Are you planning a trip to an Arabic-speaking country?

When do you leave?

And how do you say that in Arabic?

Yup, you’ll need to know about telling time in Arabic to get around very well and be on time. 

You wouldn’t believe how many tourists get confused and frustrated at bus stations, taxi stands, airports, and train terminals all over the world simply because they don’t understand how to talk about time in the local language.

That’s pretty surprising, to be honest, because you’d think that time words would be one of the things you would prioritize in a new language. 

But it still always just seems like something to learn later—until your taxi driver is laughing at you because you misheard what time the bus leaves, and now you’re four hours too late for the last bus out of town.

Been there.

So that’s why we’ve put together this article. It includes everything you need to know about asking for the time in Arabic, plus some interesting things you might not have considered before. Also keep in mind that we have an article about how to talk about dates in Arabic—another important topic you’ll want to know for your trip.

Let’s go!

Table of Contents

1. Asking for the Time
2. Talking about Hours
3. Talking about Minutes and Seconds
4. Throughout the Day
5. Time Zones
6. Expressions and Phrases about Time
7. Conclusion

1. Asking for the Time

We don’t have a lot of different ways to ask for the time in English, and in Arabic the same principle holds true. Here are some of the most common phrases for asking about time in Arabic:

• كَم الساعَة؟

 kam al-sāʿah? 

You’re literally asking “How much hour?” This is important, because in Arabic, the question word kam is used to ask for prices:

• كَم الساعَة؟

kam al-sāʿah?

How much is the watch?

Pretty similar, right?

Fortunately, this doesn’t cause a whole lot of confusion. Imagine you’re sitting with a friend and chatting, and it’s getting a little late. If you ask him for the time, he’s not going to think you’re asking about his accessories out of the blue!

To be a little more clear with your words, though, you could also ask:

• كَم الساعَةُ الآن؟

kam al-sāʿaẗu al-ʾān? 

What time is it now?

Al-aan, meaning “now,” is just to eliminate any chance of confusion.

To be a little more polite when asking a stranger, try out this phrase as well:

• الساعَةُ كَم مَعَك؟

 al-sāʿaẗu kam maʿak?

The word for “when” in Arabic is mata, but it works just like in English.

• مَتى سَتَتَخَرَّجُ في الجامِعَة؟

matā satataḫarraǧu fī al-ǧāmiʿah?

 When will you graduate from university?

You can also ask specifically for “what time” certain things are going to happen. This sentence pattern follows the same logic as the others, so we don’t need to see a ton of examples.

• مَتى يُغلِق هَذا المَتجَر؟

matā yuġliq haḏā al-matǧar?

What time does the store close?

2. Talking about Hours

One big difference between talking about the time in Arabic as opposed to other languages is that in Arabic, the ordinal numbers are used to count the hours.

That means you’re literally counting the hours—saying the equivalent of “first hour,” “second hour,” “third hour,” and so on.

Talking about time is one really great way to practice your ordinal numbers. If you’ve forgotten what they look like, here they are now:

English	Arabic	Romanization
one o’clock	الساعَة الوَاحِدَة	al-sāʿah al-waḥidah
two o’clock	الساعَة الثانِيَة	al-sāʿah al-ṯāniyah
three o’clock	الساعَة الثالِثَة	al-sāʿah al-ṯaliṯah
four o’clock	الساعَة الرابِعَة	al-sāʿah al-rābiʿah
five o’clock	الساعَة الخامِسَة	al-sāʿah al-ḫāmisah
six o’clock	الساعَة السادِسَة	al-sāʿah al-sādisah
seven o’clock	الساعَة السابِعَة	al-sāʿah al-sābiʿah
eight o’clock	الساعَة الثامِنَة	al-sāʿah al-ṯāminah
nine o’clock	الساعَة التاسِعَة	al-sāʿah al-tāsiʿah
ten o’clock	الساعَة العاشِرَة	al-sāʿah al-ʿāširah
eleven o’clock	الساعَة الحادِيَةَ عَشَرَة	al-sāʿah al-ḥādiyaẗa ʿašarah
twelve o’clock	الساعَة الثانِيَةَ عَشَرَة	al-sāʿah al-ṯāniyata ʿašarah

Different Arab countries use the twelve-hour clock or the twenty-four-hour clock. For example, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco use the twenty-four-hour clock, while Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar use the twelve-hour clock.

Therefore, when saying the time in Arabic, you’ll need to know these words as well:

• a.m. — صَباحاً (ṣabāḥan)
• p.m. — مَسائاً (masāʾan)

And now some question and answer phrases to help you internalize these patterns:

• A: كَم الساعَة؟

A: kam al-sāʿah?

A: What time is it?

B: إنَّها الثانِيَةَ عَشَرَة.

B: ʾinnahā al-ṯāniyaẗa ʿašarah.

B: It’s twelve o’clock.

• A: عُذراً, هَل مَعَكَ ساعَة؟

A: ʿuḏran, hal maʿaka sāʿah? 

A: Excuse me, do you have a watch? 

B: أَجَل، إنَّها الساعَة الثالِثَةَ مَسائاً

B: aǧal, ʾinnahā al-sāʿah al-ṯaliṯaẗa masāʾan.

B: Yes, it’s three o’clock p.m.

•  A: هَل الساعَة الخامِسَة؟

A: hal al-sāʿah al-ḫāmisah?

A: Is it five o’clock yet?

B: لا، إنَّها لازالَت الساعَة الرابِعَة.

B: lā, ʾinnahā lāzal-at al-sāʿah al-rābiʿah.  

B: No, it’s only four o’clock.

3. Talking about Minutes and Seconds

When discussing minutes after the hour, we use the ordinal time as well. More occasions to practice your Arabic numbers!

• إنَّها الثالِثَة و خَمس وعِشرونَ دَقيقَة.

 ʾinnahā al-ṯaliṯah wa ḫams wa ʿišrūna daqīqah.

It’s three twenty-five.

However, there are some intricacies—and yes, shortcuts too—that make telling time in Arabic an exciting intellectual challenge.

For the first minute after the hour, English speakers just read out the digits: 5:01 becomes “five oh one.” In Arabic, though, the equivalent is “hour fifth minute.” “Minute” in Arabic is daqiiqah.

• إنَّها الخامِسَة و دَقيقَة.

ʾinnahā al-ḫāmisah wa daqīqah.

It’s 5:01.

Arabic has a handy grammatical feature called the “dual,” which counts exactly two of something. So when we say “five oh two,” we don’t need to specify the number either. Using the dual form of “minute” is a way to say that explicitly.

• إنَّها الخامِسَة و دَقيقَتان.

ʾinnahā al-ḫāmisah wa daqīqatān.

It’s 5:02.

After that, it follows the natural pattern that you might expect.

• الآن الساعَة السادِسَة و تِسع و ثَلاثونَ دَقيقَة.

al-ʾān al-sāʿah al-sādisah wa tisʿ wa ṯalāṯūna daqīqah.

Right now it’s 6:39.

Of course, not everybody is as exact when telling the time in Arabic as to say the precise minute. Many people may respond more vaguely, so these are also some phrases you should know.

• الساعَة حَوَالَيْ الثانِيَة و ثَلاثونَ دَقيقَة.

al-sāʿah ḥawalay al-ṯāniyah wa ṯalāṯūna daqīqah.

It’s about two-thirty.

In many languages, you can express the time as an hour plus or even minus a certain fraction. Arabic is no exception. The most commonly used fractions are “quarter,” “half,” and “third.”

• سِأِراكِ غِداً عِندَ السادِسَة و النِصف.

siʾirāki ġidan ʿinda al-sādisah wa al-niṣf.

I’ll see you tomorrow at half past six.

• أُريدُ أَن أَحجُز طاوِلَة لِلساعَة الوَاحِدَة و الرُبع.

ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaḥǧuz ṭāwilah lilsāʿah al-waḥidah wa al-rubʿ.

I want to reserve a table for a quarter past one.

When we want to express the time until the next hour (“ten minutes to two”) we use the word illa.

• إنَّها الخامِسَة إلّا عِشرونَ دَقيقَة.

ʾinnahā al-ḫāmisah ʾillā ʿišrūna daqīqah.

It’s twenty minutes to five. (Literally: Five short twenty minutes.)

Colloquial dialects use cardinal numbers for the hours and minutes, so they’ll be a little different from the numbers listed above, but not too different.

So if you’re pressed for time and going to speak a particular Arabic dialect, simply learn the numbers and the words for half and quarter, and you’re pretty much all set!

4. Throughout the Day

There are several words to describe the general time of day in Arabic. However, the underlying culture of these words may be rather different than what you’ve gotten used to in your own language.

 A “day” in Arabic is a nahaar. This refers to “daytime,” basically the hours that the sun is in the sky providing light. The opposite of that is lail, which means “nighttime,” or the hours between the sun dipping below the horizon and coming back up again.

In English, we tend to divide the day into a morning, an afternoon, an evening, and a night. In Arabic, there are five words for this.

Ṣabāḥ is the word for morning, when the sun is rising and the day is new. Around eleven o’clock the day turns into ẓuhr, or “noontime.” That refers to exactly twelve o’clock noon in English, but in Arabic it’s a looser concept, covering about four hours from 11:00 to 15:00.

Next is, logically, afternoon, or baʿd al-ẓuhr. Again, we’re talking about a roughly four-hour period here when the sun is beginning to get a little lower in the sky, and people are generally finishing up their work day.

Finally is masā’. This refers to the evening, when shadows get longer and people have dinner or go out for walks in the cooler air.

Let’s look at some examples of phrases that we can use in conjunction with these words.

• هَل تُريد المَشي مَعي هَذا المَساء؟

hal turīd al-mašī maʿī haḏā al-masāʾ?

Do you want to walk with me this evening?

• لَدَيَّ إجتِماعَيْن غَداً مَسائاً.

ladayya ʾiǧtimāʿayn ġadan masāʾan.

I have two meetings tomorrow afternoon.

• إلى اللَقاء! أَراكَ غَداً صَباحاً!

ʾilā al-laqāʾ! ʾarāka ġadan ṣabāḥan! 

Goodbye! I’ll see you tomorrow morning!

5. Time Zones

The Middle East is big, real big. And in other places where people often study Arabic, like in Southeast Asia or India, there’s even more geographical diversity.

For that reason, we have to deal with time zones. The common Arabic word for “time zone” is تَوقيت.

The Middle East as a geographic entity spans four time zones from UTC+2 to UTC+4, and North Africa also includes UTC+0 and UTC+1. As a point of interest, Iran—though not an Arabic-speaking country—sets its time zone a half-hour off from neighboring Iraq and UAE.

If you’re doing a tour of several Arabic-speaking countries, you should of course be aware of these differences and perhaps even become acquainted with these helpful phrases:

• هَل الجَزائِر في نَفس تَوْقيت مِصر؟

hal al-ǧazāʾir fī nafs tawqīt miṣr?

Is Algeria in the same time zone as Egypt?

• الإمارات تَسبِق قَطَر بِساعَة.

al-ʾimārāt tasbiq qaṭar bisāʿah.

UAE is one hour ahead of Qatar.

• كَم الساعَة في الرِيَاض الآن؟

kam al-sāʿah fī al-riyaḍ al-ʾān?

What’s the time in Riyadh right now?

6. Expressions and Phrases about Time

When you talk about time, you don’t always talk about the numbers on the clock. In fact, look at that previous sentence—”always” is a time word!

To really get a native-like flow to your speech, you have to be aware of the different phrases you can use to add time-related detail to whatever you’re saying.

We’ve put these into the context of simple sentences so that you can see how the concepts are expressed in Arabic. You’ll find out pretty soon that not everything translates directly between Arabic and English!

الآن (al-ʾān) — Now 

أَنا مُستَعِدٌ الآن.

ʾanā mustaʿidun al-ʾān.

I’m ready now.

لاحِقاً (lāḥiqan) — Later 

أُريدُ أَن أَبدَأ الإجتِماع لاحِقاً.

ʾurīdu ʾan ʾabdaʾ al-ʾiǧtimāʿ lāḥiqan.

 I want to start the meeting later.

قَريباً (qarīban) — Soon 

قَريباً سَتَفهَم العَرَبِيَّة بِشَكلٍ مُمتاز. 

qarīban satafham al-ʿarabiyyah bišaklin mumtāz. 

Soon you’ll understand Arabic perfectly.

In time, over time, out of time—it seems like you can make phrases out of any preposition in English! But notice, though, that in Arabic things are often worded differently.

في الوَقت المُحَدَّد (fī al-waqt al-muḥaddad) — On time 

لَم يَبدَأ المَشروع في الوَقت المُحَدَّد.

lam yabdaʾ al-mašrūʿ fī al-waqt al-muḥaddad.

He didn’t start the project on time.

مُتَأَخِّرون (mutaʾaḫḫirūn) — Out of time 

نَحنُ مُتَأَخِّرون! يَجِب أَن نَذهَب!

 naḥnu mutaʾaḫḫirūn! yaǧib ʾan naḏhab!

We’re out of time! We have to go!

في الوَقت المُحَدَّد (fī al-waqt al-muḥaddad) — In time 

لَقَد وَصَلَت إلى المَحَطَّة في الوَقت المُحَدَّد لِقِطارِها.

laqad waṣalat ʾilā al-maḥaṭṭah fī al-waqt al-muḥaddad liqiṭārihā.

She arrived at the station in time for her train.

مَع الوَقت (maʿ al-waqt) — Over time 

تَعَلُّم العَرَبِيَّة عَمَلِيَّة تَحدُث بِبُطء مَع مُرور الوَقت.

taʿallum al-ʿarabiyyah ʿamaliyyah taḥduṯ bibuṭʾ maʿ murūr al-waqt.

Learning Arabic is a process that happens slowly over time.

7. Conclusion

What you’ve just read in this article (especially if you followed all the links) is going to cover virtually every situation you’ll have when talking about time in Arabic.

Yes, the word order and the bit about ordinal/cardinal numbers is probably pretty different from what you’re used to. But it’s really not objectively harder or easier than English.

And the best part about learning to tell time in another language is that you get opportunities for practice literally every day. 

Ask someone what the time is and they’ll tell you. Then ask somebody else, and they’ll tell you too. It’s the least-stressful conversation possible!

When you think of it that way, there’s no time to lose!

In fact, why not practice giving the time in Arabic right now? Drop us a comment with the current time in Arabic below!

Happy Arabic learning!

Did you ever just kinda…skip over the directions chapter in a language book?

Sitting at home or in your classroom, it’s hard to imagine yourself in the position of actually needing to know how to say these phrases.

But I actually just went traveling to a new country where I barely spoke the language, and I noticed right away that I needed to talk about directions if I wanted to find out where anything was.

Now, just for you, we’ve arranged the most critical directions in Arabic: right to left, the cardinal directions, and handy phrases you’ll be glad you know! We’ve also included some ways you can expand your knowledge and end up speaking more Arabic than you thought possible!



Table of Contents

1. Basic Cultural Notes and Phrases
2. The Compass Points: A Bird’s Eye View of a City
3. City Vocabulary and Reference Points
4. Phrases for Directions in Arabic, Part 1: Asking Others
5. Phrases for Directions in Arabic, Part 2: Giving Directions
6. Travel Time
7. How to Use Directions as Language Practice
8. Conclusion

1. Basic Cultural Notes and Phrases

Since the system of etiquette in Arab countries may be different from what you’re used to, let’s very quickly go over a bit of cultural background.

On the street, men should avoid directly talking to women who are strangers, and vice-versa. You should instead find someone of your own gender to stop and ask directions of.

Police in Arab countries will happily give you directions, but they don’t often hang out on the street unless they’re directing traffic or something. Definitely don’t stroll up to a police car to ask the people inside, as they’ll be quite surprised.

When you want to get someone’s attention, you can say:

• عَفواً!
  ʿafwan!
  Excuse me!

Or maybe:

• هَل يُمكِنُكَ مُساعَدَتي؟
  hal yumkinuka musāʿadatī?
  Could you help me?

2. The Compass Points: A Bird’s Eye View of a City

Let’s start out with the fundamental compass directions in Arabic. Some people are really good at keeping their cardinal directions straight, and others strongly prefer to just speak in relative terms.

A lot of cities are built around rivers, and so if you keep in mind which way the river flows, all you have to do is look at the river to find out your general orientation.

The cardinal directions in Arabic are:

English	Arabic	Transliteration
north	شَمال	šamal
south	جَنوب	ǧanūb
east	شَرق	šarq
west	غَرب	ġarb
northwest	شَمال غَرب	šamal ġarb
northeast	شَمال شَرق	šamal šarq
southwest	جَنوب غَرب	ǧanūb ġarb
southeast	جَنوب شَرق	ǧanūb šarq

Now, you’ll pretty much never use these by themselves. No conversations sound like: “Where’s the bus stop?” “East.”

