popular that language learners should know about them. After all, wouldn’t it be great to use your Arabic language skills to order something you couldn’t get back home? Here are a few popular examples of authentic Arab cuisine:

A- مطبق‎ (Muttabak)  

This is a type of omelette pancake with green onion, minced meat, and occasionally other sweet or savory ingredients. The word itself means “folded,” and this type of street food can even be found in Southeast Asian Muslim countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

B- كُنافة‎ (Kanafeh) 

The kanafeh is a small cake made of super-fine pastry dough soaked in sweet syrup, deep-fried, and served with cheese and nuts. Pistachios are the most common topping. Since these can take a little while to make properly, there are also easier variants which are rolled instead of layered.

→ You can read about more Arab dessert items in our lesson on Arab Sweets and Desserts!

C- مَحشي (Mahshi) 

This is a type of stuffed squash served as a main course or as finger food in Egypt and the Levant. It’s similar to dolmas, but the typical “wrapping” is zucchini or eggplant instead of vine leaves.

4. Food-Related Vocabulary

Now it’s time to stop eating and start learning with these restaurant words and phrases in Arabic.

You should be aware (if you aren’t already) that walking into an ordinary restaurant in Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, or any other Arabic-speaking country is going to be a different linguistic environment than what you’re learning in your textbooks. It’s going to be a bit weird if you order in MSA instead of the local dialect.

That said, even if your Modern Standard Arabic is far from beautifully correct, people will greatly appreciate your efforts to connect with the local culture. For that reason, these phrases will be given in MSA.

We’ll cover three different and very useful types of things you might want to say during the course of your restaurant visit.

A- Asking About Meat

Arab cultures overall have nothing against vegetarianism. Although some specific festivals are associated with meat—and although lamb, beef, and poultry are staples of plenty of dishes—there are vegetarian options at any restaurant.

However, when you get the menu, you’ll almost certainly be overwhelmed by Arabic names for dishes you may not recognize, perhaps accompanied by clumsy machine translations.

In those cases, you should ask the waiter directly:

هَل هُناكَ لَحمٌ في هَذا الصَحن؟
hal hunāka laḥmun fī haḏā al-ṣaḥn?
“Does this dish have meat in it?”

It’s possible that the person you speak to might not grasp what you’re saying through the language or culture barrier (after all, if you’re in a smaller place, you might be one of only a few vegetarians that passes through). Try explaining in a different way:

َأنا لا آكُلُ اللَحم.
aʾnā lā ʾākulu al-laḥm.
“I don’t eat meat.”

B- Price and Payment

Once you’ve had your fill, you’ll want to know the damage to your wallet. In many places, such as Lebanon, restaurant culture is more about service than it is in the U.S., and you won’t be given the bill unless you ask for it. (Otherwise, the wait staff would feel as though they’re pressuring you to leave.)

الحِساب، مِن فَضلِك.
al-ḥisāb, min faḍlik.
“The bill, please.”

C- Complimenting the Food

It may come across as oddly charming to some people if they’re not used to it, but a genuine compliment about the food goes over well anywhere.

طَعمُهُ رائِع!
ṭaʿmuhu rāʾiʿ!
“This tastes amazing!”

5. Bonus: Simple Recipes to Practice at Home

Ready to get cooking? Here are two very easy Arab cuisine recipes you can make at home! 

A- How to Make فَلافِل‎ (Falafel)

Falafel is a dish with roots in Egypt and popularity all over the world. It’s both delicious and easy to make! There are two types of falafel: chickpea falafel which is mostly eaten in the Levant, and fava bean falafel which is eaten in Egypt. Here, we’ll introduce the Levantine Falafel.

Once you have it ready,

1. First, soak dried chickpeas in a bowl of water for an evening or a day in advance.

2. Then combine the chickpeas with parsley, cilantro, mint, onions, and garlic, and add some spices such as salt, pepper, cumin, and cardamom.

3. Throw those in a food processor for a little while. Then refrigerate that for fifteen minutes or so, form them into balls, and fry in hot oil.

They’re best to eat right away, served hot and with additional salt or dipping sauce to taste.

B- How to Make فتوش‎ (Fattoush) 

1. Brush pita bread with olive oil and sprinkle on salt. Break into pieces and bake into croutons.

2. Combine fresh greens (such as purslane or romaine), mint leaves, sumac, tomato, cucumber, and croutons.

The typical signature Fattoush is served with a lemon dressing, though if you don’t have it on hand, try a mint dressing instead. The sumac adds a bit of lemon zest anyway!

6. Conclusion

As we mentioned, there’s really so much to cover when it comes to Middle Eastern cuisine that you could spend a lifetime studying only the food.

Fortunately, any aficionado of the topic already knows a lot of Arabic words just from the food names, like hummus or couscous.

These and other words will pop up often when you use ArabicPod101 to learn and retain your Arabic vocabulary.

In order to keep you motivated during the long journey of learning Arabic, why not check out some interesting cooking channels or food vloggers who use Arabic to share their love of food? You’ll get inspired to create new meals and learn Arabic at the same time—a delicious win-win scenario!

Which Arabic food are you most looking forward to trying, and why? Let us know in the comments!

Considering the fact that Mother’s Day likely arose from deity worship in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, it should come as no surprise that we have one day a year where we pamper our mothers. 

In this article, you’ll learn about Mother’s Day in Egypt and how this tradition got its start in modern-day Arab countries. Let’s get started.

1. What is Mother’s Day?

Odds are, you’re already familiar with the concept of عيد الأم (ʿiyd al-ʾum), or Mother’s Day—this holiday is widespread, celebrated in numerous countries around the world. While exact traditions and connotations may vary from one culture to another, one thing remains constant: Mother’s Day is a time to honor and show appreciation for one’s mother. But do you know the origins of this holiday?

Mother’s Day in Ancient Egypt

Deity worship played a major role in Ancient Egypt, with royalty and common folk alike worshipping a plethora of gods and goddesses. Many of the goddesses were viewed as Egyptian symbols for motherhood, femininity, sexuality, life, and even death—for this reason, women who wanted children would often pray to their goddess (or goddesses) of choice for their blessing and the general population would present offerings at their temples on a regular basis. Two of the most popular goddesses throughout Ancient Egypt were Isis and Hathor, both of whom had festivals held in their honor. Many believe these festivals to have been the precursor of Mother’s Day celebrations.

The worship of these goddesses died down over time, and people began to transfer their adoration and respect toward their own mothers. However, the idea of an official Mother’s Day in Egypt did not grow popular until 1943, when an Egyptian journalist named Mustafa Amin brought it up in his book Smiling America. The idea was largely rejected until 1956, when Mother’s Day was officially made a holiday. Keep reading to learn what prompted this change!

Today, Mother’s Day in the Arab world takes place on March 21 to correspond with the first day of spring. 

→ See our vocabulary list of the Must-Know Terms for Family Members to become better acquainted with key terms you’ll hear all the time while learning the language.

→ And here are the Top 15 Things To Do Over Spring Break, for those of you who just can’t wait!

2. Mother’s Day Celebrations in Egypt

In Egypt, Mother’s Day is celebrated much like it is in the rest of the world. Younger children often present their mothers with a gift of some sort, either handmade or bought from a store. Common Mother’s Day gifts in Egypt include flowers, cards, and شوكولاتة (šūkūlātah), or “chocolate.” Grown children are encouraged to go and visit their mother on this day, sometimes with gifts and other times just to catch up. 

It’s not uncommon for schools to hold a special إحتفال (ʾiḥtifal), or “celebration,” to honor mothers. During these events, the children perform songs dedicated to the topic of mothers.

But the celebration doesn’t end with one’s own أم (ʾum), or “mother”! It’s common for children to give cards or other gifts to their female teachers or other prominent female figures in their lives. In addition, some people choose to brighten the day for those women who either don’t have children or whose children have neglected them. They do this by visiting their homes and giving gifts, just like they would for their own mother. 

Because of the focus on gift-giving, the streets of Egypt—and, in fact, those of most Middle Eastern countries—are filled with flower boutiques, confectionery shops, and other places where you can go to purchase nice gifts for your mother. 

3. From Idea to Implementation: The Backstory

As mentioned, Egyptian Mother’s Day was first introduced by the journalist Mustafa Amin but was largely rejected for over a decade. Do you know what prompted people to begin taking it seriously? 

Not too long after the publishing of his book Smiling America, Mustafa Amin heard a real-life story of a إبن (ʾibn), or “son,” who left his devoted mother all alone and rarely visited after getting married. The mother’s heart was completely broken because she had given everything for him. Saddened by the story, Amin worked even harder to popularize his idea of Mother’s Day. Because he was so driven, he was able to change people’s minds and the holiday was implemented in 1956.

→ Interested in diving deeper into Egyptian history and culture? Then check out our lesson on the Top 5 Pop Culture Things/Icons You Need to Know About Egypt.

4. Essential Mother’s Day Vocabulary

Whether you’re trying to impress an Arabic-speaking mother-in-law or just want to add some new words to your arsonal, here’s some Arabic Mother’s Day vocabulary you should memorize!

• عشاء (ʿašāʾ) – “dinner” [noun, masculine]
• الأحد (al-ʾaḥad) – “Sunday” [noun, masculine]
• ابنه (ibnah) – “daughter” [noun, feminine]
• إبن (ʾibn) – “son” [noun, masculine]
• وردة (warda) – “rose” [noun, feminine]
• شوكولاتة (šūkūlātah) – “chocolate” [noun, feminine]
• يحب (yuḥib) – “love” [verb, masculine]
• أم (ʾum) – “mother” [noun, feminine]
• هدية (hedeyyah) – “present” [noun, feminine]
• عيد الأم (ʿiyd al-ʾum) – “Mother’s Day” [noun, masculine]
• يحتفل (yaḥtafil) – “celebrate” [verb]
• حب (ḥub) – “love” [noun, masculine]
• فطور في السرير (fuṭūr fī al-sarīr) – “breakfast in bed” [phrase, masculine]
• كارت عيد الأم (kārt ʿīd al-ʾum) – “Mother’s Day greeting card” [noun, masculine]
• إحتفال (ʾiḥtifal) – “celebration” [noun, masculine]

To hear and practice the pronunciation of each word, please visit our Mother’s Day vocabulary list! 

Final Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed learning about Arab Mother’s Day traditions and the history behind this worldwide-famous holiday. How do you celebrate Mother’s Day? 

