Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
By clicking Join Now, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive our email communications, which you may opt out at any time.
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

Hi everyone. My name is Peryhan and this is Arabic Top Words. Today’s topic is going to be about 10 Ways to Say Hello. So, let’s get started.
1.
صباح الخير.
The first way to say hello is,
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr) "Good morning. "
So for example, if you go to school, if you are meeting your neighbor in the morning and just usual morning greeting,
صباح الخير
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr) is the way to go.
صباح الخير
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr)
(ṣabāḥ) means morning, (el-ḫeīr) means good. So it’s a literal translation of
صباح الخير
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr) “Good morning”
You can also use
صباح الفل
(ṣabāḥ el-foll) is, it’s a Jasmine flower. It’s Jasmine flower which is basically white and it has a very intense, beautiful smell. It has a very nice smell. So you are wishing that person to have a beautiful day with beautiful smell like the Jasmine flower. And to answer
صباح الخير
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr) you should use
صباح النور
(ṣabāḥ el-nur) as a good reply to
صباح الخير
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr)
So for example, if one person, if your neighbor says,
صباح الخير
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr) you should say,
صباح النور
(ṣabāḥ el-nur)
نور
(nur) means light. It means the beautiful sunshine light. So basically you are wishing them to enjoy the beautiful sunny day and so on. So they say
صباح النور
(ṣabāḥ el-nur) You can say
صباح الفل
(ṣabāḥ el-foll) and so on. You have so many varieties to choose from.
The next word is,
2.
أهلاَ.
(ʾahlan.) "Hello."
Sometimes you would hear أهلا وسهلا ahlan wasahlan It also means “hello”
أهلاَ.
(ʾahlan) is used when you are meeting someone for the first one. Maybe in a business meeting, you would want to shake hands and say,
أهلا وسهلا
(ahlan wasahlan) Maybe the other person would say
تشرفنا
(tasharrafna) It’s an honor.
And usually it’s kind of formal. It’s a very formal greeting. So don’t be afraid to use it in your business meeting or with your employer in the morning your work colleague
أهلا وسهلا
(ahlan wasahlan) or just
أهلاَ
(ʾahlan) would be very appropriate as a formal greeting.
3.
مشفتكش بقالي كتير.
The next one is,
(mašoftakš baʾālī ketīr.) "Long time no see. "
مشفتكش
(mašoftakš) means “I haven’t seen you.”
بقالي كتير
(baʾālī ketīr) means, “in a long time.”
So the literal translation would be, “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
This is, if you want to talk to your male friend. So you would say,
مشفتكش بقالي كتير.
(mašoftakš baʾālī ketīr.)
If you are talking to a female, you would say,
مشفتكيش بقالي كتير.
(mašoftekiš baʾālī ketīr.)
And usually it’s followed by,
4.
أخبارك إيه؟
(ʾaḫbārak ʾeīh?) "How have you been?"
So
أخبارك إيه؟
(ʾaḫbārak ʾeīh?) is kind of formal way to say, it has been so long. How are you now? What’s the news and so on. So usually you would find them together in one sentence
مشفتكش بقالي كتير.
أخبارك إيه؟
(mašoftakš baʾālī ketīr
ʾaḫbārak ʾeīh?)
The next one is,
5.
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyak?) "How are you?"
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyak?) for a male and
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyek?) for a female.
It means “how are you?” And that’s very informal.
So in the morning, you can say to your neighbor or your friend,
صباح الخيرإزيك؟
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr ezzayyak) “hello, good morning, how are you?”
So you can use this with anyone. You can use it with your colleagues as well. You can use it in the street
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyak?)
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyek?) for female.
Don’t be afraid to use it anywhere you want, any time.
6.
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?) "How's it going?"
Usually once you say
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyak?) you should follow it up by
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?) for a male and
عاملة إيه؟
(ʿāmla ʾeīh?) for a female.
It means, “how is it going?”
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?) “how is it going?”
So you’d say,
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyak?) “how are you?” “how is it going?”
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?) or
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyek?) “how are you” for a female.”
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?) “how are you?” “how is it going?”
Maybe you’ll follow it up by
إيه أخبارك
(ʾeīh ʾaḫbārak?) which is kind of similar to
أخبارك إيه؟
(ʾaḫbārak ʾeīh?) but it’s kind of the informal way to say, “how have you been?”
So you would say,
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyek?)
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?)
إيه أخبارك
(ʾeīh ʾaḫbārak?) if you want to talk to a friend,
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyek?)
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?)
إيه أخبارك