Instead, you’ll need something to anchor you. How about the city itself?

• الحَيُّ الَّذي أَسكُنُ بِه في الجُزء الشَرقِيّ مِن المَدينَة.
  al-ḥayyu allaḏī ʾaskunu bih fī al-ǧuzʾ al-šarqiyy min al-madīnah.
  My neighborhood is in the eastern part of the city.


• المَصنَعُ في الجُزء الجَنوبِيّ مِن المَدينَة.
  al-maṣnaʿu fī al-ǧuzʾ al-ǧanūbiyy min al-madīnah.
  The factory is in the southern part of the city.

3. City Vocabulary and Reference Points

You’ll find that when you’re talking about cities, there are so many little holes to fill in your vocabulary. I used to live in a suburb and commute by metro, and simply describing my commute to friends was challenging at first since I didn’t know what really counted as a “suburb.”

Here are some turns of phrase for talking about parts of cities in Arabic. You’ll note that we’ve also put them in sentences for you to practice using them with prepositions. Don’t worry, “in” is the most common preposition here, by far.

وَسَط المَدينَة (wasaṭ al-madīnah) — downtown

مَكتَبي في وَسَط المَدينَة.
maktabī fī wasaṭ al-madīnah.
My office is downtown.

كُلُّ أَصدِقائي يَعيشون في وَسَط المَدينَة.
kullu ʾaṣdiqāʾī yaʿīšūn fī wasaṭ al-madīnah.
All my friends live in the city center.

المَنطِقَة التُجارِيَّة (al-manṭiqah al-tuǧāriyyah) — business district

هَل توجَدُ أَيِّ شُقَق جَيِّدَة قُرب المَنطِقَة التُجارِيَّة؟
hal tūǧadu ʾayyi šuqaq ǧayyidah qurb al-manṭiqah al-tuǧāriyyah?
Are there any good apartments near the business district?

في ضَوَاحي المَدينَة (fī ḍawaḥī al-madīnah) — on the edge of town

كُنتُ أَعيشُ خارِجاً في ضَوَاحي المَدينَة.
kuntu ʾaʿīšu ḫāriǧan fī ḍawaḥī al-madīnah.
I used to live way out on the edge of town.

مَركَزُ تَسَوُّق (markazu tasawwuq) — shopping center

يُوجَد مَركَز تَسَوُّق في الجُزء الشَمالي و في الجُزء الجَنوبي مِن المَدينَة.
yuūǧad markaz tasawwuq fī al-ǧuzʾ al-šamal-ī wa fī al-ǧuzʾ al-ǧanūbī min al-madīnah.
There’s a shopping center in the north and south parts of town.

All set with those? You’ll probably need some more fundamental words, because we’re about to start talking about landmarks.

These are useful when giving taxi directions in Arabic. If you know the way to where you want to go, you will absolutely impress your driver and may even get a great conversation out of it.

تِمثال (timṯal) — statue

فُندقي قُرب ذَلِك التِمثال.
fundqī qurb ḏalik al-timṯal.
My hotel is near that statue.

مَيْدان (maydān) — square

أَستَطيعُ أَن أَرى الساحَة مِن مَكتَبي.
ʾastaṭīʿu ʾan ʾarā al-sāḥah min maktabī.
I can see the square from my office.

شارِع (šāriʿ) — street

عَفواً, أَيُّ شارِعٍ هَذا؟
ʿafū, ʾayyu šāriʿin haḏā?
Sorry, what street is this?

عَلامَةُ تَوَقُّف (ʿalāmaẗu tawaqquf) — stoplight

اِنعَطِف يَساراً عِندَ الإشارة.
inʿaṭif yasāran ʿinda al-ʾišārh.
Turn left at the stoplight.

مَكتَب البَريد (maktab al-barīd) — post office

اِنعَطِف يَميناً عِندَ مَكتَب البَريد ذو السَقف الأَخضَر.
inʿaṭif yamīnan ʿinda maktab al-barīd ḏū al-saqf al-ʾaḫḍar.
Turn right at the post office with the green roof.

بَنك (bank) — bank

اِستَمِر إلى الأَمام حَتّى تَرى البَنك.
istamir ʾilā al-ʾamām ḥattā tarā al-bank.
Keep going straight until you see the bank.

مُستَوْدَع (mustawdaʿ) — warehouse

المُستَوْدَع وَراء المَكتَب.
al-mustawdaʿ warāʾ al-maktab.
The warehouse is behind the office.

4. Phrases for Directions in Arabic, Part 1: Asking Others

Body language can be quite helpful here, as you may need to show the other person that you’re kind of lost and confused. There are two basic ways of asking for directions in Arabic here: asking where something is and asking how you can get there.

If you’re a beginner, you should avoid fancy phrases like:

هَل يُمكِنُ أَن تُخبِرَني كَيْفَ أَصِلُ إلى …
hal yumkinu ʾan tuḫbiranī kayfa ʾaṣilu ʾilā …
Could you tell me how to get to…

Or

كُنتُ أَتَساءَلُ أَيْن …
kuntu ʾatasāʾalu ʾayn …
I was wondering where … is.

They’ll be more likely to tongue-tie you. Advanced learners, go for it!

Otherwise, use these two sentence patterns to get directions.

أَيْنَ (المَتحَف الفَنّي)؟
ʾayna (al-matḥaf al-fannī)?
Where is (the art museum)?



هَل هُناكَ (مَحَطَّة لِلحافِلات) في القُرب؟ أَيْن هِيَ؟
hal hunāka (maḥaṭṭah lilḥāfilāt) fī al-qurb? ʾayn hiya?
Is there (a bus stop) nearby? Where is it?

By the way, you can of course always resort to what I like to call “Tarzan Arabic.” This involves pointing at a spot on a map or saying one word related to what you want to get to, and adding “Where?” Take a look:

الحَمّام، أيْن؟
al-ḥammām ʾayna?
The bathroom, where?

It’s not grammatically correct, it’s not pretty, but it works. But if you switch this expression around, it becomes “Where (is) the bathroom?”, which is grammatically correct and just as easy.

أيْن الحَمّام؟
‘ayna al-ḥammām?

5. Phrases for Directions in Arabic, Part 2: Giving Directions

Let me tell you, nothing makes you feel more like a local than giving directions to people in a foreign language, in a foreign country. And with all the Arabic-speakers from different parts of the world traveling more and more, you may run into this situation in your own town!

When you’re speaking in a foreign language and trying to communicate useful information, be concise. Now is not the time to show off fancy words or practice new sentence structures. Be clear and helpful so that people will understand you the first time. Here’s some examples of how to give directions in Arabic:

إنَّهُ قَريب جِدّاً. / إنَّهُ بَعيد جِدّاً.
ʾinnahu qarīb ǧiddan. / ʾinnahu baʿīd ǧiddan.
It’s very close. / It’s very far away.

اِذهَب مُباشَرَةً عَلى هَذا الطَريق.
iḏhab mubāšaraẗan ʿalā haḏā al-ṭarīq.
Go straight on this road.

اِنعَطِف يَميناً عِندَ ضَوْء الإنارَة التالي.
inʿaṭif yamīnan ʿinda ḍawʾ al-ʾinārah al-talī.
Turn right at the next streetlight.

لَيْسَ عَلى هَذا الطَريق، بَل عَلى الطَريق التالي.
laysa ʿalā haḏā al-ṭarīq, bal ʿalā al-ṭarīq al-talī.
It’s not on this road, but it’s on the next road.

Accompany these with some good old pointing, and you’ll have no trouble being understood.

6. Travel Time

Now for a brief section on time. This isn’t directions specifically, but instead it’s a description that often comes along with directions in conversation. Check it out:

إنَّهُ عَلى بَعد عِشرين دَقيقَة سَيْراً عَلى الأَقدام.
ʾinnahu ʿalā baʿd ʿišrīn daqīqah sayran ʿalā al-ʾaqdām.
It’s a twenty-minute walk.

سَوْفَ يَستَغرِق الأَمر ساعَتَيْن بِالحافِلَة.
sawfa yastaġriq al-ʾamr sāʿatayn bilḥāfilah.
It’ll take two hours by bus.

رِحلَةُ القِطار مِن الجَزائِر العاصِمَة إلى وَهران تَستَغرِق أَربَع إلى خَمس ساعات.
riḥlaẗu al-qiṭār min al-ǧazāʾir al-ʿāṣimah ʾilā wahrān tastaġriq ʾarbaʿ ʾilā ḫams sāʿāt.
The train trip between Algiers and Oran takes four to five hours.

We’ve included this because, often, when you ask a stranger, they may assume you’re traveling by a particular means of transport common to the area. In many Arab countries, for instance, it’s not at all common for ordinary people or tourists to walk from town to town. That’s why you should always be ready with these questions and answers as well.

كَيْفَ تَتَنَقَّل إلى هُناك؟
kayfa tatanaqqal ʾilā hunāk?
How are you getting there?

هَل مِن المُمكِن المَشي؟
hal min al-mumkin al-mašī?
Is it possible to walk?

7. How to Use Directions as Language Practice

If you’re reading an article as detailed as this one, chances are you’re interested in more than just survival. There are a couple of things you can do to make the ho-hum topic of directions into a conversation-starter that you can control at your own pace.

First, ask for directions that you already know. Sounds obvious, right? Go out of your hotel and go right into another hotel a few hundred meters away. Ask how to get to your hotel, and pay attention to the way they answer. Then go to another one, and see how the two answers are different.

Look at that! Fifteen minutes at most, and you’ve gotten two helpful language lessons that will increase how much you understand directions in Arabic.

The second thing is a little bit more advanced, but it can lead to really interesting conversations. Ask questions about how things used to be in the city.

هَل هَذِهِ المِنطَقَة كَما كانَت قَبل عَشر سَنَوَات؟
hal haḏihi al-minṭaqah kamā kānat qabl ʿašr sanawat?
Is this area the same as it was ten years ago?

هَذا المَبنى جَميل. مُنذُ مَتى و هُوَ هُنا؟
haḏā al-mabnā ǧamīl. munḏu matā wa huwa hunā?
This building is beautiful. How long has it been here?

There are a million questions in this vein, and locals will be thrilled that a visitor is curious about their city’s history. I personally like to ask these questions of taxi drivers, because they’re full of stories about how their cities have changed.

8. Conclusion

Do you still have questions about asking directions in Arabic? Don’t worry, that’s normal. This isn’t the type of thing that becomes automatic after just one lesson. You can also check our video above about street signs in Arabic for some extra vocabulary.

Read through this article again in a few days to refresh your memory. In addition, you can check out the lessons on directions that we’ve included in this article; since you’ve been primed for the content, you can probably understand a lot the very first time!

Also try switching your Google Maps into Arabic, or if that sounds like a big stretch, opening it up in a private browsing tab to just change the language for one session. In thirty seconds, you can be reading Arabic directions for anywhere in the world and reinforcing what you’ve learned.

Happy Arabic learning!

Have you gotten a nice compliment recently?

The right compliment, delivered genuinely, can make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

That’s exactly the feeling you want to be giving locals when you’re speaking to them in Arabic. A polite and well-placed compliment in Arabic is going to be an absolute hit anywhere, from the boardroom to the hotel lounge. So why is a word of praise in Arabic so highly valued?

First, Arab culture values expansive and literary-sounding compliments. If you can take care of the language side, you’ll come across as very well-read and educated.

Second, a foreigner who can speak good Arabic is still a rarity in today’s world. You’ll very much stand out from the crowd and make yourself remembered.

So how do you go about actually giving compliments in Arabic?

Table of Contents

1. What to Say and What not to Say When Complimenting Appearance
2. What to Say Back
3. Compliments are Business as Usual
4. Complimenting the Family
5. Complimenting People on What They’ve Done
6. Conclusion

1. What to Say and What not to Say When Complimenting Appearance

Something interesting about Arabic culture is that you should try not to compliment others’ possessions.

That’s because it may cause the person receiving the compliment to feel as though you’d really like to have what they have (i.e. that you’re envious). It puts them in an awkward place where it’s not quite polite to just accept the compliment; it’s better for them to either downplay it or laugh it off.

Close friends and family members, though, may compliment each other on clothing or accessories. The reason is simply that with more context between the two people, there’s no risk of misunderstanding.

Suppose someone has a new dress. Her sister might say:

“It looks like the moon.”

.شَكلُهُ مِثلَ القَمَر

šakluhu miṯla al-qamar.

“How nice is it!”

ما أروعه!

mā ʾarwaʿuh!

How about smell? In English, it’s acceptable to say that someone “smells good.” But in Arabic, this can be taken in very much the wrong way.

Saying the equivalent in Arabic can only be used for complimenting someone’s perfume, and if they aren’t actually wearing perfume, the phrase is going to be taken very sarcastically.

“What a lovely smell!”

يَالَها مِن رائِحَةٍ جَميلَة.

yalahā min rāʾiḥaẗin ǧamīlah.

There are also some Arabic compliment categories that don’t really exist in English. Think about it: In English, we might compliment someone’s clothing, their hair, their makeup, or perhaps even their physical features if we’re being flirty.

Speaking of flirty, strangers of the opposite sex should, as a rule, avoid paying each other compliments like these about their appearances. The bar for what’s considered flirting is much, much lower in Arab culture.

In Arabic, though, the concept of cleanliness is considered very important and worthy of respect. That’s why there’s a separate compliment specifically for someone who’s gotten a nice haircut!

“Nice haircut!”

نَعيماً!

naʿīman!

2. What to Say Back

When you learn a language, you’ve really got to fix it in your mind, imagining yourself in the position of the people in the sample dialogues.

And how can you imagine taking compliments if you don’t know how to respond?

There are generally three ways that people in the Arab world respond to compliments, and each has its own connotations.

First, you can simply accept the compliment graciously with a simple “Thank you.” This is probably the most common response in the Western world.

“Thank you.”

شُكراً

šukran

Perhaps even more common, though, is deferring or deflecting the compliment. This shows your humility, and doing it skillfully is a major way to win points in a conversation.

“Oh, it’s nothing really.”

أوه، هَذا لا شَيْء حَقاً.

ʾūh, haḏā lā šayʾ ḥaqan.

And one last thing to keep in mind: Be specific, and be sincere.

Anyone can tell when you’re just fishing for words, though of course, you’ll get a little leeway as a foreign speaker of Arabic. Save your compliments until you’re ready to speak from the heart, and you know they’ll be treasured.

The best way to do this is to be specific about what you’re complimenting, so that the person you’re talking to understands that you’re paying attention to them. Check out these compliments, tailor-made for these different situations!

3. Compliments are Business as Usual

In Arab business culture, as in the West, it can be seen as “trying too hard” for someone to compliment their superior. Compliments and gifts should generally flow downwards.

In addition, Arab business culture is generally more conservative than Western business culture. Therefore, when the compliments do come, it usually means much more than it does in English-speaking countries.

Let’s take an example of a boss who’s asked a new employee to work overtime.

“You put in such long hours!”

لَقَد عَمِلتَ لِساعاتٍ طَوِيلَة!

laqad ʿamilta lisāʿātin ṭawilah!

The employee might then respond politely with:

“It’s nothing, don’t bother to mention it!”

هَذا لا شَيْء, لا تُكَلِّف نَفسَكَ عَناء ذِكرِ ذَلِك!

haḏā lā šayʾ, lā tukallif nafsaka ʿanāʾ ḏikri ḏalik!

The business world is a good place to mention compliments for specific things that employees might create, such as a resume, a project, or an award.

“Your resume is impressive.”

سيرَتُك الذاتِيَّة مُدهِشَة.

sīratuka al-ḏātiyyah mudhišah.

“Congratulations on winning ‘Employee of the Month!’”

تَهانينا بِالفَوْزِ بـ”مُوَظَّفِ الشَهر”.

tahānīnā bilfawzi bـ”muwaẓẓafi al-šahr”.

If you happen to be in charge of several Arabic-speaking employees, you can pay them a very deep compliment by humbling yourself in your praise of them.

You shouldn’t ignore the hierarchy that you belong to, so don’t directly put yourself in their places, but do show that you’re impressed. Doing this, especially as a foreigner, means a lot.

“You have all done great work for this quarter, and I am proud to have worked with you.”

لَقَد أَنجَزتُم جَميعاً عَمَلاً رائعاً في هَذا الرُبع، و أَنا فَخورٌ بِالعَمَلِ مَعَكُم

laqad ʾanǧaztum ǧamīʿan ʿamalan rāʾʿan fī haḏā al-rubʿ, wa ʾanā faḫūrun bilʿamali maʿakum.

4. Complimenting the Family

In Arab culture, family is something to be very proud of. It’s always a good idea to find something nice to say about someone’s family or children.

Note that “spouse” was not mentioned! As in English, saying nice things about another man’s wife or another woman’s husband is a recipe for disaster.