If you would like to continue delving into Arab culture and holidays, we recommend the following pages on ArabicPod101.com:

• Islamic Holidays: Observing the Day of Arafah
• Remembering the June 30 Uprising in Egypt
• 14 Unique and Untranslatable Arabic Words and Expressions
• Life Event Messages: Happy Birthday in Arabic & Beyond
• UAE Etiquette: Body Language in Arab Culture

Whether you have an Arabic-speaking mother-in-law you need to impress or you just enjoy learning about languages and cultures, know that ArabicPod101.com can help you reach your goals. On our website, you’ll find tons of fun and useful lessons, vocabulary lists, and blog posts just like this one. Create your free lifetime account today and start learning Arabic like never before!

Arabic is a language of learning and a language of the learned. 

For centuries, Modern Standard Arabic has been used by the greatest thinkers of the Middle East and North Africa to write novels, essays, plays, and speeches of the highest quality. 

When you have a language with such a powerful literary history as Arabic at your fingertips, you want your own Arabic to measure up. But it can be a little difficult if you’re only starting out. In fact, it can be difficult even if you’ve been working on Arabic for a while!

Arabic quotes and sayings can be a great way to remedy this, providing you with cultural insight and more opportunities for growth. The ones we’ve compiled here are ideal for more formal situations, where you need to borrow someone else’s words to spice up your own. Many of them come from famous people, some are translations of well-known foreign quotes, and others are as old as the language itself.

Table of Contents

1. Quotes About Success
2. Quotes About Life
3. Quotes About Happiness
4. Quotes About Patience
5. Quotes About Family
6. Quotes About Friendship
7. Quotes About Food
8. Quotes About Health
9. Quotes About Language Learning
10. Conclusion

1. Quotes About Success

We’ll start our list with a couple of quotes in Arabic about being successful. These actually speak for themselves without using much flowery language. 

الأَفعالُ أَبلَغُ مِن الأَقوَال.
al-ʾafʿalu ʾablaġu min al-ʾaqwal.
“Promises should be backed by actions.”

This is a classic quote of leadership, and it’s well-known all across the Arab world. In more colloquial English, this would be the equivalent of: “Actions speak louder than words.”

إنَّ مَفاتيحَ الأمورِ العَزائِم.
ʾinna mafātīḥa al-ʾumūri al-ʿazāʾim.
“The key to all things is determination.”

In this quote, the word mafātīḥ literally means “keys.” As you can see, the metaphor holds up in both English and Arabic. Another useful word is ʾumūr, meaning “matters” and coming from the root ‘-m-r (having to do with commanding or instructing).

→ See even more success quotes in Arabic on our website!

2. Quotes About Life

The following Arabic quotes about life shed light on important truths concerning the world we live in. 

الإسكافي حافي و الحايِك عِريَان.
al-ʾiskāfī ḥāfī wa al-ḥāyik ʿiryan.
“The shoemaker is barefoot and the weaver is naked.”

This quote exists in many languages, even though the English version “the shoemaker’s children go barefoot” isn’t used very often. It’s used to describe a situation where someone doesn’t pay attention to the things nearest them. It’s understandable, though—who wants to work all day at a workbench and then come home to make shoes again in their free time? 

عُصفورٌ في اليَد خَيرٌ مِن عَشَرَة عَلى الشَجَرَة.
ʿuṣfūrun fī al-yad ḫaīrun min ʿašarah ʿalā al-šaǧarah.
“A bird in your hand is better than ten on the tree.”

This quote is pretty similar to its English equivalent: “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.” The minor difference is in the number of birds.

تَجري الرِياحُ بِما لا تَشتَهي السُفُن.
taǧrī al-riīāḥu bimā lā taštahī al-sufun.
“Winds blow counter to what ships want.”

The word rih (“wind”) is an ancient Semitic word with cognates in both Hebrew and Aramaic. Appropriately, this quote is attributed to Al-Mutanabbi (المتنبي), an enormously famous and successful tenth-century poet who lived in what is now Iraq. The quote basically means that you can’t always get what you want.

3. Quotes About Happiness

Feeling down? Read through these two Arabic quotes about joy and happiness. 

وَمَن يَتَهَيَّب صُعودَ الجِبال يَعِش أَبَدَ الدَهرِ بَيْنَ الحُفَرِ.
waman yatahayyab ṣuʿūda al-ǧibal- yaʿiš ʾabada al-dahri bayna al-ḥufari.
“He who is scared of climbing mountains lives among hills forever.”

This quote means that if you never challenge yourself, you never expand your own horizons. By never leaving your hills, you never get to discover the beauty of the mountains.

اِتَّقِ شَرَّ الحَليمِ إذا غَضِب.
ittaqi šarra al-ḥalīmi ʾiḏā ġaḍib.
“Beware the level-headed (calm/patient) person if they get angry.”

This quote is useful advice, but if you say it when you get angry, you’ll come off as pretty threatening—it’s better to just turn the other cheek.

→ Do you know how to talk about getting angry in Arabic? ArabicPod101.com has you covered.

4. Quotes About Patience

Here are a couple of Arabic quotes on patience that shed light on the benefits of waiting with a calm attitude. 

إن غَداً لِناظِرِهِ قَريب.
ʾinna ġadan lināẓirihi qarīb.
“Tomorrow is nearby if one has patience.”

The word “patience” doesn’t actually appear in this quote; instead, it means something like “tomorrow is in sight.” Use this quote at the end of a long day when you’re nearly finished with what you have to do.

→ How well do you know how to talk about time in Arabic?

اِصبِر تَنُل.
iṣbir tanul.
“Be patient (and you’ll reach your goal).”

On the surface, these two words are just “have patience.” However, this is actually a well-known set phrase of a quote that can be found on tons of Arabic Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media posts. 

5. Quotes About Family

Family is extremely important in Arab culture, and the relationship between parents and children is often much more conservative than what’s expected in the West. Check out these Arabic quotes about family to gain some cultural perspective on the topic!

ابنك هو وزغير ربّيه وهو وكبير خاويه
Ibnak hwa zghir rabih, whwa kbir khaawih.
“Discipline your son when he’s young, and be his friend when he grows up.”

This quote reflects the perspective of many parents. You should guide and correct your child, but when they become an adult, you can treat them as equals.

طب الجرة ع تمّها بتطلع البنت لإمّها
Tob aljara eala tamha, btitlaea lbint la’imha.
“Turn over the jar, and the daughter comes out like her mother.”

In English, we tend to say “like father, like son,” but this quote from Egypt gets the same meaning across when used for women. 

→ You can find more quotes about family on ArabicPod101.com!

6. Quotes About Friendship

Friends are one of life’s greatest joys and necessities. Read these Arabic quotes about friendship to see how friends are perceived in Arab culture.

إذا كان حبيبك عسل ما تلحسوش كله
Idha kan habibak easal matlahsush kolo.
“Even if friends are honey, don’t lick them all up.”

This is a nice twist on classic sentiments about how friends are valuable/golden/etc. Even if that’s the case, don’t take advantage of your friends—if you do, you’ll have no “honey” left!

المشي مع صديق في الظلام أفضل من المشي وحيداً في الضوء. 
Almashyo maea sadiqi fi dhalam afdali min almashyi wahidan fi daw’.
“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”

This poetic quote shows us that friends are valuable in dangerous or worrisome situations. In addition, even during happy times, it’s always better to have a friend by your side than to be alone.

→ This just scratches the surface of what Arab culture says about friendship. Learn more friendship quotes with us!

7. Quotes About Food

Who doesn’t love to sit down and enjoy some good food now and then? Here are a couple of unique Arabic quotes that touch on the topic of food.

أَقلِل طَعامَك تَجِد مَنامَك.
ʾaqlil ṭaʿāmak taǧid manāmak.
“Eat less food and you’ll get more sleep.”

You might be a little surprised to see this quote, as stereotypes would certainly dictate that you eat as much delicious Arab food as possible. However, everyone knows it’s rough to sleep on a full stomach: life needs balance.

ما تقول فول لَيْصير بِالمَكيُول.
mā tqūl fūl layṣīr bilmakyūl.
“Don’t say ‘beans’ until they are on the measuring scale.”

In this vegetarian alternative to “don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched,” you’re once again at a marketplace. Imagine somebody asks “What are you buying?” Even if you fully intend to buy fawal (“beans”), you don’t actually have any beans until they’re being measured out to you. 

8. Quotes About Health

One should always prioritize their health, as good health is mandatory in completing other important goals. 

الصِحَّة تاجٌ عَلى رُؤوس الأَصِحّاء لا يَراهُ إلّا المَرضى.
al-ṣiḥḥah tāǧun ʿalā ruʾūs al-ʾaṣiḥḥāʾ lā yarāhu ʾillā al-marḍā.
“Good health is a crown worn by the healthy that only the ill can see.”

We normally think about being healthy as the default state, but from the perspective of a sick person, health is as far away as being a king seems to a poor person.

اِللي عَلى راسُه بَطحَة يِحَسِّس عَليها.
illī ʿalā rāsuh baṭḥah yiḥassis ʿalīhā.
“Whoever has a head-wound keeps feeling it.”

Hopefully you haven’t got any head-wounds to verify whether this quote is true or not! This somewhat gruesome quote is attributed to Egyptian Arabic, so you may not run into it in other countries. Imagine that you’ve got a bunch of soldiers lined up and you want to test who is the toughest. Well, if one of them has a wound, they’ll probably keep inadvertently cradling it. For this reason, the quote means: “A guilty person always gives themself away.”

9. Quotes About Language Learning

To close, here are three quotes about language learning. Successfully learning a language is a serious challenge that can teach you about life, so you’ll find that these are also pretty inspiring quotes in general.

لُغَةٌ جَديدَة هِيَ حَياةٌ جَديدَة. 
luġaẗun ǧadīdah hiya ḥaīāẗun ǧadīdah.
“A new language is a new life.”

الرَجُل اَلَّذي يَعرِف لُغَتَيْن يُساوِي رَجُلَين. 
al-raǧul allaḏī yaʿrif luġatayn yusāwi raǧulaīn.
“A man that knows two languages is as good as two men.”

مَعرِفَةُ اللُغات مَدخَل إلى الحِكمَة. 
maʿrifaẗu al-luġāt madḫal ʾilā al-ḥikmah.
“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.”

→ Want more? We have you covered with our list of ten language-learning quotes in Arabic!

10. Conclusion

You can’t really grasp the entirety of Arabic literary culture through just a handful of quotes—but you can get a nice glance of the surface. 

In choosing to learn Arabic, you’ve decided to go beyond what a lot of people are willing to do, and the reward for that is pretty hefty.