(ʾeīh ʾaḫbārak?)
You can say it all in one sentence and it will be just fine.
إيه أخبارك
(ʾeīh ʾaḫbārak?) basically is the revised version of
أخبارك إيه؟
(ʾaḫbārak ʾeīh?) but it’s kind of a little informal. So you can use it with a friend. You can use it with your family and so on.
كله تمام؟
(kollo tamam?) It means, “is everything good?”
And in answer to that, the other person would tell you,
ماشي الحال
(māšī el-ḥal) “It’s going okay.”
كله تمام
(kollo tamam) “All is good.”
أبداً مافيش
(abadan mafish) “Nothing is new” like
أبداً
(abadan) means never like literally it means never.
مافيش
(mafish) means nothing. So it basically means, “nothing is going on, everything is okay.”
So
ماشي الحال
(māšī el-ḥal)
كله تمام
(kollo tamam)
أبداً مافيش
(abadan mafish)
So these are all words/phrases you can use in answer to
إزيك؟
(ʾezzayyek?)
عامل إيه؟
(ʿāmel ʾeīh?)
إيه أخبارك
(ʾeīh ʾaḫbārak?)
The next one is probably really popular among the young people.
7.
هاي!
(hāy!) "Hi!"
Which in English is Hi. So in college, in the university, in school like you’ll find like young people always saying hi
هاي إزيك!
(hāy ezzayyak!)
hi
هاي إزيك!
(hāy ezzayyek!) like hi, how are you? Usually parents or like older generation would not really use hi. So if you want to be more friendly with your Egyptian friends who are like in their twenties or maybe even 30s, don’t be afraid to use this English word Hi to say hello.
So for example, you can also say
هاي يا شباب
(hai ya shabab)
هاي يا جماعة
(hai ya gamāʿah) means young like young people.
جماعة
(gamāʿah) means group.
Basically it means, “hi guys” “hi guys” So
عاملين إيه؟
(ʿāmlīn eh) “How are you?” Like as in plural.
So don’t be afraid to also use
هاي يا شباب
(hai ya shabab)
هاي يا جماعة
(hai ya gamāʿah) if you are addressing your greetings like to a group or more than one person.
8.
مع السلامة!
(maʿ al-salāmah!) "Good bye!"
مع
(maʿ) means “to be with” and
السلامة!
( al-salāmah!) means “peace.” So literally it means, “peace be with you.” Some people also like saying
أشوفك على خير
(ʾašūfak ʿalā ḫīr) means to see and خير ḫīr means well or good.
So they are wishing to see you in a good or well condition the next time they see you. And you can use this usually if you expect that you will not meet this person maybe in a long time or like you will not be able to contact them tomorrow or see them tomorrow.
أشوفك على خير
(ʾašūfak ʿalā ḫīr) means until next time, I wish to see you well.
مع السلامة!
(maʿ al-salāmah!) is just very informal and very irregular. You can use it every day, and you would be expecting to see that person again tomorrow. So don’t be afraid to use it every day but maybe you would want to use goodbye ʾašūfak ʿalā ḫīrأشوفك على خير as in goodbye with someone you know that you’re not going to see very, very soon.
The next one is,
9.
مساء الخير.
(masāʾ el-ḫeīr.) which means "Good evening. "
And it also means “good afternoon.”
So in English, you have good morning in Arabic which is
صباح الخير
(ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr) and then you have good afternoon and you have a good evening but in Arabic, we only have
مساء الخير.
(masāʾ el-ḫeīr.) for both good afternoon and good evening.
So don’t be afraid – not don’t be afraid like why is everyone so scared on this video. So please use, if it’s 2 P.M. or if it’s 3 P.M., please use
مساء الخير.
(masāʾ el-ḫeīr.) to refer to good afternoon.
You can also use it in the evening like at 7 P.M., you can say,
مساء الخير.
(masāʾ el-ḫeīr.) which will be meaning good evening.
Another way of greeting, not really hello is
تصبح على خير
(teṣbaḥ ʿalā ḫīr) which means “goodnight”
So
تصبح
(teṣbaḥ) means to be awake, to wake up.
خير
(ḫīr) means like, to be well or to be good.
So you wish, goodnight in English would mean, “I wish you to wake up in a well condition” in Arabic.
تصبح على خير
(teṣbaḥ ʿalā ḫīr) Not really a way to say hello but it’s a very important greeting you should know.
10.
فرصة سعيدة.
(forṣah saʿīdah.) "It's nice to meet you."
So you would say if you’re meeting someone for the first time,
أهلا وسهلا
(ahlan wasahlan) and then you shake hands and you say, my name is, and then you get the other person’s name and then you say,
فرصة سعيدة.
(forṣah saʿīdah.) “It’s nice to meet you.” “It’s my pleasure to meet you.”
And the person, the other person will probably say,
إحنا أسعد
(ʾeḥnā ʾasʿad) “The pleasure is ours.” “The pleasure is mine.”
Usually, you can also use it if you are about to leave a business meeting or a very formal situation where you do not expect to be meeting these people again like you are not going to talk with that person again.
So you would say
فرصة سعيدة.
(forṣah saʿīdah.) and you would go and it’s a very formal way to end the conversation with someone you don’t know or on a business level
فرصة سعيدة.
(forṣah saʿīdah.)
ألو
(alo) “Hello” So if you’re going to pick up the phone in the Arab world or in Egypt, you will want to use the word
ألو صباح الخير
(alo ṣabāḥ el-ḫeīr) and then maybe you can say
ألو مساء الخير
(alo masāʾ el-ḫeīr ) and so on.
But don’t forget to say
ألو
(alo) just like any European country when you pick up the phone. And the other person will probably say
ألو
(alo) and so on. So this is one more way to say hello if you are on the phone
ألو
(alo)
That’s it for today.
مع السلامة!
(maʿ al-salāmah!)

Comments

Hide