The typical Arabic compliment when someone shows you a picture of their kids is just one word:

“God has willed it.”

ما شاء الله

mā šāʾ al-llah

This has a sense of “Look at this beautiful thing in the world, isn’t God’s will grand?” It’s very much a set phrase, so you’d do well to learn it by heart.

You can also use these Arabic compliments that sound more like what you’d say in English:

“You must be proud of your children.”

لا بُدَّ أَن تَكونَ فَخوراً بِأبنائِك.

lā budda ʾan takūna faḫūran biʾbnāʾik.

“Your children look healthy and strong!”

أَطفالُكَ يَبدونَ بِصِحَّةٍ و قُوَّةٍ جَيِّدَتَيْن!

ʾaṭfaluka yabdūna biṣiḥḥaẗin wa quwwaẗin ǧayyidatayn!

“May your children be successful!”

أَتَمَنّى أَن يَكونَ أَطفالُكَ ناجِحين!

ʾatamannā ʾan yakūna ʾaṭfal-uka nāǧiḥīn!

With the right compliments here, you may find yourself invited to an Arab wedding!

5. Complimenting People on What They’ve Done

If you get invited over to someone’s home for dinner, it’s the perfect chance to compliment their cooking. In fact, it’s expected that you’ll praise the food from your host. Remember to take your shoes off after entering!

Naturally, there’s one catch-all word for “tasty” that you can use, and you should.

“Delicious!”

لَذيذ!

laḏīḏ!

Remember, you should be specific about what you’re complimenting. Do you remember your food vocabulary?

“This is fantastic rice.”

هَذا أَرُزٌّ رائِع!

haḏā ʾaruzzun rāʾiʿ!

“The flavors all come together beautifully.”

النَكَهات كُلَّها مُجتَمِعَة بِشَكلٍ جَميل

al-nakahāt kullahā muǧtamiʿah bišaklin ǧamīl.

One classic Arabic format for complimenting something that someone else has done is to compare it to your own abilities, painting your own efforts as hopelessly inadequate.

“You make soup so well, it’s far better than my own soup.”

أَنتَ تُعِدُّ حَساءاً جَيِّداً، إنَّهُ أَفضَل بِكَثير مِن حَسائي

ʾanta tuʿiddu ḥasāʾan ǧayyidan, ʾinnahu ʾafḍal bikaṯīr min ḥasāʾī.

We can practice this same sentence pattern with other skills and hobbies that people like to do.

“Your penmanship is beautiful! My own is just scribbles.”

خَطُّكَ جَميل! خَطّي هُوَ مُجَرَّدُ خَربَشات

ḫaṭṭuka ǧamīl! ḫaṭṭī huwa muǧarradu ḫarbašāt.

6. Conclusion

There are endless situations in addition to these in which a compliment in Arabic might be warranted. And as we’ve shown, there are situations where compliments from some people (such as close friends) are welcome, but from others (strangers of the opposite sex) are far from it.

This kind of thing simply can’t be studied.

No matter how many articles you read about etiquette and communication, they’re all poor substitutes for real experience with the language.

And that’s what you get here with ArabicPod101.com. You get real cultural notes, targeted vocabulary lists, and engaging native-speaker audio content with our podcast.

Why wait? Try out our sample lessons today in the links above, and sign up for a free lifetime account now!

In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments section with any questions you may have, or compliment phrases you still want to know!

Happy Arabic learning!

Many foreigners throughout the years have gotten high praise for speaking “correct” Arabic.

And many others have spoken “broken” Arabic.

Obviously, there are a lot of things that could go into that distinction, but one of the most important is grammatical gender. If you get those word endings wrong on nouns, adjectives, and verbs, you’ll still be understood—but it’ll sound strange.

That’s not a word you want to associate with your Arabic level!

If you’re not yet comfortable with word gender in Arabic, don’t worry. Simply read on, and let the knowledge come to you.

Table of Contents

1. What is Grammatical Gender?
2. The Arabic Noun Gender System: See a Word, Guess its Gender
3. Gender in Arabic Pronouns and Verbs
4. Plural Nouns
5. Noun Gender Plus Adjectives
6. Memorizing Gender from the Beginning
7. Conclusion

1. What is Grammatical Gender?

First, let’s solve a quick problem of nomenclature. Quit thinking of this “gender” as it relates to the English word “gender.” Instead, think of it more like a “category.”

Noun gender is just a secondary feature of a noun that determines which form other adjectives or articles need to take. Some nouns in some categories have adjectives with X ending, and some with Y ending.

Most languages with grammatical gender have just two, called “masculine” and “feminine.” Some languages have a third one, called “neuter” or sometimes “common.” Some languages have quite a few more!

In the European linguistic tradition, we have a habit of calling these categories “genders” because they usually line up with living beings of different genders.

For example, the word for “boy” has a masculine grammatical gender, while the word for “girl” has a female gender. Other words are up in the air. There’s usually no consistency between languages as to what inanimate objects will be masculine or feminine.

In Arabic, there are two grammatical genders, and every noun has one. And there’s good news and bad news here. Most Arabic words have a clearly-guessable gender, with certain verb endings that we’ll talk about in a moment. However, there are a lot of exceptions. There are masculine-looking nouns that take feminine adjectives, and there are feminine-looking nouns that take masculine adjectives. There are even unmarked nouns that simply must be memorized. But don’t worry—we’ll talk about that later, too.

2. The Arabic Noun Gender System: See a Word, Guess its Gender

So, how do you know if a word is masculine or feminine in Arabic?

In Arabic, the masculine form is the “unmarked” form. That means there’s no special ending.

Therefore, it’s the feminine form that’s “marked.” That is, it has an ending. By far, the most common ending is ة. This letter is called taa marbuuta, and it only appears at the end of a word. It’s always preceded by fatha, so feminine nouns generally end in -a.

This is what’s called a “productive suffix,” meaning that you can add it to words and generate a new word that people will accept as correct. That’s how we get the feminine forms of different occupations. For instance:

president (male)
رَئيس
raʾīs

president (female)
رَئيسَة
raʾīsah

scientist (male)
عالِم
ʿalim

scientist (female)
عالِمَة
ʿal-imah

Some more endings are ʾalif maqsūrah and ʾalif hamzah. But watch out—some of the words ending with these two forms don’t have a predictable gender.

desert
صَحراء
Ṣaḥrāʾ

hospital
مُستَشفى
mustašfā

Lastly, there are some words that are accepted as either feminine or masculine. Here are three relatively common ones:

road
طَريق
ṭarīq

souq
سوق
sūq

knife
سِكّين
sikkīn

Was that really so hard? Unfortunately, now we’ll look at some exceptions to these Arabic gender rules.

First, there are a handful of names with feminine endings that are actually masculine. Muawiya and Talha are two male figures from the Quran whose names end in taa marbuuta. But such names aren’t popular anymore.

There are also some mass nouns in Arabic that use the taa marbuuta to signify just one of that thing. For example, the words “ants” and “trees” are usually referred to in the plural, but to refer to just one ant or one tree, we can use the taa marbuuta to make it a singular (masculine) noun.

Trees give the world oxygen and shade.
الأَشجار تُعطي العالَم الأوكيسيجين والظِل.
al-ʾašǧār tuʿṭī al-ʿalam al-ʾūkīsīǧīn ūlẓil.

The floor is covered in ants.
الأَرضِيَّة مَليئَة بِالنَمل.
al-ʾarḍiyyah malīʾah bilnaml.

The ant slowly climbs up the tree.
النَملَة تَتَسَلَّق الشَجَرَة بِبُطء.
al-namlah tatasallaq al-šaǧarah bibuṭʾ.

3. Gender in Arabic Pronouns and Verbs

Let’s take a brief detour from nouns to talk about gender in other parts of Arabic, namely the pronoun system and the verb system.

Some languages have just one third-person gender, covering “he,” “she,” and “it.” English, of course, has three, for masculine, feminine, and neuter. Arabic has the same, but Arabic speakers also distinguish that for the second person, that is, “you.”

Where are you? (to a man)
مِن أَيْنَ أَنتَ؟
min ʾayna ʾanta?

Where are you? (to a woman)
مِن أَيْنَ أَنتِ؟
min ʾayna ʾanti?

There’s also a distinction made for the plural form, both in the equivalents of “you all” and “they.”

Are you all alright? (to several women)
هَل أَنتُنَّ بِخَيْر؟
hal ʾantunna biḫayr?

Are you all alright? (to several men)
هَل أََنتُم بِخَيْر؟
hal ʾantum biḫayr?

These example sentences are a little unwieldy, so we won’t write out all the differences here. Instead, there are plenty of great charts and grammar lessons online!

You may have heard of Arabic verbs also being inflected for gender in some way. That’s sort of true, but it’s not as bad as you might have thought.

Object pronouns (“him,” “her,” “me,” “them” ) just get attached to the verb instead of staying as separate words. So you could think of verbs as just linking up with a gendered pronoun, not having a complex gender system of their own.

I am helping Anna.
أَنا أُساعِد آنا.
ʾanā ʾusāʿid ʾānā.

I am helping her.
أَنا أُساعِدُها.
ʾanā ʾusāʿiduhā.

Again, this is something that deserves an article of its own, but we included it here to show you how word gender across all of Arabic simply works differently than in English. It’s not only the nouns!

4. Plural Nouns

The most important overarching concept to remember with Arabic plurals is that non-human nouns in the plural are treated as singular feminine nouns. If you happen to know any German, it’s a similar concept.

Take a look at the following sentences.

The new (female) teacher is eating.
الأُستاذَة الجَديدَة تَأكُل.
al-ʾustāḏah al-ǧadīdah taʾkul.

This city has new streets.
لَدى المَدينة شَوَارِع جَديدَة.
ladā al-madīnh šawariʿ ǧadīdah.

David has four new cars.
لَدى داوُود أَربَع سَيّارات جَديدَة.
ladā dāwūd ʾarbaʿ sayyārāt ǧadīdah.

Here, the adjective for “new” stayed the same, even though we first talked about one female teacher, then many new streets, then four new cars.

5. Noun Gender Plus Adjectives

Adjectives in Arabic have to match their nouns. This is commonly known as “agreement,” so if there’s a mistake in your adjective endings, you can say that they’re not agreeing.

To get them to cooperate with each other, we have to make sure that we match feminine nouns with feminine adjectives.

Fortunately, this is simple in principle. Just as we added the taa marbuuta to some masculine job occupations to get the feminine form, we’ll add the taa marbuuta to adjectives in order to modify feminine nouns.

The brown cat is walking.
القِطَّة البُنِّيَّة تَمشي.
al-qiṭṭah al-bunniyyah tamšī.

The brown mouse is walking.
الفَأر البُنّيُّ يَمشي.
al-faʾr al-bunniyyu yamšī.

Since “cat” is feminine and “mouse” is masculine, the word for “brown” has to change.

Naturally, we can’t just have one adjective agree and the rest disagree. What happens when we include two adjectives?

My uncle is a short and funny man.
عَمّي/خالي رَجُل قَصير و مُضحِك.
ʿammī/ḫal-ī raǧul qaṣīr wa muḍḥik.

My aunt is a short and funny woman.
عَمَّتي/خالَتي إمرَأَة قَصيرَة و مُضحِكَة.
ʿammatī/ḫal-atī ʾimraʾah qaṣīrah wa muḍḥikah.

Same sentence structure, different adjective forms.

There are many adjectives that follow slightly different rules for noun gender, and some that don’t change at all. For example, the words “sick” and “tolerant” don’t change.

When I first saw him, he was an old and sick man.
عِندَما رَأَيْتُهُ لِأَوَّلِ مَرَّة, كانَ رَجُلاً مُسِنّاً و مَريضاً.
ʿindamā raʾaytuhu liʾawwali marrah, kāna raǧulan musinnan wa marīḍan.

Have you talked to the sick woman in room 7?
هَل تَحَدَّثتَ إلى اللمَرأَة المَريضَة في غُرفَة رَقَم سبِعة؟
hal taḥaddaṯta ʾilā al-lmarʾah al-marīḍah fī ġurfah raqam sbiʿh?

It is good to have tolerant (female) teachers.
مِن الجَميلِ أَن يَكونَ لَدَيْكَ أُستاذَة مُتَسامِحَة.
min al-ǧamīli ʾan yakūna ladayka ʾustāḏah mutasāmiḥah.

Jacques is a tolerant man.
جاك رَجُلٌ مُتَسامِح.
ǧāk raǧulun mutasāmiḥ.

6. Memorizing Gender from the Beginning

Research shows that Arabic learners in particular have a hard time with getting perfectly accurate word gender, even if the learners have spent years in Arabic-speaking countries.

And if you happen to come from a European background, no luck there either—there’s no benefit from being a native speaker of another language with grammatical gender!

That particular study revealed that even advanced learners have “incomplete” models of grammatical gender in their minds, where they may know all the rules but fail to apply them correctly.

So here are a couple of different techniques you can use to train yourself to remember the Arabic word gender as often as possible!

First, you can use memory tricks. Some people are really great at visualizing things in their mind’s eye, and those people will probably prefer this method.

Imagine the word حرب (harb) meaning “war.” Although it doesn’t end with taa marbuuta, it’s a feminine word which takes feminine adjectives:

That was a long and terrible war.
لقد كانَت حَرباً طَوِيلَة و رَهيبَة.
laqad kānat ḥarban ṭawilah wa rahībah.

One memory trick is to imagine a room full of women generals, with coats covered in medals of valor.

Take a moment to look around that boardroom in your mind’s eye—is it open and well-lit or are the generals hunched over war plans on a table? Fix that image in your head, and you’ll think of it whenever you need to say “war” in Arabic (which hopefully won’t be too often!).

Since you probably can’t forget that one if you tried, let’s think of another mnemonic for another irregular Arabic word.

The word راديو (radiu) is a loanword meaning “radio.” Like many loanwords about technology, راديو is masculine.

I don’t need that old radio.
لا أَحتاجُ إلى ذَلِكَ الراديُو القَديم.
lā ʾaḥtāǧu ʾilā ḏalika al-rādyuū al-qadīm.

Other methods that people use include writing masculine and feminine words in different-colored ink in a notebook. This may get tedious, though, because as you know, most Arabic words are regular.

One of the most effective ways to learn to produce Arabic word gender correctly in fluent speech is to simply practice set phrases that are likely to come up.

Look at your own writing or listen critically to a recording you make of yourself. Then write down some of the words you’re having trouble with, and come up with some example sentences where you’d like to use it.

Practice those set phrases aloud, even recording your own voice again to listen back. This will really help stick those patterns into your memory, and because they’re tailored for you, your exercises will be extremely efficient.

7. Conclusion

In addition to those targeted noun and adjective exercises, sometimes the best way to learn a language is simply through exposure. That means native Arabic materials, whether it be TV soap operas, audiobooks, or even podcasts. You can also check out our video about gender in Arabic.

Here at ArabicPod101, you have access to some of the best Arabic learning material on the internet for all levels, including study guides and vocabulary lists.

With all of these tools right at your fingertips, you’ll never fail. Start speaking excellent Arabic today!

Before you go, let us know in the comments how comfortable you feel about Arabic word gender so far. Practice will help you get better, but feel free to let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to hearing from you!

A lot of people stereotype Arabic as an “angry language.” What does that even mean?

They’re only talking about how it sounds. Anybody who knows any Arabic understands that it’s a language famous for its poetry and scripture, with elegant, untranslatable words for love and beauty.

But Arabs get angry too.

And in this article, we’ll guide you through the process of using the Arabic language to talk about frustration and anger, and even share with you some juicy insults. You won’t find any vulgar curse words here—those are members-only at ArabicPod101.com. This is just a list of angry Arabic phrases to get you started.

Since this topic is personal and emotional, we’re using a lot of colloquial Arabic phrases. It may not all be perfect MSA, but it’s certainly something that communicates straight to the heart.

Table of Contents

1. Talking About Your Anger
2. Talk to the Hand
3. This is Your Last Warning
4. Ordering People Around
5. Blame it All on Them
6. De-Escalate the Situation
7. Re-Escalate the Situation
8. Apologizing
9. Calming Down
10. Conclusion

1. Talking About Your Anger

Your emotions are important. Most people don’t like to talk about their feelings, so when you come out and directly state how you feel, you might be taken seriously. Here are different ways you can say “I am angry” in Arabic, or describe other negative emotions to those around you.

• I’m angry.
  أَنا غاضِب.
  ʾanā ġāḍib.
• That’s annoying.
  هَذا مُزعِج.
  haḏā muzʿiǧ.

Looking for more words about feelings in Arabic? Look no further—they’re right here.