Now, as for the rest of the language…

Several of these quotes come directly from ArabicPod101 lessons, and that’s not all the site has to offer. With articles, videos, and the famous podcast, you’ll be well-equipped to build the foundations you need to master the Arabic language. 

Which Arabic quote was your favorite, and why? Let us (and your fellow Arabic-learners) know in the comments!

“You’re learning Arabic? Wow, I could never do that!”

You’ve probably heard that sentiment, or something like it, dozens of times. Or perhaps you’ve become intimidated hearing it said to other people. 

For English-speakers, Arabic has a reputation for being an incredibly tough language to learn. Nobody offers Arabic classes in middle school, and nobody talks about picking up Arabic from watching cartoons.

But does Arabic deserve such a reputation? Is Arabic hard to learn? Could it be that there’s more to a language than its perceived difficulty? Let’s find out!

Table of Contents

1. Is Arabic Really the Hardest Language?
2. Why Arabic is Hard to Learn
3. Why Arabic is Easier Than You Think
4. What Every New Arabic Learner Should Know
5. How to Start Learning Arabic
6. What ArabicPod101 Can Do for You
7. Conclusion

1. Is Arabic Really the Hardest Language?

The United States government seems to think so.

The Department of State in the U.S. has spent decades teaching languages to people who want to go abroad and serve in the military or as part of the diplomatic corps. According to them, it takes the average motivated learner about eighty-eight weeks of full-time study to become proficient in Modern Standard Arabic.

That’s on the same level as Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean—languages which are also famous for not being a walk in the park.

And when you consider that you might not be quite as motivated as a future diplomat, nor have the resources available to you to study full-time, you might start to get a little worried about your chances.

There’s one more thing that should give you pause. Think about how many Arabic language classes there are available to you, compared to language classes for other, “easier” languages. If Arabic were easier, wouldn’t more people be studying it?

But wait—if Arabic is so hard, how come it’s one of the most-spoken languages on the planet? How come you can go to a mosque in practically any city in the world and find people who can comfortably explain what Classical Arabic scripture means?

As it turns out, the Arabic language is hard in some areas, but it has some easy parts too, which balance out the load. 

2. Why Arabic is Hard to Learn

First, though, some details on why Arabic has its reputation.

The first impression that most people have is that Arabic sounds hard. For people used to the consonant-vowel rhythm of Spanish or Japanese, the numerous consonant clusters and rare sounds in Arabic can cause learning difficulty.

Arabic has some “pharyngeal” consonants that are literally made by constricting the throat. Now, it’s important to note that there’s nothing inherently difficult about sounds made from the throat—little children who grow up speaking Arabic do it all the time.

But you probably aren’t used to it if you grew up with a European or East Asian linguistic background (though Danish does actually have some pharyngeal sounds). That means it takes some serious conditioning to make these sounds in isolation, and even more to speak fluently with these sounds in the middle of words.

Another thing that makes the Arabic language hard to learn is the case system.

Cases are word endings that give additional information about which words in the sentence are the subjects, objects, and direct objects. This information is invisible in English, but it’s clear in languages with cases.

For instance, look at these simple sentences:

“The house is hot.”
البَيْتُ جَميل.
al-baytu ǧamīl.

“I entered the house now.”
دَخَلتُ البَيتَ الآن.
daḫaltu al-bayta al-ʾān.

As you can see, the word البيت (al-bayt), meaning “house,” changes in the second sentence because it’s the direct object, as opposed to the first sentence where it was the subject. Modern Standard Arabic-learners have to remember these changes for every noun and adjective—and for both genders!

If all of this has been putting you off, don’t run away just yet. It’s not all bad news when it comes to learning Arabic! 

3. Why Arabic is Easier Than You Think

Fortunately, there are definitely some parts of Arabic that are easier to learn than others.

Chief among these is probably the loanwords. In today’s Arabic-speaking world, there’s nobody going around saying that you absolutely must use pure Arabic vocabulary dating back centuries. Take a look at any of the Arabic vocabulary lists floating around, and you’ll see plenty of loanwords, like al-intarnet for “Internet.”

There are also dozens upon dozens of Arabic words that you already know, thanks to language transfer happening in the opposite direction.

Words like سبانخ (sabanekh), or “spinach,” and مطرح (matrah), or “mattress,” have changed over the centuries, but they’re just a few examples of the rich vocabulary brought to Europe from the Middle East.

Another pretty cool thing about learning Arabic is the triliteral root system. Most everybody who’s thought about learning Arabic has heard of how words tend to be formed with three (sometimes up to four or five) consonants, which then stay consistent as vowels and consonants are added in-between the root letters to make other words.

It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you fully understand the system, you’ll see that there’s actually a lot of value in it.

Take a word like ‘-l-m, which has to do with “knowing.” You could learn the words ‘alima (“to know”) and ‘allama (“to teach”) as separate words, but that might be pretty confusing.

However, the consonant being doubled is actually a pattern (called the second form), and it refers to causation and verb transitivity. Teaching is “causing to know,” and that pattern will hold true for tons of other Arabic verbs! 

4. What Every New Arabic Learner Should Know

The big question for most Arabic learners is “MSA or dialect?”

That’s because there are many, many articles out there with strong opinions on one side of the debate or the other.

People just learning Arabic should be aware of the fact that Modern Standard Arabic isn’t used day-to-day in Arabic-speaking countries. It’s considered the formal language appropriate for writing and news broadcasts, not for chatting with others.

On the other hand, it’s tough to find good, comprehensive resources for the dialects of Arabic that are actually spoken everywhere in the Middle East and North Africa.

For that reason, ArabicPod101 focuses on both Modern Standard Arabic and spoken dialects of Arabic. This allows you to have a strong base, but also be able to communicate with locals in a natural spoken dialect.

MSA is much more difficult than any dialect, by the way. A lot of grammatical features (such as the cases) have been simplified considerably in actual spoken dialects.

You won’t need to actually speak or write MSA unless you find yourself taking a job in Arabic media, or if you really want to make an impression of formality.

So don’t worry about learning how to produce the complexities of MSA that you see. You’ve just got to be able to understand them. 

5. How to Start Learning Arabic

Given the difficult sounds that exist in the Arabic language, you should definitely focus on pronunciation first.

If you can’t correctly hear and produce each sound, then you’ll go through your whole Arabic career with two big problems—you’ll have a heavy accent and you’ll have a really hard time telling similar words apart.

Next, use a good course like ArabicPod101 to guide you through the process of slowly building up your vocabulary and learning to understand the nuances of grammar.

At the same time, make sure to listen to a lot of Arabic through kids’ shows and news broadcasts. It’s totally fine if you don’t understand everything at first, because you’ll notice yourself starting to understand more and more over time. 

6. What ArabicPod101 Can Do for You

ArabicPod101 has a huge library of content in excellent MSA. A typical lesson breaks down a conversational topic and introduces a new grammar point as well as a little bit of new vocabulary.

In the supplemental materials, you’ll see related vocabulary with a romanization and a recording of a native speaker pronouncing the word. Once you’ve created an account, you can add these to your flashcards and review them at any time.

This way, when you come across a troublesome word in your daily Arabic study, you can look it up on ArabicPod101 and see if there’s an article or podcast episode about it for you to review.

By the way, there’s a great resource you can take advantage of right now: the ArabicPod101 YouTube channel! Of particular value are the listening comprehension videos, where you can follow along with English, Arabic, and romanized subtitles. 

→ Have a look at our list of Simple Strategies for Learning Comfortably at Home and Habits for Highly Effective Language-Learners! 

7. Conclusion

In the end, you’ll find that thinking of Arabic as easy or hard has to do with perspective.

Languages aren’t really learned. They’re acquired.

Sure, a language like Modern Standard Arabic, with its relatively artificial grammar, does have some elements that need to be “learned,” but you can also just lay back and let the language come to you.

Languages are only “easy” or “hard” when you put a time limit on yourself to try learning them. If you want to be speaking Arabic fluently within six months, you’ll find it much harder than if you just enjoy your progress and keep your expectations managed.

And if you have the help of a great learning aid like ArabicPod101, you’ll be well-equipped to make that a fun-filled journey. 

What things in Arabic do you struggle with the most? Which parts are easier for you? Let us, and your fellow Arabic-learners, know in the comments!

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to speak flawless Arabic?

It’s a language that flummoxes students around the world daily. Even in Arabic-speaking countries, people are divided on what’s really “correct” and “proper” Arabic.

The truth is, you really don’t have to speak Arabic by the book in order to show your respect for the cultures and languages of Arab people. A little really does go a long way!

In this article, you’ll see some of the most common mistakes Arabic speakers make when learning the language, as well as the best ways to overcome them.

Table of Contents

1. Pronunciation
2. Vocabulary Mistakes
3. Word Order Mistakes
4. Arabic Grammar Mistakes
5. Uniquely Arabic Mistakes
6. The Biggest Mistake
7. Conclusion

1. Pronunciation

Arabic pronunciation involves trying to get your tongue and mouth to do a lot of things they probably aren’t used to. For that reason, a lot of learners end up imperfectly tackling Arabic pronunciation.

One of the classic giveaways of a heavy foreign accent in Arabic is the vowels.

Modern Standard Arabic has just three vowels: /i/ as in “see,” /u/ as in “you,” and /a/ as in “father.” 

You’ll also need to pay attention to long and short vowels. In English, “long” and “short” mean an actual change in the vowel sound, but in MSA, it’s literally a vowel that’s held longer or shorter like a musical note. This is a matter of rhythm in the word and in the sentence, so be sure to listen to a lot of Arabic content to get comfortable with the intonation.

Vowels are probably the biggest giveaway, but ask any learner what the hard sounds are in Arabic, and they’ll answer “consonants.” Arabic has whole groups of consonants that are totally absent in most European and Asian languages, meaning that no matter how many other languages you speak, Arabic is probably going to challenge you with its sounds.

The hardest one for most speakers is ع, written as “3” in a lot of unofficial transcription systems because of the Arabic letter’s similarity to the digit. Most sounds in most languages are made with the tongue maneuvering around and tapping the roof of the mouth or otherwise shaping the airflow.

The  ع, by contrast, is made by bringing the back of the tongue as far back as possible. In all honesty, it’ll be uncomfortable when you first start doing it, but the more reading and speaking aloud you do, the more natural it will feel.

2. Vocabulary Mistakes

Every language has confusing pairs of words that make learners hem and haw over the right one to use, and this is the type of mistake Arabic-learners need to be cautious of.

