Basic Phrases & Greetings

صباح الخير
(good morning)
Saba7 el-khayr!

صباح النور
(good morning to you too)
Saba7 en-noor!

مساء الخير
(good evening)
Masaa2 el-khayr!

مساء النور
(good evening to you too!)
Masaa2 en-noor!

السلام عليكم
(Peace be upon you)
es-salaam 3alaykum!

و عليكم السلام و رحمة الله و بركاته
(And the peace, blessings and mercy of Allah be upon you too)
es-salaam 3alaykum w ra7matullah w barakaatuh

ازيك؟
(How are you?)
Izzayak? to male
Izzayik? to female

الحدلله تمام و انت ازيك؟
(Fine, and how are you?)
el-7amdulillah tamaam, w enta izzayak? to male
el-7amdulillah tamaam, w enty izzayik? to female

نهارك سعيد
(Have a happy day!)
nahaarak sa3eed - to a boy
nahaarik sa3eed - to a girl

نهارك سعيد مبارك
(Have a happy and blessed day too!)
nahaarak sa3eed mubaarak - to a boy
nahaarik sa3eed mubaarak - to a girl

مبروك
(congratulations)
mabrook!

الله يبارك فيك
(God bless you! Mabrook is usually replied in this way)
allah ybaarik feek - to a boy
allah ybaaraik feeki - to a girl

شكرا
(thank you)
shukran

عفوا
(you're welcome)
3afwan

كل سنة و انت طيب
كل سنة و انت طيبة
(May every year find you in good health/ Happy Birthday/Special Occasions)
kull sana w enta Tayyib - to a boy
kull sana w enti Tayyiba - to a girl

و انت طيب
و انت طيبة
(And you too!)
w enta Tayyib - to a boy
w enti Tayyiba - to a girl

مع السلامة
(with peace/farewell! Bye! - said by the person staying behind)
ma3a es-salaama

الله يسلمك
(God be with you!)
allah ysallimak - to a boy
allah ysallimik - to a girl

Things to note from these phrases:

1. ء - this sign is a HAMZA. It denotes a 'glottal stop'. This sounds like the start of any word that begins with an "a" in english. If you say "arm" you should notice a slight noise at the beggining. It's not vocal. It's like when people don't pronounce their T's.
2. ة - this is a TA MARBUTA. TA MARBUTA literally means "tied T". Ta marbuta has the dots of T ت with the shape of H ه. It is put on the end of some words to make them feminine, and sounds like an "a". When another word comes after it, it becomes 'untied' and sounds like "t" not "a". So for example, you say ma3a salaama (مع السلامة) but ra7mat-ullah (رحمة الله).
   
3. انت means YOU. When "you" is a female, it is pronounced enti. When "you" is a male, it is pronounced enta. Short vowels are not written, and since the difference is of short vowels, انت is written the same in both cases.
   
4. Words that end in ك (k) referring to a person you are talking to change depending on if you are talking to a boy or a girl. For a boy, it is pronounced -ak. For a girl, it is pronounced -ik. For example; The word بنتك means "your girl". If you are saying this word to a man, it is pronounced bintak. If you are saying it to a woman, it is pronounced bintik. In both cases, it is spelled the same as it is only a short vowel that is different and short vowels are not written in Arabic.
5. شكرا (thank you - shukran) is not written with an N ن . The same can be said of عفوا (you're welcome - 3awfan). It is written with an alif A ا instead. Strictly speaking, this ا alif is a special type. In formal writing, it is written as اً (with 2 small lines above it). The 2 small lines are called TANWIN which literally means "providing with N". This does what it says, it provides the word with an N sound. In normal typing, the 2 small lines are sometimes missed out and so shukran for example is written like شكرا rather than شكراً

Lesson 1: Quick Script Lesson!

As-salaamu alaykum w rahmatullah w barakato
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you

If you already know how to read the Arabic alphabet, then you can skip the first section. If not, you don't need to do this since everything will be transliterated - but here's a quick run through of the Arabic writing system. Voice clips will be added soon.