• What you said made me angry.
  ما قُلتَهُ أَغضَبَني.
  mā qultahu ʾaġḍabanī.
• I don’t feel good when you do that.
  أنزَعِجُ عِندَما تَفعَلُ ذَلِك.
  ʾnzaʿiǧu ʿindamā tafʿalu ḏalik.
• It makes me frustrated when we disagree.
  أُحِسُّ بِالإحباط عِندَما لا نَتَّفِق.
  ʾuḥissu bilʾiḥbāṭ ʿindamā lā nattafiq.

2. Talk to the Hand

Is somebody bugging you and not getting the hint? You’ve got permission to be direct. In many cultures, including Arab cultures, these phrases for directly saying that you don’t want to talk to someone are taken rather seriously. Many people aren’t used to communicating in this way. Here are some perfect angry Arabic phrases for communicating this feeling to people.

• I don’t want to talk to you.
  لا أُريدُ التَكَلُّمَ مَعَك.
  lā ʾurīdu al-takalluma maʿak.
• It’s none of your business.
  هَذا لَيْسَ مِن شَأنِك.
  haḏā laysa min šaʾnik.
• This doesn’t concern you.
  هَذا لا يَخُصُّك.
  haḏā lā yaḫuṣṣuk.
• What are you looking at?
  إلى ما تَنظُر؟
  ʾilā mā tanẓur?
• Whatever.
  مَهما يَكُن.
  mahmā yakun.

3. This is Your Last Warning

Are things heating up in your conversation? You can use these angry phrases in Arabic to get across the idea that if the other person doesn’t stop while they’re ahead, things might get bad.

• Don’t start anything.
  لا تَبدَأ أَيَّ شَيْء.
  lā tabdaʾ ʾayya šayʾ.
• You’re in trouble now.
  أَنتَ في مُشكِلَةٍ الآن.
  ʾanta fī muškilaẗin al-ʾān.
• I’m not going to take that from you.
  لَن أَتَقَبَّل ذَلِكَ مِنك.
  lan ʾataqabbal ḏalika mink.
• I won’t tell you again.
  لَن أُخبِرُكَ نَفس الشَيْء مُجَدَّداً.
  lan ʾuḫbiruka nafs al-šayʾ muǧaddadan.
• That’s enough.
  هَذا يَكفي.
  haḏā yakfī.
• Watch your mouth.
  اِنتَبِه لِكلامِك.
  intabih liklāmik.
• Back off.
  اِبتَعِد
  ibtaʿid
• What did you say to me?
  ماذا قُلت لي؟
  māḏā qult lī?

There’s one more phrase that’s particularly hard to translate. Tayyeb is a word with many meanings. Usually, it’s fairly positive or noncommittal, like “fine” or “not bad.” However, it’s very easy to use in a sarcastic or even threatening way. It can mean “Yeah, so what?” and in an annoyed tone, “Watch it.”

4. Ordering People Around

Nobody likes to be ordered around, but sometimes when people are pushing your buttons, you just have to snap.

Here we’ve got three great phrases for telling people to just be quiet. First, an all-purpose one:

• Shut up!
  اِخرَس!
  iḫras!

These next two come from Levantine Arabic, and they’re quite similar on the surface. We’ve translated them both here as “shut your face” because what you’re supposed to shut is actually not the mouth.

Nee’ak refers to the entire cheek, jaw, and mouth area, while boozak is quite similar to “beak” or “snout” in English—thus, the animal connotations make it harsher.

• Shut your mouth.
  اَغلِق فَمَك.
  aġliq famak.
• Get out of my face.
  اُغرُب عَن وَجهي.
  uġrub ʿan waǧhī.
• Get out of my sight.
  اِبتَعِد عَن أَنظاري.
  ibtaʿid ʿan ʾanẓārī.

Here’s a particularly Arab variant of the last two phrases we just heard. This one pops up on lists of “untranslatable words” a lot, but in this context, the message is clear.

• Go tile the ocean. (Lebanese Arabic)
  روح بَلَّط البَحر.
  rūḥ ballaṭ al-baḥr.
• Get out and never come back! (Maghrebi Arabic)
  روح بَلا رَجعَة.
  rūḥ balā raǧʿah.

Here’s one last variant, this time from Morocco. Many people say that the Moroccan dialect is the hardest to learn, but one look at your face and everybody will understand what you mean with this phrase:

• Go away!
  سير بحالَك.
  sīr bḥalak.

5. Blame it All on Them

Something’s gone wrong in your life, and you’re not to blame. When another person’s bad decisions have really let you down, you can use these phrases to tell them how much they’ve messed up.

First, we’ll start off with a great pair of lines from Levantine Arabic. Even if you’re not very comfortable with the Arabic language yet, hopefully you can see the difference here and internalize it, because the meaning is quite important!

• May God forgive you (for what you’ve done).
  الله يِسامحَك.
  Allah yisāmḥak.
• May God NOT forgive you (for what you’ve done).
  الله لا يِسامحَك.
  Allah la yisāmḥak.

See the difference? One thing was acceptable enough for my prayer, and the other thing? Definitely not, and in fact, I hope it comes back to bite you!

Now for some more all-purpose phrases. First, some declarations of surprise at the sheer audacity of the action.

• I can’t believe you did that.
  لا أَستَطيعُ أَن أُصَدِّق أَنَّكَ فَعَلتَ ذَلِك.
  lā ʾastaṭīʿu ʾan ʾuṣaddiq ʾannaka faʿalta ḏalik.
• This is your fault.
  هَذا خَطَؤُك.
  haḏā ḫaṭaʾuk.
• How could you do this?
  كَيْفَ لَك أَن تَفعَل ذَلِك؟
  kayfa lak ʾan tafʿal ḏalik?
• I’m disappointed in you.
  أَشعُرُ بِخَيْبَةِ أَمَلٍّ مِنك.
  ʾašʿuru biḫaybaẗi ʾamallin mink.
• What were you thinking?
  ماذا كُنتَ تَظُن؟
  māḏā kunta taẓun?

These next two phrases sound like a parent chiding their kid in Western culture, but in Arab culture, the concept of shame and dignity is quite different than you may be used to.

• You should be ashamed of yourself.
  يَجِبُ أَن تَستَحي مِن نَفسِك.
  yaǧibu ʾan tastaḥī min nafsik.
• You shouldn’t have done that.
  لَم يَكُن عَلَيْكَ القِيَام بِهَذا.
  lam yakun ʿalayka al-qiyam bihaḏā.

6. De-Escalate the Situation

Alright, take a deep breath here. I know you’re angry, but violence isn’t the answer. Here are some things you can try saying or doing to calm down and make up.

• I don’t want any trouble.
  لا أُريدُ أَيَّ مَشاكِل.
  lā ʾurīdu ʾayya mašākil.
• You’re right, I’m sorry.
  أَنتَ عَلى حَق، أَعتَذِر.
  ʾanta ʿalā ḥaq, ʾaʿtaḏir.
• Tell me how you feel about it.
  قُل لي كَيْفَ تَشعُرُ حِيَال ذَلِك.
  qul lī kayfa tašʿuru ḥiyal ḏalik.
• We don’t have to fight about this.
  لَيْسَ عَلَيْنا المُشاجَرَة حَوْلَ هَذا.
  laysa ʿalaynā al-mušāǧarah ḥawla haḏā.
• I shouldn’t have said that.
  لَم يَكُن عَلَيَّ قَوْلُ ذَلِك.
  lam yakun ʿalayya qawlu ḏalik.
• Let’s agree to disagree.
  فَلنَتَّفِق عَلى أَنَّنا لَم نَتَّفِق.
  falnattafiq ʿalā ʾannanā lam nattafiq.
• This isn’t worth fighting over.
  هَذا لا يَستَحِق المُشاجَرَة.
  haḏā lā yastaḥiq al-mušāǧarah.
• Calm down.
  إهدَأ.
  ʾihdaʾ.

Note: Most people hate being told to calm down in any language! If you don’t use this one at the right moment, it might really wind someone up. Speaking of which…

7. Re-Escalate the Situation

Couldn’t de-escalate? Whatever. Now it’s time for some words and phrases designed to provoke—so you’d better be ready to back them up with action if need be.

• Idiot!
  !غَبي
  ġabī!
• Ugly moron!
  يَالَكَ مِن قَبيح مَعتوه!
  yalaka min qabīḥ maʿtūh!
• Are you ugly AND stupid?
  هَل أَنتَ قَبيح وغَبِيّ؟
  hal ʾanta qabīḥ ūġabiyy?
• You are a shoe! (Egyptian Arabic)
  إنتَ جَزمَة!
  ʾinta ǧazmah!

Thrown off by that one? Shoes and feet are considered particularly unclean in Arab culture, and so this insult is pretty low-down.

• You are a donkey!
  إنتَ حمار.
  ʾinta ḥmār.

From Egypt, here’s a phrase that can come off as quite threatening in some contexts.

• May your house be destroyed!
  يِخرِب بيتَك.
  yiḫrib bītak.

You should know that there are lots of things that don’t translate well between cultures. In Arab culture, calling somebody a liar or crazy is considered a big deal. You might think you’re just joking around, but these feelings go very deep into the culture.

In fact, a lot of these insults might sound pretty silly in English! But that doesn’t mean you can use them freely. Many people have lost friends over arguments stemming from “I didn’t mean it!” / “Then why did you say it?!”

So although some of these might seem fun to say, remember that as an outsider, you’ll never really grasp what it’s like to be on the receiving end of these.

8. Apologizing

So in that case, you should also be well-equipped with some apology words. We have a couple of different lessons on apologies in Arabic, so don’t forget to check those out. This section is just to cool you off after reading the rest of the article!

Did you go too far with your insults? Try these phrases.

• I don’t know what came over me.
  لا أَعرِف ما حَدَث بي.
  lā ʾaʿrif mā ḥadaṯ bī.
• I know that I hurt you.
  أَعرِفُ أَنَّني قَد آذَيْتُك.
  ʾaʿrifu ʾannanī qad ʾāḏaytuk.
• I’m sorry.
  عُذراً.
  ʿuḏran.
• Words can’t express how much I regret what I said.
  الكَلِمات لا تَستَطيعُ أَن تُعَبِّرَ عَن نَدَمي عَلى ما قُلتَه.
  al-kalimāt lā tastaṭīʿu ʾan tuʿabbira ʿan nadamī ʿalā mā qultah.
• Will you forgive me?
  هَل يُمكِنُكَ أَن تُسامِحَني.
  hal yumkinuka ʾan tusāmiḥanī.

None of these is guaranteed to work, but if you’re lucky, you might just hear:

• It’s no problem at all.
  لا مُشكِلَة عَلى الإطلاق.
  lā muškilah ʿalā al-ʾiṭlāq.
• Forget it.
  إنسى الأَمر.
  ʾinsā al-ʾamr.

9. Calming Down

Everybody pretty much agrees that it’s not good to fight with others. If you’re angry, there are lots of things you can do to calm down instead. You can use these phrases to either invite others to calm down, or simply do them yourself.

• I’m gonna go take a little walk.
  سَأَخرُج لِأَتَمَشّى قَليلاً.
  saʾaḫruǧ liʾatamaššā qalīlan.
• Take some deep breaths.
  خُذ بَعض الأَنفاس الطَوِيلَة.
  ḫuḏ baʿḍ al-ʾanfās al-ṭawilah.
• Try to see it from my point of view.
  حاوِل أَن تَرى ذَلِك مِن وِجهَةِ نَظَري.
  ḥāwil ʾan tarā ḏalik min wiǧhaẗi naẓarī.
• Let’s come back to this in a few minutes.
  فَلنَعُد إلى هَذا بَعد بِضع دَقائِق.
  falnaʿud ʾilā haḏā baʿd biḍʿ daqāʾiq.
• Let me try to forget about this.
  دَعني أُحاوِل أَن أَنسى الأَمر.
  daʿnī ʾuḥāwil ʾan ʾansā al-ʾamr.

You’ll note that a lot of these phrases can be applied in many situations, from the boardroom to your personal life. That’s because the sentiments of tolerance and understanding are recognized anywhere.

Last, here’s an Arabic idiom that means “You have no bad feelings inside of you.” Say this to remind people that it’s true.

• Your heart is white.
  قَلبُكَ أَبيَض.
  qalbuka ʾabyaḍ.

10. Conclusion

You may be wondering, “Is that it?”

Arabic is ancient, Arabic is poetic, Arabic is beautiful, but doesn’t it have anything stronger than that?

Yes. Very much yes. But we didn’t want to print it here.

Members of ArabicPod101 enjoy many benefits—fantastic grammar explanations, vocabulary exercises, and a world-class podcast course.

And a bunch of dirty words.

Arabic curse words are vibrant and full of life, and if you really want to understand Arab culture like a local, you’ve got to know some of them.

Plus, after you sign up on our website and access the word list, you’ll be able to keep learning Arabic with the other materials, in the best way possible!

What’s your favorite angry Arabic phrase on this list? Feel ready to use them when the time comes, or to let someone know you’re angry in Arabic? Let us know in the comments.

Just remember to use your new powers of language responsibly. We’re not liable for any trouble you get into—and we hope that you use your fluent Arabic to navigate any tricky situation respectfully.

Language is really about making connections.

If you know how to chat with somebody about the weather or the food you’re eating, well, good for you. That might lead to an interesting conversation.

But when you know a little bit more about your target language culture, and you can pull out the right phrase for the right situation (like how to wish a happy birthday in Arabic), you show that you’ve gone beyond just knowing a handful of words.

And when that phrase is about some major life event, something that really has an emotional effect on somebody? That’s when you make a fantastic impression.

So that’s what this article is all about: the absolute essential phrases that you need in Arabic to show somebody that you care, no matter what they’re going through.

Table of Contents

1. Birthdays
2. Holidays
3. Weddings and Anniversaries
4. Babies
5. Graduation and Academic Success
6. Workplace Success
7. Bad News in General
8. Good News in General
9. Conclusion

1. Birthdays

Although birthdays can seem like a big deal at times, there’s actually not a very solid tradition of celebrating birthdays in Arab culture. It’s not necessarily related to religion either—Christian and Muslim holy texts say little about birthdays one way or another.

Some people say that the lack of “birthday culture” is because Arabs tend to be very close to their extended families. In that case, getting a gift and going to parties for your scores of cousins would end up taking a big chunk out of your time and money every year!

That said, many Arabic-speakers do celebrate their birthdays, particularly those living in Western countries. If you’re invited to such a party, you should remember to bring a gift.

But what should you say? Don’t worry: you only really need one phrase of Arabic congratulations:

عيد ميلاد سعيد
ʿīdu mīlādin saʿīd
Happy birthday!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re speaking to a man or a woman when you use this phrase. For something more poetic, try these two:

كُلُّ عام وَأَنتَ بِخَيْر
kullu ʿāmin waʾanta biḫayr
May each year be happy.

كُلُّ سَنَة وأَنتَ سالِم
kullu sanah waʾanta salim
May you be fine every year.

These are two very similar ways to basically say “and many more!”

2. Holidays

Anyone with a little bit of knowledge about the Middle East and Islam knows that Ramadan is the number-one holiday of the year. Even if you’re not a Muslim, it’s impossible not to notice as stores close early, prayer calls ring through the streets, and businesses do their best to turn it into a shopping holiday. It’s celebrated at a different time each year, lasting one lunar month and leading up to Eid al-Fitr, the day of celebration.

As with every holiday, there are a lot of things you could say. Many people write cards with poetry or other intricate well-wishings. Here, we’ll just give you the one magic Arabic congratulation you need:

رَمَضان مُبارَك
ramaḍān mubārak
Happy Ramadan!

However, there’s a lot more to religion in the Arab world than Islam, and therefore a lot more holidays than Ramadan. Christmas is widely celebrated, even by non-Christians, thanks to its prominence as an international Western holiday. In Egypt, it’s actually celebrated on January 7, as opposed to the December 25 you often see in other parts of the world.

عيد ميلاد مجيد مبارك!
ʿiīd miyilād maǧīd mubaārak!
Merry Christmas!

The last of the major Middle Eastern religions is, of course, Judaism. Although Judaism is often associated with the Hebrew language, there are large communities of Arabic-speaking Jews in many countries as well, especially Morocco. The major holiday in Judaism is Hanukkah, celebrated in November or December each year according to the Jewish calendar.

عيد هانوكة سعيد
ʿiīdu hānūkkah saʿīd
Happy Hanukkah!

3. Weddings and Anniversaries

In Islamic culture, most people think of weddings a little differently than Westerners from a Christian or secular background might. Most wedding wishes in English are simply some variant of “Congratulations!”

But from an Islamic point of view, the wedding is the result of Allah’s guidance through life. And there are a lot of ways to say that. For that reason, these three common phrases all kind of translate to “Congratulations” and also kind of translate to “Praise Allah!”

ما شاء الله!
mā šāʾ allah!
Praise Allah!

سُبحان الله!
subḥān allah!
Thanks to Allah!