In Arabic, these word pairs unfortunately pop up quite frequently. This is especially true if you’re just learning from the written word instead of from audio. You know, the whole vowel-marking thing? Here’s a couple of examples:

الكِليَة  (al-kilyah) – “kidney”
الكُلِّيَّة  (al-kulliyyah) – “college”

السُكَّر  (al-sukkar) – “diabetes,” “surgot”
السُكر  (al-sukr) – “drunken stupor”

تَوَابِل  (tawabil) – “spice”
تَبَوُّل  (tabawwul) – “urination”

Although the triliteral root system does let you easily learn related words, when unrelated words come up that happen to share the same consonants, they really mess with your memory!

The solution here is to listen to tons of Arabic audio. A word like al-koliya is going to come up a lot earlier than al-kilya in your learning, especially if you follow podcasts like ArabicPod101. 

If you can connect the written word in your reading exercises to the spoken word from your listening, you’ll avoid confusing them because of a lack of vowel diacritics. Thankfully, almost all of our content on ArabicPod101.com has a vowelled version in case you’re unsure of how a word is pronounced.

Other typical vocabulary mistakes stem from the fact that Arabic makes distinctions that other languages might not. Take the simple conjugation for “and” for example.

وَ (wa) is the word for “and” when it connects two clauses or verbs:

أبي مُدَرِّسٌ و أمّي رَبَّةُ بَيْت.
ʾabī mudarrisun wa ʾummī rabbatu bait.
“My father is a teacher and my mother is a stay-at-home mom.”

تُمَّ (ṯumma) can also be translated as “and,” but it connects two actions in a sequence!

أَكَلتٌ ثُمَّ شَرِبتُ.
ʾakaltun ṯumma šaribtu.
“She ate first and then she drank.”

You can think of translating fa as “and then…” Before you get more advanced in Arabic, it’s totally normal to be translating things in your head. As long as you can think in an Arabic sentence structure, you can compose your sentences in English first.

3. Word Order Mistakes

Another type of mistake in Arabic to watch out for is using incorrect word order. For some people, adjusting to a different word order is a cinch; for others, a different word order ties their brain in knots from the get-go.

Prescriptively speaking, the verb always comes first in an Arabic sentence. However, as you watch more and more videos and TV programs in MSA, you’ll see that they occasionally switch the word order around to add emphasis to a certain part of the sentence.

يَذهَبُ اِبراهيم إلى السوق.
yaḏhabu ʾIbrāhīmu ʾila s-sūq.
“Ibrahim goes to the market.”

Note how the verb ذَهَبَ (ḏahaba), meaning “to go,” is conjugated and placed at the beginning of the sentence. In some European languages, placing the verb before the subject is a marker of a question. Not so in Arabic! 

4. Arabic Grammar Mistakes

The most common mistake that even advanced students make in Arabic is failing to correctly make the verb, adjective, and noun agree in a sentence.

So, for instance, a student might write:

مِحوَرُ الشِعر هِيَ الروح. X
miḥwaru al-šiʿr hiya al-rūḥ. X
“The focus of poetry is the soul.” X

When it should actually be:

مِحوَرُ الشِعر هُوَ الروح.
miḥwaru al-šiʿr huwa al-rūḥ.
“The focus of poetry is the soul.”

Modern Standard Arabic has a lot of rules that don’t show up in any of the colloquial dialects that are spoken day-to-day. For that reason, tons of people in Arabic-speaking countries tend to be more comfortable writing in English or French than MSA! A lot of native speakers, for instance, might make mistakes with the dual:

لَدَيَّ أُختان.
ladayya ʾuḫtān.
“I have two sisters.”

لَدَيَّ ثَلاثُ أَخَوَات.
ladayya ṯalāṯu ʾaḫawat.
“I have three sisters.”

Lots of learners end up just using the plural form for two things without thinking. After all, the dual as a grammatical feature is relatively rare in the world’s languages. 

5. Uniquely Arabic Mistakes

Up until this point, we’ve been discussing things that might apply to every language in the world. Plenty of languages have hard grammar and pronunciation, after all!

But there are a couple of mistakes that pretty much only Arabic-learners tend to make.

Like the plural forms of words—in Arabic, you kind of just have to memorize them. There are so many exceptions!

Also, numbers tend to trip a lot of people up. The number system in Arabic is beautifully complex (if you’re into that sort of thing), but so complicated that most native speakers tend to ignore its intricacies.

And with colloquial varieties of Arabic spoken in dozens of countries, you’ll often find yourself misunderstood if you use a word from one dialect with speakers of another. You could spend a lifetime learning all the little subtleties of the lexicon, like how دولاب (dulab) means “closet” in Egypt but means “wheel” in most other dialects.

Some people might suggest that you try to “speak Egyptian,” as many people understand Egyptian slang words, but the best way to avoid confusion is to use terms that are as close to MSA as possible if you don’t know the local term.

6. The Biggest Mistake

The biggest mistake is perfectionism. As they say, perfect is the enemy of good enough.

Tons of Arabic students end up letting their hard-earned knowledge slip away for fear of offending others.

Suppose you even end up taking the plunge and staying in an Arabic-speaking country for awhile with the goal of pushing yourself into speaking. If you’re anxious about speaking incorrectly, you’re probably going to end up just using English with the internationally minded local community in coffee shops and hip restaurants.

But that isn’t going to improve your Arabic—it’s going to actively harm it.

The more you actually put yourself out there and speak Arabic with others, the more you’ll learn. Sure, you’ll make mistakes from time to time, but everybody does. 

In fact, since most people tend to not be that comfortable with spoken MSA, the fact that you can speak it correctly—even some of the time—is going to be quite impressive! 

7. Conclusion

One of the best ways to avoid being embarrassed about making mistakes is to use your free time to get as prepared as possible.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be a hard slog. Just reading about and seeing the examples in this article is a big step on that path to high-quality Arabic.

And when you have a great all-in-one resource at your fingertips, like ArabicPod101, with audio lessons, vocabulary lists, and flashcards, you’ll be able to target your studying.

Try it out now and see for yourself how good your Arabic can become!

Before you go, we would love to hear from you in the comments. What Arabic mistakes do you struggle with the most?

You can learn quite a bit of a language through questions.

Whether you’re traveling or hanging out in your hometown, any conversation you have with a native speaker in Arabic is going to involve a little bit of Q-and-A.

In fact, this is especially true for Arabic, since it’s a language not as commonly learned by foreigners. People are going to be rather curious about you as, in all likelihood, you’re going to be the first Arabic-speaking foreigner they’ve ever met.

Check out these common Arabic questions and answers, so that you have a leg up when the conversation starts!

Table of Contents

1. What’s your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. Do you speak Arabic?
4. How long have you been studying Arabic?
5. Have you been to ___?
6. Can you speak our dialect?
7. Do you like the food?
8. What are you doing?
9. How is your family?
10. How much is it?
11. Conclusion

1. What’s your name?

If you make a friend in Arabic, you’ll definitely need to be able to ask for their name!

Talking to a man:

ما اسمُكَ؟
masmuka?
“What’s your name?”

Talking to a woman:

ما اسمُكِ؟
masmuki?
“What’s your name?”

To answer, simply say ʾismī followed by your name. You’ve successfully introduced yourself in Arabic!

2. Where are you from?

Talking to a man:

 من أين أنت؟
min ayna anta?
“Where are you from?”

Talking to a woman:

من أين أنت؟
min ayna anti?
“Where are you from?”

This may be one of your first introductions to the complexities of grammatical gender in Arabic. Fortunately, this is a pretty easy one to deal with!

Literally, you’re saying “From where you?” The last word, “you,” changes its vowel from ‘anta to ‘anti depending on whether you’re speaking to a man or woman. 

And although we end the question with “you” in Arabic, we end the answer with the location:

أنا من نيويورك.
ana min New York.
“I’m from New York.”

3. Do you speak Arabic?

Talking to a man:

 هَل تَتَحَدَّث اللُغة العَرَبِيَّة؟
hal tataḥaddaṯ al-luġah al-ʿarabiyyah?
“Do you speak Arabic?”

This question has an interesting grammatical similarity to the English version: that little word hal. It functions as a dummy particle for questions, just like “You speak Arabic,” turns into “Do you speak Arabic?” with the addition of “do.”

Now, the important thing is that you make an effort. You can do a lot better than saying “No, sorry,” in English and walking away!

عَفوَاً، أَنا أَتَكَلَّمُ فَقَط القَليل.
ʿafwan, ʾanā ʾatakallamu faqaṭ al-qalīl.
“Sorry, I only speak a little.”

That should just about cover it if someone happens to come up and ask you this question (it’s rare, but possible!). You should take a glance at this page of the names for languages in Arabic and imagine yourself asking others!

4. How long have you been studying Arabic?

How’s your accent? The better it is, the better you get to feel when you answer this question about your study habits.

Talking to a man:

كَم مَضى لَكَ في دِراسَةِ العَرَبِيَّة؟
kam maḍā laka fī dirāsaẗi al-ʿarabiyyah?
“How long have you been studying Arabic?”

Talking to a woman:

كَم مَضى لَكِ في دِراسَةِ العَرَبِيَّة؟
kam maḍā laki fī dirāsaẗi al-ʿarabiyyah?
“How long have you been studying Arabic?”

Broken down a little more, the structure of this question is “How much time has passed to you in studying Arabic?”

That “to you/me” structure is crucial, since it will also play an important role in the answer.

مَضى لي شَهر.
maḍā lī šahr.
“For one month.”

The answer is pretty much the same structure: “To me one month has passed.”

5. Have you been to ___?

Everybody’s got something in the country they want to show you. Definitely get ready for Arabic questions like this as you travel around!

Talking to a man:

هَل ذَهَبتَ إلى ___مِن قَبل ؟
hal ḏahabta ʾilā ___ min qabl ?
“Have you been to ___ before?”

Talking to a woman:

 هَل ذَهَبتِ إلى ___مِن قَبل؟
hal ḏahabti ʾilā ___ min qabl?
“Have you been to ___ before?”

Pay attention to the word order here. We start with that question tag hal, then immediately we have the verb “you went.” In English, that conjugation has two words, and we split them around the pronoun. In Arabic, the verb contains the pronoun, so it gets accomplished in just one word!

لا، لَم يَسبِق لي أَن ذَهَبتُ إلى ___ مِن قَبل.
lā, lam yasbiq lī ʾan ḏahabtu ʾilā ___ min qabl.
“No, I haven’t been to ___ before.”

Add whatever location is necessary here. Truth be told, you could simply say la, meaning “no,” but it’s more polite to use the full sentence.

6. Can you speak our dialect?

Many foreigners in Arabic classes study Modern Standard Arabic, but the vast majority of people you meet and speak Arabic with are going to strongly prefer speaking in their regional dialect.