The Arabic Writing System

• 28 Letter Alphabet
• Written from Right - Left (the opposite from English)
• Only consonants and LONG vowels are written
• Double letters are only written once
• Short vowels are sometimes written using small diacritical signs above and below letters, but they are often missed out so you need to learn to spell and read without them.

Since short vowels are not written, Arabic words are written somewhat like text-message/IM language in English. For example, the word 'mudarris' (teacher) is written with the Arabic letters م (m) د (d) ر (r) and س (s) - so that it looks like 'mdrs' مدرس.

The Alphabet


a → ا
b → ب
t → ت
th → ث
j, g → ج
ح → 7
kh → خ
d → د
dh → ذ
r → ر
z → ز
s → س
sh → ش
ṣ → ص
ḍ → ض
ṭ → ط
ẓ → ظ
3 → ع
gh → غ
f → ف
q → ق
k → ك
l → ل
m → م
n → ن
h → ه
w, oo, ow → و
y, ay, ee → ي

GROUP 1
ا
ب
ت
ث
ى,ي
ن

Alif is the letter A and does not connect to letters after it. It can be recognized easily in a word and represents a long A sound in the middle of a word, or any short vowel sound at the beginning of a word. Ba, ta, tha (pronounced as t or s in Egypt), ya and nun all take the same shape when starting a word, or in the middle of a word. The only difference between them is the number and position of the dots. At the end of words, the letters can be recognised by their dots, number of dots and they retain their original shape. Ya can be written without dots, and is pronounced 'aa' in this case, called alif maqsura. However, in Egypt, ya is usually written without dots regardless of it's pronunciation.


For example;
ابن - ibn - son
بنت - bint - daughter, girl
انا - ana - me, I
باب - baab - door
ثالث - taalit - third


GROUP 2
و
ر
ز
د
ذ
م
ك
ل
ه
ة

Wa, ra, zaay, daal and dhaal (pronounced as z in Egypt) do not connect to letters which follow them. They keep their original shape. Mim, kaaf, laam, haa, and ta marbuta keep their own distinct shapes.
Ta marbuta ة is a special letter. Ta marbuta literally means "tied ta" and takes the shape of ha ه with the dots of ta ت. When another word follows a word ending in ة , the ta is pronounced "t" but in other circumstances it is pronounced "a".



For example;
النيل - an-neel - The Nile
كلب - kalb - dog
ذهب - zahab - gold
هرم - haram - pyramid
كوكا كولا - koka kola - Coke


GROUP 3
ع
غ
ح
خ
ج
س
ش
ف
ق

3ayn (like a voiced fricative 'a'), ghayn (like a 'r' rolled in the back of the throat, like French 'r'), 7 (strong H), kh (like Scottish loCH or German baCH), geem, seen, sheen, faa and qaf (qaf is pronounced like a glottal stop - written with a 2 - in Egypt).


For example;
قلم - alam - pen
مستشفى - mustashfa - hospital
فندق - fundu2 - hotel
شغل - shughl - work
احسن - a7san - better
جامع - gaami3 - mosque
خلاص - khalas - enough!


GROUP 4
ص
ض
ط
ظ
ء

Saad, Daad, Taa and Zaa are dark letters. They change the sound of the vowels after them. When you hear somebody saying them, you will know what I mean. The letters are deeper. Hamza ء is a glottal stop, like the invisible sound you make before saying the word "arm" or "absolutely". We write hamza with a 2.




For example;
مصر - maSr - Egypt
فضة - faDDa - silver
طالب - Talib - student

Things to do

• Add Arabic 101 (Egyptian) to your keyboard layouts.
  You can do this by going to control panel (in classic view) > regional and language options > details in Windows XP. In Vista go to Control Panel (classic view) > regional and langage options > keyboards and languages.

Things to remember

• 'el' means 'the'. When the first letter of a word is made by touching (or nearly touching) the front of the roof of your mouth, then the 'l' of 'el' turns into whatever letter that is. For example, el neel (the nile) becomes en-neel.
• Dark letters such as ط ظ ص ض and ر change the sound of vowels which follow them.