الحَمدُ لله!
al-ḥamdu lillah!
Allah is great!

There’s one more quick phrase of congratulations in Arabic that you can use for a wedding that explicitly acknowledges the event:

زَوَاج مُبارَك!
zawaǧ mubārak!
Happy wedding!

Yes, it may sound a little strange in English, but it’s a perfectly common wish in Arabic!

If you’d like to be more poetic, here’s a slightly longer phrase for weddings:

أَلف مَبروك لِلعَروس والعَريس عَلى زَوَاجِهِما السَعيد.
ʾalf mabrūk lilʿarūs ūlʿarīs ʿalā zawaǧihimā al-saʿīd.
Congratulations to the happy bride and groom.

Lastly, we’ve got one last phrase for another love-related event: the anniversary. Although it’s common and expected for people to bring gifts to a wedding, friends and family would only be expected to acknowledge “big” anniversaries like ten years, twenty-five years, and so on. Don’t worry—the couple will tell you, so you don’t have to remember by yourself!

عيدُ ميلادٍ سَعيد!
ʿīdu mīlādin saʿīd!
Happy anniversary!

4. Babies

First comes love, then comes marriage…then comes a baby in a baby carriage!

In Islam, traditionally there’s no “baby shower” before the birth. Instead, the child is welcomed into the world with a ceremony called ʿaqiqah. This generally happens on the seventh, fourteenth, or twenty-first day after birth. There’s a sacrifice of a sheep or goat, the child’s hair is cut for the first time, and a large feast is prepared afterward.

As the child is already born by the time of this ceremony, the things people say are naturally slightly different depending on whether the couple has a son or a daughter, like so:

تَهانينا بِوِلادَةِ المَوْلود الجَديد!
tahānīnā biwilādaẗi al-mawlūd al-ǧadīd!
Congratulations on the arrival of your new beautiful baby boy/girl!

In this next phrase, you’re specifically addressing the mother. This is often seen in a card addressed to her directly.

لِلأُم الجَديدَة. أَطيَبُ التَمَنِّيات لَكِ ولِابنِك/اِبنَتِك.
lilʾum al-ǧadīdah. ʾaṭyabu al-tamanniīāt laki ūliābnik/ibnatik.
To the new mother: Best wishes for you and your son/daughter.

5. Graduation and Academic Success

Although more and more people are graduating from universities each year around the world, it’s still cause for celebration. Particularly in the Arab world, where economic development has made it possible for significantly more people to attend university now than ever before.

First, here’s a cute phrase you can use for a good friend when they’ve done well on some exam or test.

ما أَذكاك!
mā ʾaḏkāk!
Look at you, clever bunny!

More formally, for instance if you’ve already graduated but someone you know is still in school, you can use this phrase of congratulations in Arabic for graduation:

أَلف مَبروك عَلى النَجاح في الاِمتِحانات.
ʾalf mabrūk ʿalā al-naǧāḥ fī al-imtiḥānāt.
Congratulations on your success with the exams.

With such good exam results, a graduation is probably coming up! You can use this phrase in speech or in a card:

أَلف مَبروك عَلى حُصولِكَ عَلى الشَهادَة الجامِعِيَّة!
ʾalf mabrūk ʿalā ḥuṣūlika ʿalā al-šahādah al-ǧāmiʿiyyah!
Congratulations and happy graduation!

6. Workplace Success

A foreigner in the Arab business world is already going to be expected to work hard to not only excel at their job, but also to fit in culturally.

A lot of businesses in the Middle East work at breakneck speed already, and so if you know how to compliment your coworkers correctly, you’ll make great strides in assimilating into the company culture.

حَظّاً سَعيداً في مَنصِبِك الجَديد!
ḥaẓẓan saʿīdan fī manṣibik al-ǧadīd!
Best of luck in your new position!

Outside of moving up in the same company, people you know outside of work are naturally going to go on their own career paths. Here’s a phrase of congratulations in Arabic for success you can say when someone really nails the interview and lands a nice job:

تَهانينا عَلى الوَظيفَة الجَديدَة!
tahānīnā ʿalā al-waẓīfah al-ǧadīdah!
Congratulations on your new job!

Here’s a slightly more formal way to say the same thing, used when you might not know the person well. In that case, you’ll want to add on the actual name of the company at the end.

نَتَمَنّى لَكَ الحَظ الجَيِّد في وَظيفَتِك الجَديدَة عِندَ…
natamannā laka al-ḥaẓ al-ǧayyid fī waẓīfatik al-ǧadīdah ʿinda…
Best of luck at your new job at…

7. Bad News in General

Time for a brief downer section. If someone you know has received bad news, then you can reach out and comfort them with some heartfelt words. Of course, it will come off as a bit superficial or rude if you use stock phrases—try your best to modify these phrases to fit the actual situation.

Particularly when it comes to events related to death, religious people often use passages from holy texts. There are a number of resources online for Quranic quotes about life and death, and if you use them appropriately, the effort will be strongly appreciated in this trying time.

With that said, in this section we’ll stick to simpler Arabic condolences messages instead of direct scripture quotations.

Funerals

When somebody you know has lost someone close to them, a sympathetic card, letter, or even a phone call is the perfect gesture. Use these Arabic condolences to show your kind feelings.

تَقَبَّّلوا مِنّا خالِص التَعازي لِوَفاةِ المَرحوم
taqabbalū minnā ḫaliṣ al-taʿāzī liwafāẗi al-marḥūm
I am very sorry to hear of your loss.

قَلُبنا مَعَكُم ومَع عائِلَتِكُم بِما أَلَمَّ بِكُم مِن مِحنَة في هَذا الوَقت الصَعب.
qalubnā maʿakum ūmaʿ ʿāʾilatikum bimā ʾalamma bikum min miḥnah fī haḏā al-waqt al-ṣaʿb.
Our thoughts are with you and your family during this difficult time.

نُقَدِّم إلَيْكُم أَخلَص عِبارات التَعازي
nuqaddim ʾilaykum ʾaḫlaṣ ʿibārāt al-taʿāzī
Please know that we would like to offer our deepest sympathy.

Poor Health

Naturally, in Arabic as well as in English, people would much rather send “get-well” messages instead of discussing the particulars of the illness. The standard messages for this situation sound a lot like their English equivalents.

These condolences in Arabic are what you’d normally write on cards to the sick person’s home or hospital bed.

تَمَنِّيَاتي لَك بِالشِفاء العاجِل
tamanniyatī lak bilšifāʾ al-ʿāǧil
Get well soon.

If your coworker is suffering from an illness and you’d like to send a message of support from the whole office, you can phrase it this way:

نَرجو لَك الشِفاء العاجِل. الجَميع هُنا يُفَكِّرُ فيك.
narǧū lak al-šifāʾ al-ʿāǧil. al-ǧamīʿ hunā yufakkiru fīk.
Get well soon. Everyone here is thinking of you.

In a more personal way, you can make a phone call or send a text, and say this phrase:

.أَتَمَنّى لَكَ الشِفاء العاجِل
ʾatamannā laka al-šifāʾ al-ʿāǧil.
I hope you make a speedy recovery.

8. Good News in General

And in order to end on a happy note, let’s look at just a few more phrases you can use for any kind of catch-all good stuff.

First, remember those phrases from the wedding section about praising Allah? Those are excellent for when something good happens, no matter what it is.

To be honest, these may seem super-religious to some people, but they’ve entered the Arabic language as set phrases and are used by everyone. I remember one time it took me a long time to order at a restaurant, and the impatient waiter said al-hamdullilah under his breath once I finally made my choice!

We’ve also seen the word mubarak a couple times. A related word is مبروك (mabruuk), or “blessed”, which comes from the root بَرَكة (barakah), or “blessing.”

So when something’s gone very well for someone, and you want the perfect Arabic phrase for congratulations, you can simply wish them mabruuk! To emphasize it, you can say:

ألف مَبْرُوك
alf mabrūk
A thousand blessings!

And if a thousand blessings aren’t enough to make them happy, nothing will.

9. Conclusion

Although this article may seem comprehensive, the only way to really get a deep understanding of what to say and how to say it for different life events in Arabic is to get more experience.

Watch Arabic movies and read Arabic books—and check out the Arabic material here on ArabicPod101.com. Each episode comes with can’t-miss culture notes, so you’ll never be lost for words again.

Before you go, let us know in the comments what you learned today. Are there any life events or messages that you still want to learn? We look forward to hearing from you!

Psst. Hey.

Wanna buy an adjective?

The appropriate adjectives can really go a long way toward making your Arabic speech more careful and precise.

Right here, right now, you can pick up more than 100 Arabic adjectives—these are the good ones, too.

We’ve hand-selected the words on this Arabic adjectives list to cover the most common situations that might come up. We use adjectives in every conceivable part of life, and for that reason, your efforts to learn Arabic adjectives are vital to ensuring total language mastery!

Table of Contents

1. A Quick Overview of Arabic Adjectives
2. List of the 100+ Best Arabic Adjectives
3. Conclusion

1. A Quick Overview of Arabic Adjectives

Adjectives in Arabic require a bit of thought to use completely correctly. Let’s take a quick look at Arabic adjective rules, in four simple points.

• First, they’re always going to be placed after the noun.
• Second, if the noun is definite, you have to add the prefix al- to the beginning. Any adjectives following that noun also have to take that definite prefix.
• Third, according to Arabic adjective agreement, nouns that are dual or plural need to have adjectives in the dual or plural.
• Last, masculine nouns take masculine adjectives, and feminine nouns take feminine adjectives.

Many native Arabic speakers will leave off some or all of the noun endings when they speak their dialect of Arabic, but it’s important for you to know them for MSA reading and writing purposes.

For that reason, we’ll give you the full adjectives here in these example sentences, and you can practice your Arabic adjectives grammar by working out what gender and number they’re in!

2. List of the 100+ Best Arabic Adjectives

1- Describing Colors

Let’s start things off with the first and most common Arabic adjectives adjectives almost all new Arabic learners go over.

• أسود
  ʾaswad
  black

قَميصُهُ أَسوَد.
qamīṣuhu ʾaswad.
His shirt is black.

• أبيض
  ʾabyaḍ
  white

إنَّها تَرتَدي سِروَالاً أَبيَضاً.
ʾinnahā tartadī sirwalan ʾabyaḍan.
She’s wearing white pants.

• أَخضَر
  ʾaḫḍar
  green

العُشبُ أَخضَر جِدّاً اليَوْم.
al-ʿušbu ʾaḫḍar ǧiddan al-yawm.
The grass is very green today.

• رَمادي
  ramādī
  gray

لا أَستَريح عِندَما تَكونُ السَماء رَمادِيَّة.
lā ʾastarīḥ ʿindamā takūnu al-samāʾ ramādiyyah.
I don’t like it when the sky is gray.

• أَزرَق
  ʾazraq
  blue

هَل سَبَقَ لَك أَن شَرِبتَ الشايْ الأَزرَق؟
hal sabaqa lak ʾan šaribta al-šāy al-ʾazraq?
Have you ever had blue tea?

• بُنّي
  bunnī
  brown

عادَةً ما أرتَدي الأَحذِيَة البُنِّيَّة.
ʿādaẗan mā ʾrtadī al-ʾaḥḏiyah al-bunniyyah.
I normally wear brown shoes.

• أَحمَر
  ʾaḥmar
  red

اِحذَر مِن الأَفاعي ذات العُيُون الحَمراء.
iḥḏar min al-ʾafāʿī ḏāt al-ʿuyūn al-ḥamrāʾ.
Be careful of snakes with red eyes.

• أَصفَر
  ʾaṣfar
  yellow

اِنتَظِر حَتّى يُصبِح المَوْز أَصفَراً لِتَأكُلَه.
intaẓir ḥattā yuṣbiḥ al-mawz ʾaṣfaran litaʾkulah.
Wait for the banana to become yellow before you eat it.

• بُرتُقالي
  burtuqalī
  orange

إشتَرَت لي أُمّي قَميصاً بُرتُقالِيَّاً.
ʾištarat lī ʾummī qamīṣan burtuqaliyyaan.
My mom bought me an orange shirt.

2- Describing Food and Taste

Whether traveling or living in an Arabic-speaking country, everybody’s gotta eat. Describe your food with these basic Arabic adjectives.

• حار
  ḥār
  spicy

هَل عادَةً ما تَأكُل الطَعام الحار؟
hal ʿādaẗan mā taʾkul al-ṭaʿām al-ḥār?
Do you often eat spicy food?

• نَيِئ
  nayiʾ
  raw

لا آكُل السَمَك النَيِئ.
lā ʾākul al-samak al-nayiʾ.
I don’t eat raw fish.

• مر
  mur
  bitter

هُناك شَيْء مُر في طَعامي.
hunāk šayʾ mur fī ṭaʿāmī.
There’s something bitter in my food.

• حامِض
  ḥāmiḍ
  sour

بَعض الناس يُحِبّون الحَلوَى الحامِضَة.
baʿḍ al-nās yuḥibbūn al-ḥalwa al-ḥāmiḍah.
Some people like sour candy.

• مَقلي
  maqlī
  fried

لَيْسَ مِن الصِحّي أَكل الكَثير مِن الطَعام المَقلي.
laysa min al-ṣiḥḥī ʾakl al-kaṯīr min al-ṭaʿām al-maqlī.
It’s not healthy to eat a lot of fried food.

• حُلو
  ḥulū
  sweet

إنَّنا حَقّاً نُحِبُّ أَكل الطَعام الحُلو بَعد العَشاء.
ʾinnanā ḥaqqan nuḥibbu ʾakl al-ṭaʿām al-ḥulū baʿd al-ʿašāʾ.
We really love eating sweet food after dinner.

• مَطبوخ
  maṭbūḫ
  cooked

هَل هَذِهِ الخُضرَوات مَطبوخَة أَم نَيِئَة؟
hal haḏihi al-ḫuḍrawat maṭbūḫah ʾam nayiʾah?
Are these vegetables cooked or raw?

• مالِح
  maliḥ
  salty

هَذا شَديد المُلوحَة بِالنِسبَةِ لي.
haḏā šadīd al-mulūḥah bilnisbaẗi lī.
This is a little too salty for me.

• طازَج
  ṭāzaǧ
  fresh

هَل لَدَيْكُم لَحمٌ طازَج؟
hal ladaykum laḥmun ṭāzaǧ?
Do you have fresh meat?

• لَذيذ
  laḏīḏ
  delicious

هَذا لَذيذٌ جِدّاً.
haḏā laḏīḏun ǧiddan.
This is so delicious!

3- Describing Personality

You meet a lot of interesting people out and about, with a lot of big personalities. Better know how to talk about them! Here’s our list of useful Arabic adjectives to describe personality.

• مُهَذَّب
  muhaḏḏab
  polite

لَدَيْكَ أَطفال مُهَذَّبون.
ladayka ʾaṭfal- muhaḏḏabūn.
You have polite children.

• شرير
  širrīr
  wicked; malicious

المَلِك الشِرّير اِحتَجَز الأَميرَة في قَلعَة.
al-malik al-širrīr iḥtaǧaz al-ʾamīrah fī qalʿah.
The wicked king locked the princess in a castle.

• صادِق
  ṣādiq
  honest

كُن صادِقاً مَعي.
kun ṣādiqan maʿī.
Be honest with me.

• ظَريف
  ẓarīf
  nice; likable

إنَّها ظَريفَة.
ʾinnahā ẓarīfah.
She’s likable.

• هادئ
  hādi
  calm

جَدَّتي هادِئَةٌ دائِماً.
ǧaddatī hādiʾaẗun dāʾiman.
My grandmother is always very calm.

• خَجول
  ḫaǧūl
  shy

الأَطفال الصِغار غالِباً ما يَكونون خَجولين مَع الكِبار.
al-ʾaṭfal- al-ṣiġār ġal-iban mā yakūnūn ḫaǧūlīn maʿ al-kibār.
Little children are often shy around adults.

• مُنفَتِح
  munfatiḥ
  extroverted

هَل تَرى أَنَّكَ شَخص مُنفَتِح؟
hal tarā ʾannaka šaḫṣ munfatiḥ?
Do you think you’re an extroverted person?

• ذَكي
  ḏakī
  clever

يالَكِ مِن فَتاةٍ ذَكِيَّة!
yalaki min fatāẗin ḏakiyyah!
What a clever girl!

• جَدير بِالثِقَة
  ǧadīr bilṯiqah
  dependable; trustworthy

كُل أَصدِقائي جَديرون بِالثِقَة.
kul ʾaṣdiqāʾī ǧadīrūn bilṯiqah.
My friends are all trustworthy.

• مُشاغِب
  mušāġib
  naughty; badly behaved

التَلاميذ الآخَرون في القِسم مُشاغِبون.
al-talāmīḏ al-ʾāḫarūn fī al-qism mušāġibūn.
The other students in my class are naughty.