Earlier, we discussed the Arabic phrase for “Do you speak Arabic?” but now we’ll learn it in Egyptian and Moroccan Arabic (Darija), two very different yet commonly learned Arabic variants.

Talking to a man:

بِتِتكَلِّم عامِّيَّة؟
bititkallim ʿāmmiyyah?
“Do you speak Egyptian Arabic?”

Talking to a woman:

بِتِتكَلِّمي عامِّيَّة؟
bititkallimi ʿāmmiyyah?
“Do you speak Egyptian Arabic?”

 واش كتعرف دارجة؟
waš ktʿref dāriǧah?
“Do you speak Darija?”

As you can see, the dialects naturally have their own words for a “colloquial variety” that isn’t fusha (MSA).  And even from these examples, you can see that the question is quite different in all three—major respect for taking more on!

7. Do you like the food?

Talking to a man:

هَل أَعجَبَكَ الطَعام؟
hal ʾaʿǧabaka al-ṭaʿām?
“Do you like the food?”

Back to MSA again. People are always going to want to know how you feel about food in Arab countries, especially because it tends to be so different from place to place.

Again, we’re dealing with that grammatical particle hal for asking a yes-no question.

What if you don’t actually like the food that much? As unlikely as that situation is, you should probably have a pleasant and polite reply handy, just in case.

كُلُّ شَيْءٍ لَذيذ!
kullu šayʾin laḏīḏ!
“It’s all delicious!”

أنا لست متعودا مع الطعام 
Ana lasto motaeawidan maea taeam baead.
“I’m not really used to the food yet.”

8. What are you doing?

If you’re young-looking, people are probably going to assume that you’re a student of some sort, even more so in a city with a big and well-known university.

Talking to a man:

هَل أَنتَ طالِب؟
hal ʾanta ṭalib?
“Are you a student?”

Talking to a woman:

هَل أَنتِ طالِبَة؟
hal ʾanti ṭalibah?
“Are you a student?”

Note how easy questions and answers in Arabic like these are. You just have to remember the feminine and masculine forms of the pronoun and noun, but there’s no verb to worry about!

Here’s an example of a question that might require a verb, though: 

Talking to a man:

ماذا تَعمَل؟
māḏā taʿmal?
“What do you do for a living?”

Talking to a woman:

ماذا تَعمَلين؟
māḏā taʿmalīn?
“What do you do for a living?”

However, the grammar in the answer is just as simple as in the first question. Just throw the words into the sentence!

أنا مُصَوِّر.
ʾanā muṣawwir.
“I am a photographer.”

9. How is your family?

In most Arab countries, asking about another person’s family is considered a polite small talk question. Here’s how you do it!

كَيْفَ حالُ عائِلَتِك؟
kayfa ḥalu ʿāʾilatik?
“How is your family?”

Now, what if you happen to know that the person isn’t married, or is married with no children? Trick question. You still ask the same thing. It’s actually not polite to ask about somebody’s spouse unless you know them personally.

No matter what you ask, the response is very likely going to be something like this:

كُلُّ شَيْءٍ بِخَيْر، الحَمدُ لله.
kullu šayʾin biḫayr, al-ḥamdu lillah.
“All well, praise God.”

It’s common knowledge among Arabic speakers that the phrase ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ‎ (al-ḥamdu lillah), or “thanks be to God,” and other religious phrases are used more commonly in Arabic than in English, by both Muslims and Christians, and even when speaking to people who aren’t religious.

10. How much is it?

Wrapping up, we have an extremely useful question for everything from shopping to dining out.

بِكَم هَذا؟
bikam haḏā?
“How much is it?”

Asking for the price in Arabic is dead easy. All you have to do is put the question word “how much,” which is bikam, before the pronoun “it,” and you’re already finished!

بِجُنَيْهَيْن.
biǧunayhayn.
“It’s two pounds.”

Egypt calls their currency pounds as the United Kingdom does. The interesting grammar point here is that we’re not actually saying the sentence “It costs two pounds.” Instead, the literal translation is “with two pounds,” and all that gets expressed in a single Arabic word.

11. Conclusion

If you happen to find someone willing to help you practice Arabic (and thanks to the kindness of Arab people, you will, whether or not you offer to help them with English), you can use these simple Arabic questions and answers as a great jumping-off point for fluency practice.

Record answers that start from just the bare minimum that’s required to not be rude, then try expanding. Start with answers that restate the question, such as the examples in this article, and then move on to answers that hold a dash of your own creativity.

And if you want to get a headstart without a speaking partner, sign on to ArabicPod101.com right now and take a look at our lessons about questions!

Before you go, why not start practicing right away in the comments section? Try answering one or more of these questions in Arabic. We look forward to hearing from you!

Did you know that language is really just patterns?

Even the most complex languages, like Arabic, can be described with a long, long list of rules and patterns.

Of course, we’re talking about multiple research teams working for decades to really tease out all the patterns of a natural language. There are always some unusual things that crop up and extend the research by a couple of years.

Fortunately, the inconsistencies and the exceptions don’t detract from one simple ground truth: to speak Arabic well, you need to master key Arabic sentences and sentence patterns.

That’s one of the best ways to start speaking Arabic quickly, too. Once you have a deep knowledge of a single sentence pattern, you can use that understanding to swap in vocabulary about, well, anything! 

In this article, we’ve prepared a bit of advice and some example patterns for ten different types of very useful Arabic sentences.

Table of Contents

1. Simple Arabic Noun Sentences
2. Describing Words with Adjectives
3. Saying “I Want” in Arabic
4. Saying “I Need” in Arabic
5. Can You Tell Time in Arabic?
6. Would You Kindly…?
7. Comparing Two Things
8. Review: Asking Questions
9. If This, Then That
10. Making “Because” Sentences in Arabic
11. Conclusion

1. Simple Arabic Noun Sentences

First up is the easiest of all, the simple equivalency of two nouns. This Arabic sentence structure is so simple because “to be” is omitted in the present tense in Arabic. This should be quite familiar to anybody who knows a little Russian. 

So in lieu of the verb “to be,” we just put one noun next to the other and call it a day!

• “Today is Saturday.”
  اليَوْم السَبت.
  al-yawm al-sabt.

• “I am a high school teacher.”
  أَنا أُستاذ بِالثانَوِيَّة.
  ʾanā ʾustāḏ bilṯānawiّah.

• “Health is a blessing.”
  الصِحَّةُ بَرَكَة.
  al-ṣiḥḥaẗu barakah.

• “My boss is a nice guy.”
  مُديري رَجُلٌ طَيِّب
  mudīrī raǧulun ṭayyib.

• “This is a textbook from Arabic class.”
  هَذا كِتابٌ مَدرَسِيٌّ مِن دَرس اللُغَةِ العَرَبِيَّة.
  haḏā kitābun madrasiyyun min dars al-luġaẗi al-ʿarabiyyah.

2. Describing Words with Adjectives

Constructing a simple noun-adjective sentence in Arabic couldn’t be easier. You simply put the words in the same order you would in an English sentence. 

The only thing you have to remember for this Arabic sentence construction is that adjectives need to agree with their nouns in number and gender.

• “Wow, this bag is heavy!”
  هَذا الكيسُ ثَقيل!
  haḏā al-kīsu ṯaqīl!

• “The sunset is beautiful.”
  الغُروبُ جَميل.
  al-ġurūbu ǧamīl.

• “Your food is super-tasty!”
  طَعامُكَ لَذيذٌ جِدّاً!
  ṭaʿāmuka laḏīḏun ǧiddan!

• “Your speech yesterday was brilliant.”
  خِطابُكَ البارِحَة كانَ رائِعاً.
  ḫiṭābuka al-bāriḥah kāna rāʾiʿan.

• “I heard the new movie was terrible.”
  سَمِعتُ بِأَنَّ الفيلم الجَديدَ كارِثِيّ.
  samiʿtu biʾanna al-fīlm al-ǧadīda kāriṯiyy.

3. Saying “I Want” in Arabic

As a visitor to an Arabic-speaking country, you’ll definitely get a lot of mileage out of this Arabic sentence pattern. Simply take the verb ُأُريد (ʾurīdu) and add a noun or verb after it.

• “I want that pizza.”
  أُريدُ تِلكَ البيتزا.
  ʾurīdu tilka al-bītzā.

• “I want a cold drink.”
  أُريدُ مَشروباً بارِداً.
  ʾurīdu mašrūban bāridan.

• “I want to go home.”
  أُريدُ أَن أَذهَبَ إلى المَنزِل.
  ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaḏhaba ʾilā al-manzil.

In English, we use a different verb form (“want” / “would like”) to be more polite. In Arabic, the verb doesn’t change, but we add on extra phrases to pad out the sentence with extra politeness markers.

• “Please, I want the book about cats.”
  لَوْ سَمَحت، أُريدُ الكِتابَ المُتَعَلِّق بِالقِطَط.
  law samaḥt, ʾurīdu al-kitāba al-mutaʿalliq bilqiṭaṭ.

• “If you wouldn’t mind, I want another piece of bread.”
  إذا كُنتَ لا تُمانِع، أُريدُ قِطعَةَ خُبزٍ أُخرى.
  ʾiḏā kunta lā tumāniʿ, ʾurīdu qiṭʿaẗa ḫubzin ʾuḫrā.

4. Saying “I Need” in Arabic

أَحْتَاج (ʾaḥtāǧu) is the verb meaning “need” in Arabic, and the sentence pattern is:

ʾaḥtāǧu + ilā + noun

ʾaḥtāǧu means “I need,” ilā  is a preposition meaning “for” or “to,” and then comes the noun of your choice.

• “I need a new laptop.”
  أَحتاجُ إلى حاسوبٍ جَديد.
  ʾaḥtāǧu ʾilā ḥāsūbin ǧadīd.

• “You will need a pencil for the exam.”
  سَوْفَ تَحتاجُ إلى قَلَمٍ رَصاص لِلاِمتِحان.
  sawfa taḥtāǧu ʾilā qalamin raṣāṣ lilimtiḥān.

• “I don’t need anything from the store.”
  لا أَحتاجُ إلى أَيِّ شَيْءٍ مِن المَتجَر.
  lā ʾaḥtāǧu ʾilā ʾayyi šayʾin min al-matǧar.

5. Can You Tell Time in Arabic?

Telling time in Arabic is complex enough to deserve its own article, but as a tourist, you might just need to be able to say the different hours of the day. The context (a bus ride, a business closing, and so on) will make the meaning clear for everyone.

