Born in South Africa, Lindie has lived in France, Pakistan, the UAE and Japan. This is the plural form of Marhaba. Marhaba is the ideal general greeting: it is soft to say and is considered to be polite and neutral. Thousands of people have had great success with mastering a new language with Rocket Languages. This is the short form for the formal greeting ahlan wa sahlan (أهلاً وسهلاً). But even though you can’t go wrong with the standard Muslim greeting, there are a few reasons why you might prefer a more casual way of saying hello in Arabic. It’s a subtle difference, but once you get used to it, you start to notice when people get it wrong! Because there’s no suffix on any word here, you don’t have to modify it when speaking to a man or woman! You can just respond with “kwayyis” as usual. Misa’ il 7’eer means good afternoon, which applies to the rest of the day. The appropriate response is Saba7 il noor, although you might also hear Saba7 il ful. is a colloquial way of saying “what’s up?” or “how’s it going?”. Sabah is morning, so Sabaho doesnât only mean morning; It means âhisâ morning. The word izzay (إزي) is the Egyptian colloquial way of saying “how”. When someone says this to you, you can reply with Lhamdella or Mnih. You might notice that marhaba is sometimes written in the formal way, مرحباً, has a tanwiin on the end of it — the double strokes over the aleph letter (اً). Either way, you have landed on the right page! The origins of this phrase are quite beautiful: ahlan means family or kinfolk, and sahlan means “easily”, roughly. Or maybe you’re not and feel uncomfortable with Muslim greetings. I wouldnât use it as a first greeting though. When greeting a number of people, you should say ahlan wa Sahlan bekum or ahlan bekum. You change it to kif haalik when addressing a woman. Sho el Akhbar literally means âwhat are the newsâ as in, âwhatâs new?â. Ahlan wa Sahlan literally means “welcome”, but is commonly used as a general greeting just like “hello” in English. If you’ve followed along, we’ve been enjoying using iTalki for our tutoring needs. Greetings can also be given according to the time of day, as you heard in the audio lesson. Some of these are even bigger [...]. What are the best ways to greet people in your country? How do you say âhelloâ in Arabic? (Jordanian/Palestinian greeting), How is your situation? This expression is in the Levantine form, using the word kif for “how” (Egyptians prefer izzay). That’s why salaam ‘aleikuim is top of the list of common Egyptian Arabic expressions you should know. Like in English, you’re not expected to give an answer about what news you have. My advice is to use it is right after *Marhaba. Youâll most likely be understood even if you have bad grammar.â – Lindie Botes Iâm honored to have interviewed Lindie Botes for our new Language Mentors series. Salamo Alaykom is used when speaking to groups of people. Nine ways to say Hello in Arabic that are colloquial, fun, and not your super basic “Salaam ‘Aleikum”. THIS is how I learn a language in 3 months. Is there any specific Arabic greeting that you liked best? This is very similar to izayyak above, but uses a more Levantine word for “how”, kif rather than izzay. When just one âHelloâ is just not enough, you throw all the hellos at them! Marhaba, the colloquial short form of the more formal marhaban (مرحباً), is used all over the Arabic-speaking world. afternoon of light). Marahib! The phrase kif haalak is another example of a question that’s so common that it’s more “hello” than “how is your health”, which is literally what it means. I heard Palestinians/Israeli Arabs say this when I was younger, but younger guys said ahlan just as much. This is more of a âFushaâ a.k.a. (traditional Arabic). (Level 1). (See this good post on Desert Sky as an introduction to the case system in Arabic.). And you can end any of these with al-Hamdu li-llah (الحمد لله), “praise be to God”. Plus, some German learners get flustered by the absurdly long [...], âThe point of learning a language is communication. It’s a polite expression and people say it even if they’re not Muslims, and even if they don’t believe in god, so… don’t worry. This greeting is a bit like Awefe, but this time it is just singular and with the addition that God is referred to in the passive form. The word for âGodâ is not in the sentence, but is implied. Because it’s so common though, you can use this expression in a lot of places and be understood. But we all know that we lie by saying âwellâ. The greeting ahlan is probably the second universal way of saying hello in Arabic across the whole Arabic-speaking world. You might have seen something different. True story. To make these feminine (to address a woman): For all the greetings in this article, if you see the suffix -ak anywhere, you change it to -ik. To address a woman in this way, you say izayyik. The suffix -ak means “your” when talking to a man. If that’s the case, I’d be curious to know — email us at [email protected]. When greeting a number of people, you should say ahlan wa Sahlan bekum or ahlan bekum. Literally this means “How are you?”. It literally means “What’s your news?”, with the plural form of the word “news”. If you want to be precise though, here are the variations of Salamo Alaykom depending on whom youâre addressing. Mnih is âwellâ or âgoodâ. If you’re among close friends and you want to address a group — or even just two people — you can use the plural form: maraahib (مراحب). You don’t say “hello” all the time to people you know; you say “hi” or maybe even “hey” or “what’s up”. So this is the authoritative answer to how you say hello in Arabic. Comparing Spanish vs Catalan grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, and assessing how hard it is to learn Catalan as a non-native Spanish-speaker. Although it is in plural form, it can be used with both a single person or a group. Get started with free lessons, exclusive discounts, and more. Like with other greetings in this guide, you change the ending -ak to -ik when addressing a woman. There’s more detail below. Iâve also included the literal translations into English. Good etiquette dictates that adequate greetings are exchanged before the “business” of the conversation is addressed, so you will find that Egyptians will welcome you and ask you how you are several times in a conversation. Join our email list and we’ll let you know when we publish awesome new content. The literal translation of meshe lhal is âthe situation is walkingâ. Thatâs why I translated it as âhealthsâ and not âhealthâ, because it is in the plural form, hence âhealthsâ. Even though most of these greetings are asking you how you are, or some other question (like what your colour is), you can give a standard response to any of them. Our review of our favourite apps like italki and Glossika to learn languages fast, plus reviews of Duolingo, Memrise, Lingvist, and Glossika. To the extent possible I’ve used the way I’ve seen words written around the internet, or by my teachers. I also heard this phrase used in Upper Egypt. It also means “what’s news?” but uses the Levantine word shu for “what”, rather than the Egyptian eh. It means âhappy dayâ. This is a case marker and is commonly pronounced an. Greetings are an important part of relating in an Egyptian setting. Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond! Check out this free lesson on hello in Arabic! As all Arab countries are predominantly Muslim countries, you will very likely hear and be greeted with the universal Islamic greeting issalamu 3alekum! In this free lesson, you’ll learn some greetings as well as a variety of different forms of address. So to say it all in Arabic it would be Marhaba, kifak?/Kif halak? Because it’s so common over the Levantine region of the Arab world, I would occasionally hear this form of hello in Arabic in Egypt, too. Look how long Salamo Alaykom is – six syllables! It means âPeace be upon youâ. âModern Standard Arabicâ than it is around a specific Arabic dialect. The closest translation however would be âitâs okayâ. But that’s not to say that it’s always the most colloquial thing. Learning another language can be infuriating, particularly as you find yourself committing grammar rules, pronunciations, and a never-ending list of words to memory. Just as a joke, write the word âhealthâ on a lot small pieces of paper, and throw them at an Arabic-speaking friend. A beginner’s list of 200+ Swahili verbs with example sentences for people to learn Swahili quickly. No idea. Along the way we’ve learned a thing or two about how to get the most out of it. Some of the above are much more colloquial. God gives you health. âAkâ is for masculine, âikâ is for feminine and âkonâ is for plural. Or would you just like to show off in front of your friends that you know how to speak Arabic?