4- Describing Feelings

When somebody asks how you’re doing, don’t blow them off. Answer honestly!

• سَعيد
  saʿīd
  happy

أَشعُر بِأَنَّني سَعيد اليَوْم.
ʾašʿur biʾannanī saʿīd al-yūm.
I’m feeling so happy today!

• حَزين
  ḥazīn
  sad

لا تَكُن حَزيناً!
lā takun ḥazīnan!
Don’t be sad!

• قَلِق
  qaliq
  nervous

دائِماً ما أَقلَق قَبل التَحَدُّث أَمام الآخَرين.
dāʾiman mā ʾaqlaq qabl al-taḥadduṯ ʾamām al-ʾāḫarīn.
I always get nervous before speaking in front of others.

• غاضِب
  ġāḍib
  angry

أَبي يَغضَب كَثيراً.
ʾabī yaġḍab kaṯīran.
My dad gets angry a lot.

• خائِف
  ḫāʾif
  frightened

هَل تَخاف مِن العَناكِب؟
hal taḫāf min al-ʿanākib?
Do you get frightened of spiders?

• فَخور
  faḫūr
  proud

أَنا فَخور بِك.
ʾanā faḫūr bik.
I’m so proud of you.

• مُنزَعِج
  munzaʿiǧ
  annoyed; upset

لا تَتَكَلَّم إلَيّ مِن فَضلِك. أَنا مُنزَعِج قَليلاً.
lā tatakallam ʾilayy min faḍlik. ʾanā munzaʿiǧ qalīlan.
Please don’t talk to me. I’m a little annoyed.

• راضي
  rāḍī
  content; satisfied

أَشعُرُ بِأَنَّني راضٍ بِالمَشروع.
ʾašʿuru biʾannanī rāḍin bilmašrūʿ.
I feel satisfied with the project.

• نادِم
  nādim
  regretful

إنَّهُ نادِم عَلى البَقاء في بَلَدِه.
ʾinnahu nādim ʿalā al-baqāʾ fī baladih.
He is regretful about staying in his country.

• حائِر
  ḥāʾir
  confused

هَل أَنتَ حائِرٌ في مُهِمَّتِك؟
hal ʾanta ḥāʾirun fī muhimmatik?
Are you confused about your task?

• في حالَةِ تَأَهُّب.
  fī ḥalaẗi taʾahhub
  alert

جَلَسَ عَلى السَرير, في حالَةِ تَأَهُّبٍ يُراقِب.
ǧalasa ʿalā al-sarīr, fī ḥal-aẗi taʾahhubin yurāqib.
He sat up in bed, alert and watching.

5- Describing Appearance (People)

Describing people’s appearance is different than describing things. Here’s what you need for the former.

• شاب
  šāb
  young

كُنتُ شابّاً حائِراً في الحَيَاة.
kuntu šābban ḥāʾiran fī al-ḥayah.
I was young and confused about life.

• عَجوز
  ʿaǧūz
  old; elderly

هَذِهِ العَجوز لَدَيْها قِصَصٌ عَظيمَة
haḏihi al-ʿaǧūz ladayhā qiṣaṣun ʿaẓīmah
This old woman has great stories.

• قَصير
  qaṣīr
  short

مَن هَذِهِ المَرأَة القَصيرَة؟
man haḏihi al-marʾah al-qaṣīrah?
Who’s that short woman?

• طَوِيل
  ṭawil
  tall

إنَّهُ رَجُلٌ مُسِن, لَكِنَّهُ مازال طَوِيلاً جِدّاً.
ʾinnahu raǧulun musin, lakinnahu māzal- ṭawilan ǧiddan.
He’s an old man, but he’s still very tall.

• قَوِي
  qawi
  strong

نَحتاجُ شَخصاً قَوِيّاً لِحَملِ هَذا.
naḥtāǧu šaḫṣan qawiّan liḥamli haḏā.
We need someone strong to lift this.

• مُلتَحي
  multaḥī
  bearded

السوق مَليء بِالمُسِنّين والمُلتَحين.
al-sūq malīʾ bilmusinnīn ūlmultaḥīn.
The market is full of old and bearded men.

• أَصلَع
  ʾaṣlaʿ
  bald

إنَّهُ شاب لَكِنَّهُ أَصلَع.
ʾinnahu šāb lakinnahu ʾaṣlaʿ.
He’s young, but he’s already bald.

• جَميل
  ǧamīl
  beautiful; handsome

لَدَيْكَ زَوْجَةٌ جَميلَةٌ.
ladayka zawǧaẗun ǧamīlaẗun.
You have a beautiful wife.

• بَشِع
  bašiʿ
  ugly

لَستَ بَشِعاً عَلى الإطلاق.
lasta bašiʿan ʿalā al-ʾiṭlāq.
You’re not ugly at all.

• سَمين
  samīn
  fat

لاحَظت أَنَّني أَصبَحتُ سَميناً قَليلاً.
lāḥaẓt ʾannanī ʾaṣbaḥtu samīnan qalīlan.
I noticed that I’m getting a little fat.

• نَحيف
  naḥīf
  skinny

أَخي نَحيفٌ جِدّاً.
ʾaḫī naḥīfun ǧiddan.
My brother is very skinny.

• نَشيط
  našīṭ
  athletic; lively

أَغلَب الطَلَبَة الجامِعيين رِيَاضِيُّون.
ʾaġlab al-ṭalabah al-ǧāmiʿīīn riyaḍiyyūn.
Most college students are athletic.

6- Describing Nationality

People come from all over, and country names are something you can’t avoid learning.

• مَغْرِبِيّ
  maġribiyy
  Moroccan

هَل أَبوكَ مَغرِبِيّ؟
hal ʾabūka maġribiyy?
Is your father Moroccan?

• كَنَدِيّ
  kanadiyy
  Canadian

هَل تَعلَم مَن هُوَ رَئيس الحُكومَة الكَنَدِيّ؟
hal taʿlam man huwa raʾīs al-ḥukūmah al-kanadiyy?
Do you know who the Canadian prime minister is?

• فَرَنْسِي
  faransiī
  French

لا أُحِب الأَكل الفِرِنسِيّ.
lā ʾuḥib al-ʾakl al-firinsiyy.
I don’t like French food.

• إِنْدُونِيْسِيّ
  ʾiinduūniysiyy
  Indonesian

الإندونيسِيُّون أُناسٌ طَيِّبون جِدّاً.
al-ʾindūnīsiyyuūn ʾunāsun ṭayyibūn ǧiddan.
Indonesian people are very friendly.

• صيْنِيّ
  ṣiniyy
  Chinese

هُناكَ مَطعَمٌ صينِيّ قُرب مَنزِلي.
hunāka maṭʿamun ṣīniyy qurba manzilī.
There’s a Chinese restaurant near my house.

• أَمْرِيْكِيّ
  ʾamriykiyy
  American

السَيّارات الأَمريكِيَّة مَعروفَة في العالَم.
al-sayyārāt al-ʾamrīkiyyah maʿrūfah fī al-ʿalam.
American cars are popular around the world.

• مِصْرِيّ
  miṣriyy
  Egyptian

الجامِعات المِصرِيَّة مَشهورَة حَوْل العالَم.
al-ǧāmiʿāt al-miṣriyyah mašhūrah ḥawl al-ʿalam.
Egyptian universities are famous around the world.

• تُوْنِسِيّ
  tunisiyy
  Tunisian

يُعجِبُني الطَقس التونِسي.
yuʿǧibunī al-ṭaqs al-tūnisī.
I enjoy Tunisian weather.

• إِمَارَاتِيّ
  ʾimārātiyy
  Emirati

لَدَيَّ عِلاقاتٍ مَع عِدَّةِ شَرِكاتٍ إماراتِيَّة.
ladayya ʿilāqātin maʿ ʿiddaẗi šarikātin ʾimārātiyyah.
I have connections with several Emirati companies.

7- Describing Appearance (Things)

Now let’s learn how to describe inanimate objects, as opposed to people.

• جَيِّد
  ǧayyid
  good

هَذِهِ صِوَرٌ جَيِّدَة.
haḏihi ṣiwarun ǧayyidah.
These are good pictures.

• عَظيم
  ʿaẓīm
  great

يَالَها مِن فِكرَةٍ عَظيمَة.
yalahā min fikraẗin ʿaẓīmah.
What a great idea!

• سَيِّء
  sayyiʾ
  bad

هَذِهِ سَيَّارَة سَيِّئَة. لا أَظُنٌ أَنَّكَ يَجِبُ أَن تَشتَريها.
haḏihi sayyaārah sayyiʾah. lā ʾaẓunun ʾannaka yaǧibu ʾan taštarīhā.
That’s a bad car and I don’t think you should buy it.

• رَهيب
  rahīb
  terrible

أَخبَرَني أَنَّ أَفكاري رَهيبَة.
ʾaḫbaranī ʾanna ʾafkārī rahībah.
He told me my ideas were terrible.

• ضَخم
  ḍaḫm
  huge

لَدَى وَالِداي شَجَرَة كَبيرَة أَمام مَنزِلَيْهِما.
ladā walidāī šaǧarah kabīrah ʾamām manzilayhimā.
My parents have a huge tree in front of their house.

• كَبير
  kabīr
  big

أُريدُ سَيَّارَةً كَبيرَة.
ʾurīdu sayyaāraẗan kabīrah.
I want a big car.

• صَغير
  ṣaġīr
  small

أُختي لَدَيْها كَلبٌ صَغير.
ʾuḫtī ladayhā kalbun ṣaġīr.
My sister has a small dog.

• طَوِيل
  ṭawil
  long

أَقرَأُ كِتاباً طَويلاً.
ʾaqraʾu kitāban ṭawīlan.
I’m reading a long book.

• شاسِع
  šāsiʿ
  vast; wide

الصَحراء شاسِعَة.
al-ṣaḥrāʾ šāsiʿah.
The desert is vast.

• جَديد
  ǧadīd
  new

هاتِفي كانَ جَديداً, والآن لا أَستَطيعُ إيجادَه.
hātifī kāna ǧadīdan, ūlʾān lā ʾastaṭīʿu ʾiīǧādah.
My phone was new, and now I can’t find it.

• قَديم
  qadīm
  old

يُمكِنُكَ إستِعمال هاتِفي القَديم.
yumkinuka ʾistiʿmal hātifī al-qadīm.
You can use my old phone.

• ثَقيل
  ṯaqīl
  heavy

هَذِهِ الحَقيبَة ثَقيلَة.
haḏihi al-ḥaqībah ṯaqīlah.
This bag is heavy.

8- Describing Weather

Weather’s a great icebreaker since it happens everywhere and all the time. If these words don’t do it for you, check out our adjectives vocab list!

• حار
  ḥār
  hot

أُفَضِّل الطَقس الحارّ.
ʾufaḍḍil al-ṭaqs al-ḥārr.
I prefer hot weather.

• بارِد
  bārid
  cold

شَخصِيّاً, أَنا حَقّاً أُحِبُّ الطَقس البارِد.
šaḫṣiyyan, ʾanā ḥaqqan ʾuḥibbu al-ṭaqs al-bārid.
Personally, I really like cold weather.

• غائِم
  ġāʾim
  cloudy

مَع الأَسَف, الطَقسُ غائِم لَيْلاً.
maʿ al-ʾasaf, al-ṭaqsu ġāʾim laylan.
Unfortunately, it’s cloudy at night.

• مُشمِس
  mušmis
  sunny

إنَّهُ يَوْمٌ جَميل و مُشمِس.
ʾinnahu yūmun ǧamīl wa mušmis.
It’s a beautiful and sunny day.

• عاصِف
  ʿāṣif
  windy

إنَّ الطَقسُ عاصِف دائِماً قُرب الساحِل
ʾinna al-ṭaqsu ʿāṣif dāʾiman qurb al-sāḥil
It’s always windy near the coast.

• مُمطِر
  mumṭir
  rainy

تَكادُ لا تُمطِر السَماء في الرَبيع.
takādu lā tumṭir al-samāʾ fī al-rabīʿ.
It’s almost never rainy in spring.

• رَطِب
  raṭib
  humid

الطَقسُ رَطِب جِدّاً في هاوَاي طول السَنَة.
al-ṭaqsu raṭib ǧiddan fī hāwaī ṭūl al-sanah.
The weather is really humid in Hawaii all year.

9- Describing Touch

This goes hand-in-hand with describing objects—these adjectives are rarely learned at the beginning, but they’re very useful in daily life.

• أَملَس
  ʾamlas
  smooth

اِنظُر إلى سَطح الماء الأَملَس.
inẓur ʾilā saṭḥ al-māʾ al-ʾamlas.
Look at the smooth surface of the water.

• خَشِن
  ḫašin
  rough

جِلدُهُ خَشِن.
ǧilduhu ḫašin.
His skin is rough.

• مُتَشَقِّق
  mutašaqqiq
  cracked

مِرآتي مُتَشَقِّقَة. هَل تَعرِفُ مَن فَعَلَ ذَلِك؟
mirʾātī mutašaqqiqah. hal taʿrifu man faʿala ḏalik?
My mirror is cracked. Do you know who did it?

• لامِع
  lāmiʿ
  shiny

لَدَيْها شَيْءٌ لامِع في يَدِها.
ladayhā šayʾun lāmiʿ fī yadihā.
She has something shiny in her hand.

• زَلِق
  zaliq
  slippery

الأَطباق زَلِقَة.
al-ʾaṭbāq zaliqah.
The dishes are slippery.

• مُبَلَّل
  muballal
  wet

الأَرضِيَّة مُبَلَّلَة, ِلذا كُن حَذاً.
al-ʾarḍiyyah muballalah, ilḏā kun ḥaḏiran.
The floor is wet, so be careful.

• جاف
  ǧāf
  dry

اترُك الأَرُز جافّاً قَبلَ اِستِعمالِه لِلطَبخ.
itruk al-ʾaruz ǧāffan qabla istiʿmal-ih lilṭabḫ.
Keep rice dry before using it to cook.

• لَزِج
  laziǧ
  sticky

هُناكَ شَيْءٌ لَزِج عَلى الطاوِلَة.
hunāka šayʾun laziǧ ʿalā al-ṭāwilah.
There’s something sticky on the table.

• هَش
  haš
  fragile

هَذِهِ قِطعَةُ آثارٍ هَشَّة.
haḏihi qiṭʿaẗu ʾāṯārin haššah.
This is a fragile antique.

• ناعِم
  nāʿim
  soft

أُحِبُّ الأَسِرَّة الناعِمَة.
ʾuḥibbu al-ʾasirrah al-nāʿimah.
I like soft beds.

10- Describing Concepts

People, places, things, and ideas—all of them get separate types of adjectives when it’s time to be specific. Here are the Arabic adjectives that are used for describing concepts.

• صَعب
  ṣaʿb
  difficult

هَل مِن الصَعب تَحَدُّث العَرَبِيَّة بِطَلاقَة؟
hal min al-ṣaʿb taḥadduṯ al-ʿarabiyyah biṭalāqah?
Is it difficult to speak Arabic fluently?

• هام
  hām
  important

يُرجى تَدوين المُلاحَظات خِلال هَذا الاِجتِماع المُهِم.
yurǧā tadūīn al-mulāḥaẓāt ḫilal- haḏā al-iǧtimāʿ al-muhim.
Please take notes during this important meeting.

• خاص
  ḫāṣ
  private; special

هَل يُمكِنُنا أَن نَأخُذَ غُرفَة خاصَّة؟
hal yumkinunā ʾan naʾḫuḏa ġurfah ḫāṣṣah?
Can we have a private room?

• عام
  ʿām
  public

لَقَد أَدلَت بِإعلان عام الأَمس.
laqad ʾadlat biʾiʿlān ʿām al-ʾams.
She made a public announcement yesterday.

• مُعَقَّد
  muʿaqqad
  complex

هَذِهِ المُشكِلَة مُعَقَّدَة.
haḏihi al-muškilah muʿaqqadah.
This problem is complex.

• بَسيط
  basīṭ
  simple

العَرَبِيَّة لَيْسَت لُغَة بَسيطَة.
al-ʿarabiyyah laysat luġah basīṭah.
Arabic is not a simple language.

• خاطِئ
  ḫāṭiʾ
  wrong

أَنتَ خاطِئ حَوْل ذَلِك.
ʾanta ḫāṭiʾ ḥawl ḏalik.
You’re wrong about that.

• صَحيح
  ṣaḥīḥ
  true; correct

لا أَظُنُّ أَنَّ ما قالَهُ صَحيح.
lā ʾaẓunnu ʾanna mā qal-ahu ṣaḥīḥ.
I don’t believe that what he said is correct.