• “It’s four o’clock.”
  الساعَةُ الرابِعَة.
  al-sāʿaẗu al-rābiʿah.

• “The bus arrived at two o’clock in the morning.”
  الباص وَصَل عِندَ الثانِيَةِ صَباحاً.
  al-bāṣ waṣal ʿinda al-ṯāniyaẗi ṣabāḥan.

• “By the time we get home, it will be midnight.”
  بِحُلولِ الوَقتِ الَّذي نَصِلُ فيهِ إلى المَنزِل، سَيَكونُ مُنتَصَفِ اللَيْل.
  biḥulūli al-waqti allaḏī naṣilu fīhi ʾilā al-manzil, sayakūnu muntaṣafi al-layl.

• “He was supposed to leave at three o’clock.”
  كانَ مِن المُفتَرَضِ أَن يُغادِرَ في الساعَةِ الثالِثَة.
  kāna min al-muftaraḍi ʾan yuġādira fī al-sāʿaẗi al-ṯaliṯah.

• “Tonight, I’ll definitely sleep before ten o’clock.”
  اللَيْلَة حَتماً سَوْفَ أَنامُ في الساعَةِ العاشِرَة.
  al-laylah ḥatman sawfa ʾanāmu fī al-sāʿaẗi al-ʿāširah.

→ Do you need to go over the numbers in Arabic again? ArabicPod101 has the perfect blog post for you.

6. Would You Kindly…? 

This Arabic language sentence structure is similar to the polite requests section from earlier, but here we can see how to add verbs in the polite request.

• “Could you please finish your work faster?”
  لَوْ سَمَحت، هَل يُمكِنُكَ أَن تُنهِيَ عَمَلَك بِشَكلٍ أَسرَع؟
  law samaḥt, hal yumkinuka ʾan tunhiya ʿamalak bišaklin ʾasraʿ?

• “Would you mind letting me sit down?”
  هَل يُمكِنُكَ أَن تَسمَحَ لي بِالجُلوس؟
  hal yumkinuka ʾan tasmaḥa lī bilǧulūs?

• “Could you please turn up the air conditioning?”
  هَل يُمكِنُكَ أَن تَرفَعَ دَرَجَةَ تَكيِيف الهَوَاء؟
  hal yumkinuka ʾan tarfaʿa daraǧaẗa takyiīf al-hawaʾ?

• “Excuse me, could you help me reach that box?”
  لَوْ سَمَحت، هَل يُمكِنُكَ أَن تُساعِدَني عَلى الوُصولِ إلى ذاكَ الصُندوق؟
  law samaḥt, hal yumkinuka ʾan tusāʿidanī ʿalā al-wuṣūli ʾilā ḏāka al-ṣundūq?

Just for fun, let’s try a rude request!

• “Sit down and shut up right now!”
  اِجلِس واِغلِق فَمَك الآن!
  iǧlis ūiġliq famak al-ʾān!

7. Comparing Two Things

Similarly to English, in Arabic there are two ways to compare things, depending on whether or not the adjective in question has a commonly used comparative form:

1 – More skillful than…
أَكثَر مَهارَة مِن
ʾakṯar mahārah min…

2 – Bigger than…
أَكبَر مِن
ʾakbar min…

Take a look at the following sentences and observe which ones belong to the first type, and which ones belong to the second.

• “You did better on the exam than I did.”
  كُنتَ أَفضَلَ مِنّي في الاِمتِحان.
  kunta ʾafḍala minnī fī al-imtiḥān.

• “His house is more expensive than mine.”
  مَنزِلُه أَغلى مِن مَنزِلي.
  manziluh ʾaġlā min manzilī.

• “Dubai is hotter than Casablanca.”
  دُبَيّ أَكثَر سُخونَة مِن الدار البَيْضاء.
  dubayy ʾakṯar suḫūnah min al-dār al-bayḍāʾ.

• “The market near my house is dirtier than the market downtown.”
  السوق القَريب مِن مَنزِلي أَكثَر اِتِّساخاً مِن سوق وَسَط المَدينَة.
  al-sūq al-qarīb min manzilī ʾakṯar ittisāḫan min sūq wasaṭ al-madīnah.

• “I can run faster than you can.”
  يُمكِنُني الجَري أَسرَع مِنك.
  yumkinunī al-ǧarī ʾasraʿ mink.

8. Review: Asking Questions 

Before we see the last two sentence patterns (which are a tiny bit more difficult), let’s review the basic concepts we learned earlier—only this time, they’ll be in the form of questions.

• “Is that bag heavy?”
  هَل ذَلِكَ الكيس ثَقيل؟
  hal ḏalika al-kīs ṯaqīl?

• “Do you want water?”
  هَل تُريدُ ماء؟
  hal turīdu māʾ?

• “Do you need help?”
  هَل تَحتاجُ إلى المُساعَدَة؟
  hal taḥtāǧu ʾilā al-musāʿadah?

• “Is his house bigger than yours?”
  هَل مَنزِلُه أَكبَرُ مِن مَنزِلِك؟
  hal manziluh ʾakbaru min manzilik?

• “Is today Wednesday?”
  هَل اليَوْمُ الأَربَعاء؟
  hal al-yawmu al-ʾarbaʿāʾ?

9. If This, Then That

Surprise, it’s time for conditional sentences! This pattern is very regular, so once you learn it once, you know it forever.

• “If you don’t lower the price, I’ll go somewhere else.”
  إذا لَم تُخَفِّض السِعر، سَوْفَ أَذهَبُ إلى مَكانٍ آخَر.
  ʾiḏā lam tuḫaffiḍ al-siʿr, sawfa ʾaḏhabu ʾilā makānin ʾāḫar.

• “If you do that again, I’ll be angry.”
  إذا قُمتَ بِهَذا مَرَّةً أُخرى، سَأَغضَب.
  ʾiḏā qumta bihaḏā marraẗan ʾuḫrā, saʾaġḍab.

• “We can escape if the guard falls asleep.”
  يُمكِنُنا الهَرَب إذا خَلَدَ الحارِس إلى النَوْم.
  yumkinunā al-harab ʾiḏā ḫalada al-ḥāris ʾilā al-nawm.

• “If I buy this camera, I won’t have enough money for rent.”
  إذا اِشتَرَيْتُ هَذِهِ الكاميرا، لَن يَكونَ لَدَيّ المال الكافي لِلإيجار.
  ʾiḏā ištaraytu haḏihi al-kāmīrā, lan yakūna ladayy al-mal- al-kāfī lilʾiīǧār.

• “If I see you tomorrow, I’ll say hello.”
  إذا رَأَيْتُكَ غَداً، سَأُسَلِّمُ عَلَيْك.
  ʾiḏā raʾaytuka ġadan, saʾusallimu ʿalayk.

10. Making “Because” Sentences in Arabic

Let’s go out with a bang for the last one! These two compound Arabic sentence patterns are included because they sound quite advanced, but you really only have to practice them a few times before you remember them. You could be speaking Arabic at this level within a couple of weeks!

• “I was late because I slept in.”
  لَقَد تَأَخَّرتُ لِأَنَّني نِمت.
  laqad taʾaḫḫartu liʾannanī nimt.

• “I need a key because the door is locked.”
  أَحتاجُ إلى مُفتاحٍ لِأَنَّ البابَ مُغلَق.
  ʾaḥtāǧu ʾilā muftāḥin liʾanna al-bāba muġlaq.

• “He had to pay because she didn’t bring any money.”
  لَزَمَ عَلَيْهِ أَن يَدفَعَ لِأَنَّها لَم تُحضِر أَيَّ مال.
  lazama ʿalayhi ʾan yadfaʿa liʾannahā lam tuḥḍir ʾayya mal.

• “She won a prize because her research was excellent.”
  لَقَد فازَت بِجائِزَةٍ لِأَنَّ بَحثَها كانَ مُمتازاً.
  laqad fāzat biǧāʾizaẗin liʾanna baḥṯahā kāna mumtāzan.

11. Conclusion

The best source of Arabic sentence patterns, of course (outside of a grammar book), is real Arabic language.

You can get that right here on ArabicPod101.com!

As you listen to the podcast episodes and read the transcripts, look for these ten sentence patterns as they show up again and again. Consciously marking them in your mind will really seal them into your memory.

Then see if you can find others! Even if you already know all the verbs and nouns in the sentence, think about how they relate to each other in terms of case, number, and gender. That awareness means that you’ll start speaking Arabic correctly without even thinking.

Take the opportunity right now to review this article and learn Arabic sentence patterns; then, see what you can find in real life!

Before you go, let us know in the comments how many of these sentence patterns are new to you. Did our article answer your questions about how to construct Arabic sentences? We look forward to hearing from you!

Can you say anything in Arabic—anything at all?

If you’re on this website, I should hope so! But how accurately can you describe what you see, and even more importantly, what people are doing?

This is a job for adverbs. Adverbs modify verbs and nouns, and in Arabic, you may be surprised how they end up coming together. Knowing just the right adverb in Arabic can take a sentence from okay to amazing, and enhance clarity.

Right here, we have 100 Arabic adverbs just for you. Check them out!

Table of Contents

1. Arabic Adverbs of Time
2. Arabic Adverbs of Place
3. Arabic Adverbs of Manner
4. Arabic Adverbs of Degree
5. Arabic Adverbs for Wishes, Hopes, and Probability
6. Get in Touch with Your Emotions
7. Personality Traits
8. The Interesting Word Kull
9. Conclusion

1. Arabic Adverbs of Time

By far the most common, and therefore the most plentiful, adverbs in any language are the adverbs of time. You need to be able to talk about when things happen, how often things happen, and so on.

1. Now

“Please do it now.”

مِن فَضلِك قُم بِذَلِكَ الآن.

min faḍlik qum biḏalika al-ʾān.

2. Later

“I’ll finish my homework later.”

سَأُنهي وَاجِباتي المَنزِلِيَّةِ لاحِقاً.

saʾunhī waǧibātī al-manziliyyaẗi lāḥiqan.

3. Soon

“Your parents will arrive soon.”

وَالِداك سَيَصِلان قَريباً.

Walidaka sayasilona walidāk sayaṣilān qarīban. 

4. Sometimes

“I sometimes go to sleep after midnight.” 

أَذهَبُ أَحياناً لِلنَوْمِ بَعدَ مُنتَصَفِ اللَيْل.

ʾaḏhabu ʾaḥīānan lilnawmi baʿda muntaṣafi al-layl.

5. Usually

“I usually eat a big breakfast.”

عادَةً ما آكُلُ فُطوراً كَبيراً.