• مُمِل
  mumil
  boring

هَذِهِ مُحاضَرَة مُمِلَّة.
haḏihi muḥāḍarah mumillah.
This is a very boring lecture.

• وَاضِح
  waḍiḥ
  clear; obvious

الجَوَابُ وَاضِح الآن.
al-ǧawabu waḍiḥ al-ʾān.
The answer is clear now.

3. Conclusion

Finished reading through the list?

Let me tell you, if you read through it again once more tomorrow, and then once more after that, these phrases are going to stick in your head like nobody’s business. Consistency and repetition are important while increasing your Arabic adjectives vocabulary!

Looking for more Arabic resources? ArabicPod101 has got you covered, with blog articles, vocab trainers, flashcards, and, of course, podcasts.

Before you go, let us know in the comments what new adjectives you learned today. Are there are any adjectives you still want to learn? We look forward to hearing from you and answering any questions you have!

There are two things that make for a fantastic language-learning environment.

The first is people chatting naturally, as actual people do, without any kind of stilted usage meant for learners. No “How are you?” “I’m fine, thank you.” You want: “Hey, what’s up?” “Hey.” Or, you know, that in Arabic.

The second is to have something interesting to care about. If you’re not interested in what’s happening, and you don’t care which way it ends up at the end, your mind won’t be focused enough to really remember what you’re picking up language-wise.

Watching Arabic shows on Netflix—long and engaging—is seriously one of the best things you can do for yourself. And when you think of great television in 2019, you probably think of Netflix.

So what’s the deal with Arabic Netflix, anyway? Why should you take the plunge to watch Netflix shows in Arabic? Can you really learn Arabic on Netflix?

Table of Contents

1. Netflix Arabic Content: Why is Arabic Netflix Different?
2. The Ten Best Arabic Netflix Offerings
3. Hey, All of These are TV Shows!
4. Using Dubbed Media in Arabic to Enjoy Another World of Content
5. Be the First to Leverage Arabic Audio Descriptions for Your Learning
6. Conclusion

1. Netflix Arabic Content: Why is Arabic Netflix Different?

Ever gone on a vacation overseas and fired up your Netflix, only to be told that what you were watching was no longer available because you’d crossed a border? Or discussed a great show with a friend abroad who wasn’t able to find it on their own Netflix catalog?

Netflix changes the shows available to different people based on their geographic location. This is because of different licensing deals, and this is also one of the reasons they’re producing original content—so they can get to distribute it to whatever market they want.

Unfortunately, the bottom line for you is that unless you’re living in an Arabic-speaking country or have VPN access to one, you’re unlikely to get the true and complete catalog of Arabic Netflix offerings.

But supposing you’re able to circumvent that problem, get an Arabic Netflix app, or simply gain access to the Arabic Netflix series… Here are what Arabic shows are on Netflix!

2. The Ten Best Arabic Netflix Offerings

1- The Writer (Lebanese and Syrian Arabic)

Imagine this: You’re a well-known novelist in your community, best known for writing books on crime. Then, mysterious things start happening around you that sound an awful lot like your stories. Is somebody being inspired by you in the worst of ways? Or are your books coming true for some unknowable reason?

Starting right off, the Arabic Netflix series The Writer will expose you to plenty of words and phrases related to crime, police, and investigations. It moves pretty fast, so don’t worry about rewinding or skipping around in order to follow what’s going on.

Ready to watch one of the best Arabic Netflix shows? Head to the Arabic Netflix sign in and prepare to binge!

2- al Hayba (Lebanese and Syrian Arabic)

If you’re not familiar with Middle Eastern geography, you may not realize at first that al-Hayba is the name of an area right on the border of Syria and Lebanon. But that’s where this story takes place, as a young, intensely motivated arms dealer comes to grips with the death of his brother while handling the conflicts in his community.

In a border region, people tend to be bilingual from necessity or just sheer force of habit. Native speakers of Arabic won’t have too much trouble following the dialogue that’s in both Syrian and Lebanese Arabic, but as a learner, you’ll have to work hard to understand the nuances of what’s going on.

If you’re serious about your Arabic-learning, Netflix Arabic programs like this are essential!

3- The Secret of the Nile (Egyptian Arabic)

So in Arabic, this series is just called The Grand Hotel. But that doesn’t fly too well in English since there’s already another with the same name—the Spanish series that this one was based on. In this plot, a man talks his way into the staff of a luxurious Egyptian hotel in order to investigate the disappearance of his sister, finding out quite a lot more about Egypt’s most powerful people along the way.

People absolutely loved this show when it came out. In addition, the Egyptian dialect used in the show reflects the high-society schmoozing that could only take place in a beautiful period drama production. When it comes to Netflix shows in Arabic, you can’t miss this one!

4- I Have a Script (Kuwaiti Arabic)

Here’s a social comedy Netflix Arabic TV series with a unique angle: It’s about a woman pursuing her passion for writing television scripts. If you have a dream, sometimes it might never come to fruition without some big event that pushes you to make a leap of faith. In this show, that event is a death in the family—enough to give anyone pause about what they’re doing with their own life.

5- Black Crows (Various Dialects)

This one is intense.

Black Crows tells the story of women living under the rule of the Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria. It’s not a documentary, but rather a Sopranos-style look at the lives of a slave, an undercover journalist, child soldiers, and a woman who was recruited because of ISIS propaganda.

The thirty-episode Arabic Netflix series was released during Ramadan, and only a few episodes in, the actresses involved began to get death threats from the real ISIS for the show’s strongly anti-Islamic State viewpoint. Fortunately, none of the threats have materialized into any kind of real danger, but it certainly lends an incredible sense of realism to watching the series.

Be sure to watch this show with Netflix subtitles (Arabic) for the best learning results!

6- Justice (Emirati Arabic, MSA)

This series from the United Arab Emirates is a fascinating legal drama about Farah, an ambitious lawyer who has just returned home with an American law degree. Her father is already one of the most successful lawyers in the whole UAE and, naturally, he has big plans for his daughter. But her plans don’t necessarily fall in line—and in fact, she aims to carve a new path for women in law.

This Arabic series on Netflix isn’t necessarily a courtroom drama, so you won’t be spending every episode hearing from witnesses and defendants. But at the same time, it’s a great, detailed look at the legal system in a country you might not know much about in the first place.

7- What If? (Kuwaiti Arabic)

Another Ramadan series from 2019, and of the best Arabic Netflix series for learners, this show is about four young people at a crossroads in life. This show actually sparked a bit of controversy because of a single scene in which a woman gives a kiss to a man as she breaks up with him. The fact that this caused a stir on social media should clue you in to what kind of standards are usually upheld in Ramadan series. Nevertheless, the Arabic Netflix series still remains quite popular.

8- Jinn (Multiple Dialects)

Jinn was Netflix’s very first Arabic-language original series. It broke ground in more ways than one, as it’s one of very few Arabic series that focuses on the lives of teenagers instead of adults. The teenagers in the story find themselves tasked with the heavy burden of understanding and investigating the malevolent jinn (a type of spirit in classical Arabic mythology capable of possessing people) in their midst.

Also, because of the multiple dialects, you may find it useful to watch it with Netflix subtitles (Arabic). If you’re up to the challenge, head over to the Arabic Netflix sign in to watch!

9- Hidden Worlds (Egyptian Arabic)

This is a very interesting Arabic show on Netflix when examined in its larger cultural context. The story is about a journalist investigating corruption and finding that the evidence from a murder case points to bigger problems in society as a whole. It even stars the famous Egyptian actor Adel Imam. You might not recognize him, but call up an Egyptian friend and they certainly will.

However, the show is clearly influenced by a particular set of cultural norms and, overall, may be rather shocking to some viewers in the opinions it holds. Watch it critically, or take it as it is: both are good options for your Arabic learning.

10- In the Bosom of a Thorn (Kuwaiti Arabic)

In the year 1990, Kuwait was invaded by the Iraqi Army, triggering the Gulf War. This dramatic Arabic Netflix show tells the story of a baby who was separated from her family during that time and, years later as an adult, must try to make it home to find her mother. It’s not all heartbreaking and it’s not all funny either; this show has a large cast of characters that are more complex than you might realize at first.

3. Hey, All of These are TV Shows!

You’re right! The thing about using native media to learn another language is that TV shows are actually better than movies for that goal. Thus, to learn Arabic, Netflix TV shows should your first choice.

In a movie, you’ve got two, maybe three hours of story to deal with. There’s going to be action scenes, suspenseful silences, and long, loving gazes. That’s great for cinema, but less great for learning.

TV lets you get used to a relatively small cast over many more hours. You’re likely to hear similar references and turns of phrase over and over, reinforcing your learning each time.

What’s interesting about Arabic TV shows compared to others is that the highest-quality ones are often made to be binge-watched.

During Ramadan, it’s a tradition to follow a particular TV special every day during the entire holy month. Some specials are produced to have exactly as many episodes as that year’s Ramadan has days, while others gamble a bit and make their shows longer or shorter.

Thanks to Netflix’s expansion into the Arabic-speaking market, they’re happy to purchase and distribute Ramadan specials each year.

All this said, if you’re still more of a movie person, we have another article on the best Arabic movies that you can check out!

4. Using Dubbed Media in Arabic to Enjoy Another World of Content

Okay, we just said that TV shows are better than movies for learning. And we’re not taking that back. But if you have a movie from childhood that you’ve watched a zillion times and practically know by heart, you may just have a chance to watch it in Arabic right now.

At the time of this writing, classic animated films like Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, The Bee Movie, and the sequels to Shrek and Madagascar are all available on Netflix with Modern Standard Arabic audio in some regions like Egypt or the UK. Using Netflix Arabic subtitles can be a useful addition to your learning, especially when it comes to movies you already love! This also makes it more than worth the Arabic Netflix price (and you get thirty days free, anyway…).

And of course, there are dubbed shows as well. Most of them are kids’ shows like Puffin Rock and Peppa Pig (with plenty of cartoons for older kids, too), but there are a handful of Netflix-distributed documentaries that come with Arabic audio tracks or Netflix Arabic subtitles.

Although the language used in kids’ cartoons might seem to be simple at first listen, you might be surprised at the range of vocabulary and grammar that they utilize. Just because they’re not describing adult situations doesn’t mean they’re not using the language correctly.

And besides, shows or movies that come from a Western cultural background are probably going to be easier to understand for Westerners because they share the same general principles of narrative structure or cultural references. Using Netflix Arabic subtitles with these movies is a great way to ease yourself into Arabic media if the shows on this list are too advanced for you at the moment.

5. Be the First to Leverage Arabic Audio Descriptions for Your Learning

Another cool thing about Netflix?

If you take a look at some of the most popular TV shows and movies on Netflix, you can see that there’s a second audio track beyond all the dubbed tracks. It’s an “audio description,” meaning that there’s a narrator talking between the lines of dialogue to let you know what’s happening on the screen.

This is extremely useful for language learners.

For example, when you see someone open a refrigerator and there’s nothing to eat, chances are they’re not going to say “The fridge is empty.” So you won’t know how that’s expressed naturally in Arabic until you look it up.

But with an audio description, the seamless narration will fill that tiny gap in the audio, saying exactly what happens. You not only get more Arabic exposure per minute of TV show, you get to learn how everyday things are described by native speakers. It’s immersion turned up to eleven.

As of this writing, there’s just one thing on Netflix that has an audio description in Arabic. It’s Justice, the legal drama mentioned earlier, and the narrator speaks MSA. In order to turn it on, you need to have your account language set to Arabic in the settings.

However, the more viewers turn on that audio description, the more Netflix’s algorithms report that such a thing is popular, meaning that they’re likely to invest more into that type of feature. In regions where Netflix has been around for longer, there are tons of audio description tracks available already for all kinds of shows.

6. Conclusion

As you can see, Netflix is the single biggest platform where you can watch the highest-quality Arabic shows today. This year, there were four big Ramadan releases on Netflix. Next year? The year after that?

An investment in Netflix isn’t for everyone, particularly with the region blocking that goes on (or in some cases, the Arabic Netflix price). But even right now, you can utilize the original series and the dubbed content to get your Arabic media fix, meaning that going ahead to the Arabic Netflix sign in may still be worth your time and money.

The point of using native media to boost your learning is to let yourself escape into another world, driven by another language. When you really want to find out what happens, you’re going to ignore the language difficulties you have and focus on meaning.

That’s when the learning happens.

What did you think about our list of Arabic Netflix shows? Want even more? Check these out, too:

• Arabic TV shows
• Arabic Media Content to Watch or Listen to

Are there any Arabic Netflix shows we missed that you think are worth mentioning? Let us know in the comments!

Author: Yassir Sahnoun is a HubSpot certified content strategist, copywriter and polyglot who works with language learning companies. He helps companies attract sales using content strategy, copywriting, blogging, email marketing & more.

When you consider studying a new language, you never really think about all the little bits and pieces you have to learn. For instance, the “conjunction” meaning in Arabic.

Arabic learners think longingly of the beautiful script, the challenging sounds, and the rich literary vocabulary. Mastering all the uses of how to say “and” ranks pretty low on people’s lists.

But here’s the thing—you can change your mindset about this. You can treat these little bits of grammar as stepping stones to producing elegant and elaborate language.

And longer, complex sentences actually tend to be more regular than shorter sentences, which makes sense. More frequent things get repeated so much that the irregularities become natural, while more complicated things have to be built from rules each time.

All that to say, when you master Arabic conjunctions, you’ll immediately be able to speak about the world in way more detail. Thus, in Arabic grammar, conjunctions may just be one of the most essential things you learn. Let’s find out why.

Table of Contents

1. What Do Conjunctions Do?
2. Conclusion

1. What Do Conjunctions Do?

You already know that Arabic has a rich history of poetry, scripture, and literature. What you may not have been aware of is that it has a rich history of grammar, as well.

Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, wrote in the seventh century that there were three types of words in Arabic: names, actions, and particles. Modern linguistics may divide things into a few more shades, but you’ll still find plenty of people discussing the language in these terms.

Arabic conjunction words, being neither noun nor verb, fall into the “particle” category. It may already be clear to you why: The most common conjunction “and” is always attached to the following word in traditional grammar.

The point of conjunctions is also pretty simple to grasp. They simply connect words and ideas to show relationships such as cause and effect, sequence, and relatedness.

Or in simpler terms, they let you stop talking about the world in simple sentences and isolated terms, and open up a whole new universe of possibility.

To clear up any questions you may still have, let’s take a look at some examples of Arabic conjunctions in English, and a short Arabic conjunctions list.

Giving Extra Information

We’ve already mentioned one: the humble particle و (wa) meaning “and.” It shares some similarities to English in the way it’s used. There’s no hierarchy of importance, and there’s no implication of ordering:

• Ahmad and Rania arrived at work.
  وصل أَحمَد ورانيَة إلى العَمَل.
  waṣal ʾaḥmad wa rānyah ʾilā al-ʿamal.

With this sentence alone, nobody can tell who arrived first, nor can you tell who is whose boss.

But Arabic has words for that, and here we diverge from English. There are two words for “then” that indicate either a short period of time or a long period of time between the two happenings.

First, فَـ is used when it’s not necessary to mention the length of time, or when one thing happens close after another.

• I entered the room, then I sat down.
  دَخَلتُ الغُرفَة فَجَلَست.
  daḫaltu al-ġurfah faǧalast.

Now look at the word ثُمَّ which means “then,” and has the sense of a longer time delay.

• She graduated from high school, then from university.
  تَخَرَّجتُ في المَدرَسَةِ الثانَوِيَّة، ثُمَّ في الجامِعَة.
  taḫarraǧtu fī al-madrasaẗi al-ṯānawiّah, ṯumma fī al-ǧāmiʿah.

Another particle in the same vein is ليس (la) meaning “not.” When saying that one person did a thing, but not somebody else, you don’t need to include the verb a second time.

• Adil was late, not Hamid.
  عادِل تَأَخَّر, لَيْسَ حامِد.
  ʿādil taʾaḫḫar, laysa ḥāmid.

Similarly, the word لَكِنْ (lakin) meaning “but” fits into the same pattern, where you just need a single word after the preposition.

• The car wasn’t stolen but the bike (was).
  السَيّارَة لَم تُسرَق, لَكِن الدَرّاجَة سُرِقَت.
  al-sayyārah lam tusraq, lakin al-darrāǧah suriqat.

In fact, there are two ways to do this, and here’s the other: بالأحرى bil’ahra meaning “rather.” You can think of it not necessarily as negating the previous mentioned thing (though it can perform this function), but instead it adds clarifying detail.

• I visited Egypt, or rather, Luxor.
  لَقَد زُرتُ مِصر, أَوْ بِالأَحرى, الأُقصُر.
  laqad zurtu miṣr, ʾaw bilʾaḥrā, al-ʾuqṣur.

Showing Cause and Effect

So far, we’ve covered some of the most common Arabic coordinating conjunctions, which connect two similar things together. Now, though, we’ll look at Arabic subordinating conjunctions, which connect one idea to a closely related idea.

You can think of it like this: Coordinating conjunctions in Arabic connect two ideas that could stand alone if necessary, while subordinating conjunctions connect ideas that are so close-knit as to require each other to exist.

And one of the most common ways that this relationship can manifest is in cause and effect, also known as conditionals.

(in) إِن is one Arabic word for “if.” It always comes at the beginning of the sentence.

This word is used for simple if-then statements about the present time, and therefore, it’s always followed by a present-tense verb. It’s for things you’re sure about.

• If you sleep late, you will miss the exam.
  إن نِمتَ مُتأَخِّراً, سَوْفَ تَتَغَيَّب عَن الإمتِحان.
  ʾin nimta mutʾaḫḫiran, sawfa tataġayyab ʿan al-ʾimtiḥān.

• If we see him, we will talk to him.
  سَوْفَ نُكَلِّمُهُ إن رَأَيْناه.
  sawfa nukallimuhu ʾin raʾaynāh.

As you can see, we can’t fully express this cause-effect relationship without directly connecting the two ideas together. Two separate sentences wouldn’t cut it here, in English or in Arabic.

لَوْ (law) is another word with a similar meaning. It’s used to talk about things that might possibly happen—hypothetical statements, in other words.

Similar to English, a past-tense verb follows the word “if.”

• If I had more money, I would buy a boat.
  لَوْ كانَ لَدَيْ المَزيد مِن النُقود لاشتَرَيْتُ قارِباً.
  law kāna laday al-mazīd min al-nuqūd lāštaraytu qāriban.

• If I knew Spanish, I would move to Spain.
  كُنتُ سَأَنتَقِل إلى إسبانيَا لَوْ كُنتُ أَعرِف الإسبانِيَّة.
  kuntu saʾantaqil ʾilā ʾisbānya law kuntu ʾaʿrif al-ʾisbāniyyah.

Now we can move from hypothetical statements to actual statements of effects that were caused by something else.

لِأَنَّ (li’ana) is a relatively versatile word. In English, it sounds a bit off to start a sentence with “because” and then give the reason afterward. Not so in Arabic; we can place that part before or after the other part.

• Because I have no money, I won’t go to the cinema.
  لَن أَذهَبَ إلى السينِما لِأَنَّني لا أَملُكُ أَيَّ نُقود.
  lan ʾaḏhaba ʾilā al-sīnimā liʾannanī lā ʾamluku ʾayya nuqūd.
• He lives in Marrakesh because he likes the weather.
  نَّهُ يَعيش في مَراكِش لِأَنَّهُ يُحِبُّ جَوْ المَدينَة.
  ʾinnahu yaʿīš fī marākiš liʾannahu yuḥibbu ǧaw al-madīnah.

Unlike “because,” the Arabic equivalent of “so” which is لِذَلِك so, has to go in the middle of the sentence, just like in English.

• He likes the weather in Marrakesh, so he lives there now.
  إنَّهُ يُحِبُّ الجَوْ في مَراكِش، لِذَلِك يَعيشُ هُناكَ الآن.
  ʾinnahu yuḥibbu al-ǧaw fī marākiš, liḏalik yaʿīšu hunāka al-ʾān.

Some More Notes on Wa

Right at the beginning, we introduced و (wa) with the simple translation “and.” But that’s not really the whole truth.

You see, و (wa) is by far the most-used particle and most-used conjunction in the Arabic language. And as your Arabic level increases, you’ll note that you can’t easily translate it to “and” every time.

A simple و (wa) is frequently used repeatedly, where it would sound quite dull to English ears. Whole theses have been written on its use, but we’ll look at just one example.

• Sulayman Al-Halaby was once walking along a street (wa) with his hands in his pockets when (wa) he stopped for a while to light up a cigarette…
  كان سُلَيْمان الحَلَبي ذاتَ مَرَّة يَمشي في الشارِع و كانَت يَداه في جَيْبِه و حينَ تَوَقَّف لِيُشعِلَ سيجارَة…
  kān sulaymān al-ḥalabī ḏāta marrah yamšī fī al-šāriʿ wa kānat yadāh fī ǧaybih wa ḥīna tawaqqaf liyušʿila sīǧārah…

Here, we see that wa is used twice in this rather literary sentence—once to show the change from “walking along a street” to “with his hands in his pockets,” and once that the translator has chosen to translate as “when.”

2. Conclusion

The subtle detail mentioned above, as well as the overall sense of when to use which conjunctions in Arabic, is really something that has to be picked up slowly over time.

A good writing tutor can go a long way to improve your own writing, but when it comes to a language that has such a deep literary tradition, your best bet is to do your best to work through it yourself.

The good news is that conjunctions are such a common part of language that every single time you read, you’ll expose yourself to a huge number of them. There must be dozens in English in this article alone!

By taking the time to understand Arabic conjunctions, you’ve stepped firmly out of the beginner stages of the language. Congratulations. And keep it up!

Which of these Arabic conjunctions are you ready to practice? Are there any you’re still struggling with? Let us know in the comments!

Author: Yassir Sahnoun is a HubSpot certified content strategist, copywriter and polyglot who works with language learning companies. He helps companies attract sales using content strategy, copywriting, blogging, email marketing & more.

Everybody knows that numbers are just no fun to learn in other languages.

I’ve had plenty of language teachers—fluent, expressive users of English—fall back on their native tongues when quickly counting out handouts.

Sorry to tell you, but the numbers are easy. It’s dates you have to worry about. Especially Arabic dates.

Ever read through an article in a foreign language, and just mentally read the dates out in your head in English because you didn’t want to figure out how to really say them? Everybody has.

If you’re not used to reading numerals aloud in Arabic, check out our article on numbers in Arabic for a little bit of practice. It’s good to have a strong foundation in number-reading before you tackle date-reading; this way, dates in Arabic numbers will be much easier to pick up.

Table of Contents

1. Reading and Writing Dates in Arabic
2. Reading Years Aloud
3. Reading Months Aloud
4. The Week in Arabic
5. Reading Days Aloud
6. Putting it All Together
7. Phrases You Need to Talk about Dates in Arabic
8. Conclusion: How ArabicPod101 Can Help You Master Arabic

1. Reading and Writing Dates in Arabic

First, the easy part. How are dates written in Arabic?

We’ll start with just the numbers as they appear on paper. Don’t worry about how to actually read them out yet. Baby steps here.

Like most of the world, dates in Arabic format look like this: day/month/year. February 15, 2019, appears as 15/2/2019.

You’re likely already at least passingly familiar with the Arabic alphabet, and when you learned that, you might have learned about the numerals used by many Arabic speakers. In Eastern Arabic numerals (as opposed to the Western Arabic ones that we, confusingly, call “Arabic numerals” in English), that particular date in Arabic would appear like so: ٢٠١٩/٢/١٥/ (15/2/2019).

As you’ll recall, the Western Arabic numerals are widely used in the Arab world, but when the Eastern ones are used, they’re written left-to-right in running text.

All right, so far so good for how to write dates in Arabic. Let’s move on to reading things out loud.

2. Reading Years Aloud

Okay, reading dates in Arabic.

Fortunately, as long as you can read numbers, you can read years.

Arabic numbers are read out with lots of “and”s, because as you’ll recall, numbers above twenty are read out with the tens place and the ones place, as follows:

خمسة وعشرون
ḫamsah wa ʿišrūn
twenty-five
five and twenty

تسعة وتسعون
tisʿah wa tisʿūn
ninety-nine
nine and ninety

Years in Arabic are read as if they were long numbers—so 1925 is “one-thousand nine-hundred and five and twenty”:

ألف وتسعمائة وخمسة وعشرون
ʾalf wa tisʿumiʾah wa ḫamsah wa ʿišrūn
one-thousand nine-hundred and five and twenty

Let’s try reading out two more dates for practice.

1956 (the year Morocco gained formal independence from France):

ألف وتسعمائة وست وخمسون
ʾalf wa tisʿumiʾah wa sitt wa ḫamsūn
one-thousand and nine-hundred and two and twenty

2022 (the date the World Cup will be held in Qatar):

ألفان واثنان وعشرون
ʾalfān wa iṯnān wa ʿišrūn
two-thousand two and twenty

By the way, things have been happening in the Arab world for a long time. How do we say BC and AD?

If you’re using the Gregorian calendar (more on that very soon), it’s not difficult at all. After the date, we simply add ق.م for BC and ميلادي (miladi) for AD. Of course, this is only for when you specifically need to distinguish between the two dating systems.

3. Reading Months Aloud

When it comes to months in Arabic, it’s time to relax and savor one of the vanishingly few times that you can transfer your knowledge directly from English. Well, for now.

Take a look at this table and see how you like it:

English	Arabic (Gregorian Names)	Arabic Pronunciation
January	يناير	yanayer
February	فبراير	febrayer
March	مارس	mares
April	أبريل	ebril
May	مايو	mayo
June	يونيو	yonyo
July	يوليو	yolyo
August	أغسطس	ʾuġusṭus
September	سبتمبر	septamber
October	أكتوبر	oنtober
November	نوفمبر	novamber
December	ديسمبر	desamber

These are so friendly and familiar because all Arab countries use the Gregorian calendar for official governmental business. When using this calendar system, how to pronounce dates in Arabic is so simple.

Where’s the catch? Well, you’ll still find other calendars (or the same calendar with different etymology) in other countries.

In the Levant, it’s still quite common for people to refer to the months by their Aramaic-derived names instead of the Latin ones. Here’s what those look like.

English	Arabic (Aramaic Names)	Arabic Pronunciation
January	كانون الثاني	kānūn al-ṯānī
February	شباط	šubāṭ
March	آذار	ʾāḏār
April	نيسان	nīsān
May	أيار	ʾyār
June	حزيران	ḥazīrān
July	تموز	tamūz
August	آب	ʾāb
September	أيلول	ʾaylūl
October	تشرين الأول	tišrīn al-ʾawwal
November	تشرين الثاني	tišrīn al-ṯānī
December	كانون الأول	kānūn al-ʾawwal

You’ll also find the Islamic calendar in wide use in religious contexts, as well as more secular contexts in Saudi Arabia. It’s a lunar calendar, starting from 622 CE, so both the month and the year are quite different from the solar calendar. For most of 2019, it’s the year 1440 according to this calendar.

You probably already know the holy month of Ramadan—now it’s time for the rest.

Approximate English Meaning	Arabic	Arabic Pronunciation
Forbidden	محرم	muḥarram
Void	سفر	safar
The First Spring	ربيع الأول	rabīʿ al-ʾawwal
The Second Spring	ربيع الثاني	rabīʿ al-ṯānī
The First of Parched Land	جمادي الأول	ǧamādī al-awwal
The Last of Parched Land	جمادى الثاني	ǧamādī al-ṯānī
Respect	رجب	raǧab
Scattered	شعبان	šaʿbān
Burning Heat	رمضان	ramaḍān
Raised	شوال	šawwal
The One of Truce	ذو القعدة	ḏū al-qiʿdah
The One of Pilgrimage	ذو الحجة	ḏū al-ḥiǧǧah

That’s a lot of months to keep straight! Don’t stress about memorizing them all right now—just be aware that they’re likely to come up at some point during your Arabic studies, and it’ll be good to understand them when they do.

4. The Week in Arabic

After all those months, you really can breathe a sigh of relief when you turn to the days of the week. The “first day” is Sunday, and the next four follow a simple numbering pattern.

Friday and Saturday get special names, but one might not be too unfamiliar to you.

English	Arabic	Arabic Pronunciation
Sunday	الأحد	al-ʾaḥad
Monday	الإثنين	al-ʾiṯnayn
Tuesday	الثلاثاء	al-ṯulāṯāʾ
Wednesday	الأربعاء	al-ʾarbaʿāʾ
Thursday	الخميس	al-ḫamīs
Friday	الجمعة	al-ǧumʿah
Saturday	السبت	al-sabt

You may have caught it – the word for “Saturday” is quite close to the English “sabbath,” as they both mean “day of rest.”

Speaking of rest, when’s the “نهاية الأسبوع” (nihāyatu al-ʾusbūʿ) or “weekend?”

Usually, Friday. In the Middle East, Friday and Saturday (or Thursday and Friday) are the official weekends when schools and offices are generally closed.

In other Muslim-majority countries, Saturday and Sunday are used as the official weekend, while there’s a long break at midday on Friday to allow everyone time to worship. This is the case in Turkey and Indonesia, for example.

5. Reading Days Aloud

If you’re a native English speaker, you might not have ever stopped to think about how we actually say the dates. And if you’ve ever taught English, you know how strange and arbitrary it can be. May 17? The first of August? September third?

Fortunately, saying dates in Arabic is super easy. Take a look at these three examples to see that as long as you know the numbers, you can say the dates too.

الأول من أبريل
al-ʾawwalu min ʾebrīl
April first

التاسع والعشرون من فبراير
al-tāsiʿ walʿišrūn min febrāyer
February twenty-ninth

الأول من فبراير
al-ʾawwalu min febrāyer
The first of October

As you can see, no matter how we write it in English, it’s the same pattern every time in Arabic! Number + “min” + month name. Simple!

6. Putting it All Together

Let’s take what we’ve learned so far and practice reading out the names of dates in Arabic.

When talking about today’s date, you’d use the phrase …اليوم هو (al-yawmu huwa) meaning “Today is…”

اليوم هو الثالث والعشرون من فبراير
al-yawmu hūwa al-ṯaliṯ walʿšrūn min febrāyer
Today is February 23.

Otherwise, you’d say …اليوم كان (al-yawmu kān) meaning “Today was…”

اليوم كان الثالث من أكتوبر
al-yawmu kāna al-ṯaliṯ min oktobar
Today was October 3.

Next, you say the day of the week (optional, naturally), the number, and the month.

اليوم كان الثلاثاء, الثامن عشر من أبريل
al-yawmu kāna al-ṯulāṯāʾ, al-ṯāmin ʿašr min ʾebrīl
Today was Tuesday, the 18th of April.

Next comes the phrase من العام (min al-ʿām) which means “in the year.” And finally, the year.

اليوم هو السبت, الثالث والعشرون من فبراير من العام ألفين وتسعة عشر
al-yawmu hūwa al-sabt, al-ṯaliṯ walʿišrūn min febrāyer min al-ʿām ʾalfayn watsiʿat ʿašar
Today is Saturday, February 23, 2019.

7. Phrases You Need to Talk about Dates in Arabic

Now, how do people actually talk about dates in real life? Let’s look at a couple of phrases to answer that very question.

First, how do we handle concepts such as “next” and “last” when talking about dates?

هل يمكننا اللقاء يوم الثلاثاء المقبل؟
hal yumkinunā al-liqāʾ yawm al-ṯulāṯāʾ al-muqbil?
Can we meet next Tuesday?

ذهبت إلى روما الشهر الماضي
ḏahabtu ʾilā romā al-šahr al-māḍī
I went to Rome last month.

And of course, no matter how often you check your phone for the date and time, you’ll always need to be able to talk to somebody else about the date.

أي يوم هو الغد؟
ʾayyu yawm hūwa al-ġad?
What day is it tomorrow?

في أي يوم يبدأ رمضان هذه السنة؟
fī ʾay yawm yabdaʾ ramaḍān haḏihi al-sanah?
What day does Ramadan start this year?

يبدأ رمضان يوم الأحد في الخامس من مايو.
yabdaʾ ramaḍān yawm al-ʾaḥad fī al-ḫāms min māyo.
Ramadan starts on Sunday, May 5.

8. Conclusion: How ArabicPod101 Can Help You Master Arabic

Did you find our Arabic dates article useful? Do you feel more confident about dates in Arabic writing and speech? Why not practice by dropping us a comment below with today’s date in Arabic? We look forward to hearing from you.

Like any other challenging aspect of language learning, it really just takes practice to get past obstacles like dates in Arabic.

That means when you see dates written down in the text, make a conscious effort to read them aloud instead of skipping over them (or reading them in your head in English). Seriously, put in the work just a handful of times, and it’ll become much easier immediately.

One other good trick is to turn whatever numbers you see into dates. What about car license plates? How many of those do you see on your daily commute? Even if there are only three spaces for digits, just pretend it’s ancient history.

The better your Arabic vocabulary in general, the better your command of dates. This minimal active study combined with your other regular Arabic studies really goes a long way toward building that sort of automatic feeling in your head with Arabic. And it doesn’t matter what day it is—that feeling is a good feeling any time.

In short, with enough hard work and practice, even the toughest aspects of the Arabic language will become second-nature to you. And ArabicPod101.com is here to help you every step of your language-learning journey! If you want to learn Arabic from a native speaker, you can upgrade your account and take advantage of our MyTeacher program for an even more accelerated approach to learning.