ʿādaẗan mā ʾākulu fuṭūran kabīran.

6. Never

“My dad never becomes angry.”

وَالِدي لا يَغضَبُ أَبَداً.

walidī lā yaġḍabu ʾabadan.

7. Rarely

“I rarely get sick.”

نادِراً ما أَمرَض.

nādiran mā ʾamraḍ.

8. Recently

“David recently bought a new car.”

إشتَرى داوود مُؤَخَّراً سَيَّارَةً جَديدَة.

ʾištarā dāūd muʾuaḫḫaran sayyāraẗan ǧadīdah.

9. Once

“Clap your hands once.”

صَفِّق مَرَّة وَاحِدَة.

ṣaffiq marrah waḥidah.

10. Twice

“Always check your work twice.”

تَحَقَّق مِن عَمَلِكَ مَرَّتَيْن دائِماً.

taḥaqqaq min ʿamalika marratayn dāʾiman.

11. Yesterday

“I was gone yesterday.”

غادَرتُ البارِحَة. 

ġādartu al-bāriḥah. 

12. Today

“I can’t do any more work today.”

لَم أَعُد أَستَطيعُ القِيَامَ بِأَيِّ عَمَلٍ اليَوْم.

lam ʾaʿud ʾastaṭīʿu al-qiyama biʾayyi ʿamalin al-yūm.

13. Constantly

“I feel like I’m constantly cleaning.”

أُحِسُّ بِأَنَّني أُنًظِّفُ بِشَكلٍ مُتَوَاصِل.

 ʾuḥissu biʾannanī ʾunًẓẓifu bišaklin mutawaṣil.

14. Consistently

“She consistently writes terrible books.”

إنَّها تَكتُبُ كُتُباً مُريعَة بِاِستِمرار.

ʾinnahā taktubu kutuban murīʿah biistimrār.

15. Generally

“Generally, I don’t like mushrooms.”

بِشَكلٍ عامّ، أَنا لا أُحِبُّ الفِطر.

bišaklin ʿāmm, ʾanā lā ʾuḥibbu al-fiṭr.

16. Regularly

“I check my email regularly.”

أَتَحَقَّقُ مِن بَريدي الإلِكتروني بِاِنتِظام.

ʾataḥaqqaqu min barīdī al-ʾiliktrūnī biintiẓām.

17. Hourly

“The bell rings hourly.”

يَدُقُّ الجَرَسُ كُلَّ ساعَة.

yaduqqu al-ǧarasu kulla sāʿah.

18. Currently

“We currently do not have any of those in the store.”

لَيْسَ لَدَيْنا حالِياً أَيٌّ مِن تِلكَ في المَتجَر.

laysa ladaynā ḥal-iīan ʾayyun min tilka fī al-matǧar.

19. Already

“I finished my work already.”

أَنهَيْتُ عَمَلي بِالفِعل.

ʾanhaytu ʿamalī bilfiʿl.

20. Since (time)

“I’ve been crying since last night.”

لَقَد كُنتُ أَبكي مُنذُ اللَيْلَةِ الماضِيَة.

laqad kuntu ʾabkī munḏu al-laylaẗi al-māḍiyah.

21. Before

“Before you eat dinner, please wash your hands.”

قَبلَ أَن تَأكُلَ العَشاء، مِن فَضلِك اِغسِل يَدَيْك.

qabla ʾan taʾkula al-ʿašāʾ, min faḍlik iġsil yadayk.

22. After

“After you finish dinner, please clean the table.”

بَعدَ الاِنتِهاء مِن العَشاء، مِن فَضلِك نَظِّف الطاوِلَة.

baʿda al-intihāʾ min al-ʿašāʾ, min faḍlik naẓẓif al-ṭāwilah.

23. Often

“I often see him at work.”

غالِباً ما أَراهُ في العَمَل.

ġal-iban mā ʾarāhu fī al-ʿamal.

24. Early

“Please arrive early to your appointment.” 

يُرجى الوُصول في وَقتٍ مُبَكِّر إلى مَوْعِدِك.

yurǧā al-wuṣūl fī waqtin mubakkir ʾilā mawʿidik.

25. Late

“Why did you get home late?”

لِماذا وَصَلتَ إلى المَنزِلِ مُتَأَخِّراً؟

limāḏā waṣalta ʾilā al-manzili mutaʾaḫḫiran?

26. Daily

“I exercise daily.”

أَتَمَرَّنُ يَوْمِيّاً.

ʾatamarranu yūmiyyan.

27. Weekly

“Do you get paid weekly?”

هَل تَتَقاضى راتِبَك أُسبوعِيّاً؟

 hal tataqāḍā rātibak ʾusbūʿiyyan?

28. Monthly

“The rent is due monthly.”

الإيجار يُدفَعُ شَهرِيّاً.

al-ʾiīǧār yudfaʿu šahriyyan.

29. Annually

“You will be tested annually.”

سَيَتِمُّ اِختِبارُكَ سَنَوِيّاً.

sayatimmu iḫtibāruka sanawiّan.

30. Last year

“Last year was the last year of my education.”

السَنَةُ السابِقَة كانَت آخِرَ سَنَةٍ في دِراسَتي.

sayatimmu al-sanaẗu al-sābiqah kānat ʾāḫira sanaẗin fī dirāsatī.

2. Arabic Adverbs of Place

Arabic can transform prepositional phrases as we know them in English to adverbs of place. In addition, did you know that the words “nowhere” and “everywhere” are also adverbs in Arabic?

31. Under the tree
“The farmer is sleeping under the tree.”

المُزارِع نائِم تَحت الشَجَرَة.

al-muzāriʿ nāʾim taḥt al-šaǧarah.

32. In the house

“The cat is eating in the house.”

القِطَّةُ تَأكُلُ في المَنزِل.

al-qiṭṭaẗu taʾkulu fī al-manzil.

33. At the hospital

“I work at the hospital.”

أَعمَلُ في المُستَشفى.

ʾaʿmalu fī al-mustašfā.

34. On the bed

“I can’t sleep on this bed.”

لا يُمكِنُني النَوْمَ عَلى هَذا السَرير.

lā yumkinunī al-nawma ʿalā haḏā al-sarīr.

35. Under the table

“The cat chased the mouse under the table.”

طارَدَت القِطَّةُ الفأَر تَحت الطاوِلَة.

ṭāradat al-qiṭṭaẗu al-fʾar taḥt al-ṭāwilah.

36. Next to the car

“A young man is standing next to the car.”

هُناكَ شابٌّ يَقِفُ بِجانِبِ السَيَّارَة.

hunāka šābbun yaqifu biǧānibi al-sayyaārah.

37. Here

“You can’t smoke here.”

لا يُمكِنُكَ التَدخين هُنا.

lā yumkinuka al-tadḫīn hunā.

38. Abroad

“How long did you work abroad?”

مُنذ مَتى وأَنتَ تَعمَلُ في الخارِج؟

munḏ matā ūʾanta taʿmalu fī al-ḫāriǧ?

39. Everywhere

“I go everywhere with my brother.”

أَذهَبُ إلى أَيِّ مَكانٍ مَع أَخي.

ʾaḏhabu ʾilā ʾayyi makānin maʿ ʾaḫī.

40. Nowhere

“This road leads nowhere.”

هَذا الطَريق لا يُؤَدّي إلى أَيِّ مَكان.

haḏā al-ṭarīq lā yuʾuaddī ʾilā ʾayyi makān.

41. Anywhere

“I can’t find my glasses anywhere.”

لا يُمكِنُني أَن أَجِدَ نَظّاراتي في أَيِّ مَكان.

lā yumkinunī ʾan ʾaǧida naẓẓārātī fī ʾayyi makān.

3. Arabic Adverbs of Manner

Lots of adverbs in Arabic are made with a noun and the preposition bi. Here are some common ones.

42. Quickly

“Don’t speak quickly!”

لا تَتَكَلَّم بِسُرعَة!

lā tatakallam bisurʿah! 

43. Beautifully

“My wife can dance beautifully.”

زَوْجَتي تَستَطيعُ الرَقص بِجَمال.

zawǧatī tastaṭīʿu al-raqṣ biǧamal-.

44. Carefully

“Sign the form carefully.”

وَقِّع النَموذَج بِحِرص.

waqqiʿ al-namūḏaǧ biḥirṣ.

45. Carelessly

“He carelessly broke the mirror.”

لَقَد كَسَرَ نافِذَتي بِدونِ أَيِّ اِكتِراث.

laqad kasara nāfiḏatī bidūni ʾayyi iktirāṯ.

46. Perfectly

“The work was done perfectly.”

تَمَّ العَمَل تَماماً.

tamma al-ʿamal tamāman.

47. Fluently

“I can speak Arabic fluently.”

يُمكِنُني تَكَلُّم العَرَبِيَّة بِطَلاقَة.

yumkinunī takallum al-ʿarabiyyah biṭalāqah.

48. Quietly

“Speak quietly in the library.”

تَكَلُّم بِهُدوءٍ في المَكتَبَة.

takallum bihudūʾin fī al-maktabah.

49. Loudly

“He talks loudly when he’s afraid.”

إنَّهُ يَتَكَلَّم بِصَوْتٍ عالي عِندَما يَكونُ خائِفاً.

ʾinnahu yatakallam biṣawtin ʿal-ī ʿindamā yakūnu ḫāʾifan.

50. Easily

“We won the game easily.”

لَقَد فازَ بِاللُعبَةِ بِسُهولَة.

laqad fāza billuʿbaẗi bisuhūlah.

51. Like this

“Hold the knife like this.”

اَمسِك السِكّين هَكَذا.

amsik al-sikkīn hakaḏā.

52. Like that

“Don’t dress like that.”

لا تَلبِس هَكَذا.

lā talbis hakaḏā.

53. Fairly

“The money will be distributed fairly.”

سَيَتِمُّ تَوْزيع النُقود بِمُساوَاة.

sayatimmu tawzīʿ al-nuqūd bimusāwah.

54. Roughly

“They play too roughly.”

إنَّهُم يَلعَبونَ بِخُشونَة.

ʾinnahum yalʿabūna biḫušūnah.

4. Arabic Adverbs of Degree

Nearly as important as the adverbs of time, adverbs of degree let you quantify pretty much anything. This includes the world-famous “not,” without which we would all be lost when speaking a foreign language.

55. Very (for adjectives)

“My food is very spicy.”

طَعامي حارُّ جِدّاً.

ṭaʿāmī ḥārru ǧiddan.

56. Not

“My shirt is not white.”

قَميصي لَيْسَ أَبيَضاً.

qamīṣī laysa ʾabyaḍan.

57. A lot (for verbs)

“We work a lot.”

نَعمَلُ كَثيراً.

naʿmalu kaṯīran.

58. More

“Can you make the light more bright?”

هَل يُمكِنُكَ جَعل الضَوْء أَكثَرَ سُطوعاً؟

hal yumkinuka ǧaʿl al-ḍawʾ ʾakṯara suṭūʿan?

59. Less

“I can only eat it if it’s less sweet.”

لا يُمكِنُني أَكلُهُ إلا إذا كان أَقَلَّ حَلاوَة.

lā yumkinunī ʾakluhu ʾilā ʾiḏā kān ʾaqalla ḥalāwah.

60. Extremely

“Planes fly extremely fast.”

الطائِرات تَطير بِسُرعَة خارِقَة. 

al-ṭāʾirāt taṭīr bisurʿah ḫāriqah. 

61. Pretty

“She’s pretty smart.”

إنَّها ذَكِيَّةٌ جِدّاً.

ʾinnahā ḏakiyyaẗun ǧiddan.

62. Well

“I can cook well.”

يُمكِنُني الطَبخَ جَيِّداً.

yumkinunī al-ṭabḫa ǧayyidan.

63. Poorly

“I used to speak Arabic poorly.”

كُنتُ أَتَكَلَّم العَرَبِيَّة بِشَكلٍ رَديء.

kuntu ʾatakallam al-ʿarabiyyah bišaklin radīʾ.

64. Barely

“I barely escaped.”

       بِالكادِ هَرِبت.                                    

bilkādi haribt.

65. Exactly

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

هَذا ما أَعنيهِ بِالتَحديد.

haḏā mā ʾaʿnīhi biltaḥdīd.

66. Approximately

“It’s approximately five kilometers from the city.”

إنَّها تَبعُدُ حَوَالي 5 كيلومِترات مِن المَدينَة.

Inaha tabeodo 5 kilomitratin min almadina.

67. Truly

“You are truly a magnificent chef.”

أَنتَ حَقّاً طَبّاخ رائِع.

ʾanta ḥaqqan ṭabbāḫ rāʾiʿ.

68. At least

“At least try to be here on time.”

عَلى الأَقَل حاوِل أَن تَكونَ هُنا في الميعاد.

ʿalā al-ʾaqal ḥāwil ʾan takūna hunā fī al-mīʿād.

69. Too

“I’m too thirsty to eat bread.”

أَنا عَطشان جِدّاً أن آكُلَ خُبز.

ʾanā ʿaṭšān ǧiddan ʾn ʾākula ḫubz.

70. Mostly

“Air is mostly nitrogen.”

الهَوَاءُ يَتَكَوَّنُ مُعظَمُهُ مِن النيتروجين.

al-hawaʾu yatakawwanu muʿẓamuhu min al-nītrūǧīn.

71. Nearly

“We’re nearly fifty years old.”

عُمرُنا تَقريباً خَمسونَ سَنَة.

ʿumrunā taqrīban ḫamsūna sanah.

72. Somewhat

“I feel somewhat sad.”

أَشعُرُ بِالحُزن إلى حَدٍّ ما.

ʾašʿuru bilḥuzn ʾilā ḥaddin mā.

73. Almost

“That’s almost true.”

هَذا صَحيح تَقريباً.

haḏā ṣaḥīḥ taqrīban.

5. Arabic Adverbs for Wishes, Hopes, and Probability

In Arabic, there are many adverbs and adverbial phrases that have to do with wishes, hopes, and probability. The first example here is even beginning to enter the English of people who have lived for a long time in the Middle East.

74. God willing

“God willing, I will get a promotion.”

سَأَحصُلُ عَلى تَرقِيَةٍ إن شاء الله.

saʾaḥṣulu ʿalā tarqiyaẗin ʾin šāʾ allah.

75. Maybe

“Maybe Dad will come home early.”

رُبَّما سَيَعودُ أَبي إلى المَنزِل مُبَكِّراً.

rubbamā sayaʿūdu ʾabī ʾilā al-manzil mubakkiran.

76. Probably

“The war will probably end soon.”

الحَربُ غالِباً سَتَنتَهي قَريباً.

al-ḥarbu ġal-iban satantahī qarīban.

77. Absolutely

“I will absolutely finish my work on time.”

قَطعاً سَأُنهي عَمَلي في الوَقت المُحَدَّد.

qaṭʿan saʾunhī ʿamalī fī al-waqt al-muḥaddad.

78. Frequently

“I frequently sleep in late.”

كَثيراً ما أَنامُ حَتّى وَقتٍ مُتَأَخِّر.

kaṯīran mā ʾanāmu ḥattā waqtin mutaʾaḫḫir.

79. Sometimes

“I sometimes forget my husband’s name.”

أَنسى أَحيَاناً اِسمَ زَوْجي.

ʾansā ʾaḥyanan isma zawǧī.

80. Always

“The sky will always be blue.”

سَتَكونُ السَماء دائِماً زَرقاء.

satakūnu al-samāʾ dāʾiman zarqāʾ.

81. Never

“My love will never end.”

حُبّي لَن يَنتَهي أَبَداً.

ḥubbī lan yantahī ʾabadan.

82. Actually

“Actually, I don’t want to eat pizza.”

في الوَاقِع، أَنا لا أُريدُ أَن آكُلَ البيتزا.

fī al-waqiʿ, ʾanā lā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾākula al-bītzā.

83. Unfortunately

“I will, unfortunately, be late tomorrow.”

مَع الأَسَف سَأتَأَخَّرُ غَداً.

maʿ al-ʾasaf saʾtaʾaḫḫaru ġadan.

6. Get in Touch with Your Emotions

Whenever you do something while feeling a certain emotion, you can describe what you’re doing with an adverb. 

→For more emotion-related vocabulary, you can check out this list on ArabicPod101.com.

84. Angrily

“I shouted angrily at my cat.”

لَقَد صَرَختُ بِغَضَبٍ إلى قِطَّتي.

laqad ṣaraḫtu biġaḍabin ʾilā qiṭṭatī.

85. Politely

“Ask politely next time.”

اِسأَل بِاِحتِرامٍ في المَرَّةِ المُقبِلَة.

isʾal biiḥtirāmin fī al-marraẗi al-muqbilah.

86. Honestly

“Speak honestly with your family.”

تَكَلَّم بِصِدقٍ مَع عائِلَتِك.

takallam biṣidqin maʿ ʿāʾilatik.

87. Rudely

“They treated me very rudely.”

لَقَد عامَلوني بِوَقاحَة.

laqad ʿāmalūnī biwaqāḥah.

88. Seriously

“We need to discuss this seriously.”

نَحتاجُ إلى أَن نُناقِشَ هَذا بِجِدِّيَّة.

naḥtāǧu ʾilā ʾan nunāqiša haḏā biǧiddiyyah.

89. Irritably

“George answered the phone irritably.”

أَجابَ جورج الهاتِف بِاِنفِعال.

ʾaǧāba ǧūrǧ al-hātif biinfiʿal-.

90. Kindly

“The grandmother smiled kindly at the child.”

لَقَد اِبتَسَمَت الجَدَّة بِعَطفٍ إلى الطِفل.

laqad ibtasamat al-ǧaddah biʿaṭfin ʾilā al-ṭifl.

91. Hungrily

“They were all looking hungrily at my shawarma.”

كانَ الجَميع يَنظُرونَ بِجوعٍ إلى شاوِارمَتي.

kāna al-ǧamīʿ yanẓurūna biǧūʿin ʾilā šāwiārmatī.

92. Nervously

“I always play nervously on my phone.”

أَلعَب دائِماً بِتَوَتُّر عَلى هاتِفي. 

ʾalʿab dāʾiman bitawattur ʿalā hātifī. 

93. Efficiently

“It’s important to do your work efficiently.”

مِن المُهِمِّ القِيَام بِعَمَلِكَ بِفَعالِيَّة.

min al-muhimmi al-qiyam biʿamalika bifaʿal-iyyah.

94. Cleverly

“They cleverly solved the problem.”

لَقَد حَلّوا المُشكِلَةَ بِذَكاء.

laqad ḥallū al-muškilaẗa biḏakāʾ.

7. Personality Traits

Subtly different from emotions are a few core personality traits that affect everything you do, not just what you do when you feel a certain way.

95. Boldly

“She walked boldly toward the enemy.”

مَشَت بِجُرأَة نَحوَ العَدو.

mašat biǧurʾah naḥwa al-ʿadū.

96. Awkwardly

“She danced awkwardly.”

إنَّها تَرقُصُ بِغَرابَة.

ʾinnahā tarquṣu biġarābah.

97. Obediently

“The knight bowed obediently to the king.”

اِنحَنى الفارِس بِطاعَةٍ لِلمَلِك.

inḥanā al-fāris biṭāʿaẗin lilmalik.

98. Attractively

“The woman winked at me attractively.”

المَرأَة غَمَزَت إلَيَّ بِشَكلٍ جَذّاب.

al-marʾah ġamazat ʾilayya bišaklin ǧaḏḏāb.

99. Happily

“We lived happily for fifty years together.”

عِشنا بِسَعادَة لِمُدَّةِ خَمسينَ عاماً مَعاً.

ʿišnā bisaʿādah limuddaẗi ḫamsīna ʿāman maʿan.

8. The Interesting Word Kull

One last adverb here is unique to Arabic and takes a bit to wrap your head around. The word is كُلّ , and it has the meanings of “each,” “every,” and “entire.”

When the noun is indefinite and singular, it means “each.”

“I wake up at five each day.”

أَستَيْقِظُ في الخامِسَة كُلَّ يَوْم.

ʾastayqiẓu fī al-ḫāmisah kulla yawm.

When the noun is definite and singular, it means “entire.”

“I was driving the entire day.”

كُنتُ أَقود اليَوْمَ كُلَّه.

kuntu ʾaqūd al-yawma kullah.

And when you use a definite and plural noun? “Every.”

“I pray every day.”

أُصَلّي كُلَّ يَوْم.

ʾuṣallī kulla yawm.

9. Conclusion

What an accomplishment!

But still, our Arabic adverbs list only scratches the surface. Dive any further into Arabic vocabulary lists and you’ll find dozens, or even hundreds, of additional Arabic adverbs.

How can you learn them all?

It just takes a little time—and some great resources. Head on over to our other articles and blog posts, and see just what else ArabicPod101.com has to offer!

If you have any questions or didn’t quite get something, don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments. We’ll do our best to help you out!