Common Arabic Phrases in MSA, Levantine, and Egyptian

Arabic has one greeting that works everywhere, السلام عليكم (as-salamu ʿalaykum, peace be upon you), plus شكرا (shukran) for thank you. Almost every other common Arabic phrase changes depending on whether you are speaking Modern Standard Arabic, Levantine, or Egyptian. This page gives each one in all three, side by side, so you say the version people around you use.

OpenArabic.org calls this the three-column method: one English meaning, three Arabic answers, picked by destination instead of averaged into a dialect nobody speaks. Below are 54 phrases across six everyday situations plus the numbers one to ten, each given in all three varieties. That is 64 rows, three columns wide. Last reviewed August 2026.

How to read the tables. Arabic script comes first, our transliteration underneath it. One scheme is used throughout, and four symbols in it are not obvious.

We do not put dots under the emphatic letters. Dots help people who can already read Arabic and confuse everyone else, and the script column is there for exactly that reason.

Where a phrase is genuinely the same in all three, the row repeats it rather than inventing a difference. Where a variety has no separate form, or where we were not confident what people actually say, the cell says so instead of carrying a guess.

How to say hello and goodbye in Arabic

Hello in Arabic is marhaban in Modern Standard, marhaba مرحبا in the Levant, and ahlan أهلا in Egypt. The greeting that works in every Arabic-speaking country is as-salamu ʿalaykum السلام عليكم, and goodbye is maʿa as-salama مع السلامة in all three. Greetings are also where Modern Standard is least useful and where most learners waste their first week. The follow-up question, how are you, splits three ways: kayfa haluk in Modern Standard, kifak in the Levant, izzayyak in Egypt.

How to say please, thank you, and sorry in Arabic

Thank you is shukran شكرا in all three varieties. Please is law samaht لو سمحت in both dialects and min fadlik من فضلك in Modern Standard, and sorry is asif آسف everywhere. Courtesy travels, and this is the one group where Modern Standard Arabic costs you nothing. Shukran, afwan, asif and in sha Allah are the same in all three columns, which means four words learned once cover you from Casablanca to Basra. The two that do split are yes and no problem, and both splits are worth memorizing because you will hear them dozens of times a day.

How to introduce yourself in Arabic

To introduce yourself, say ismi اسمي followed by your name. That one is identical in all three varieties. What is your name is not: the three columns pull furthest apart here, because introductions lean on the everyday verbs that each variety builds its own way. Modern Standard Arabic asks ma ismuk for what is your name; Levantine fronts its question word as shu ismak; Egyptian puts the question word at the end, ismak eh. That final-position question word is the fastest way to recognize Egyptian by ear.

How to ask for directions in Arabic

The word for where is ayna أين in Modern Standard, wein وين in the Levant, and fein فين in Egypt, so where is the bathroom comes out as ayna al-hammam, wein il-hammam, and il-hammam fein. Directions run on two words, where and straight ahead, and both are dialect words. Straight ahead is dughri in the Levant, borrowed from Turkish, and ʿala tul in Egypt. Say dughri in Cairo and you will get a blank look; say ʿala tul in Amman and you will be understood but marked as someone who learned Egyptian from films.

How to ask how much something costs in Arabic

How much is this comes out as kam thaman hadha كم ثمن هذا in Modern Standard, addesh had قديش هاد in the Levant, and da bikam ده بكام in Egypt. It is the phrase you will use most and it is completely different in each column. So is I want: urid, biddi, ʿayiz. Hearing biddi is how you know within one sentence that someone is Levantine.

Arabic numbers 1 to 10

One to ten in Modern Standard Arabic are wahid, ithnan, thalatha, arbaʿa, khamsa, sitta, sabʿa, thamaniya, tisʿa, ʿashara. The dialects follow one clean rule from there: the Modern Standard ending -a stays -a in Egyptian and becomes -e in the Levant. So five is khamsa in Cairo and khamse in Beirut, and once you hear that ending you can predict most of the rest.

Arabic emergency phrases

For emergencies, learn the Modern Standard Arabic forms as well as the dialect ones. A police officer and a hospital receptionist have both been schooled in Modern Standard Arabic, and in the moment you need these words you will not be choosing carefully. Say ana ʿayyan in Cairo and ana marid anywhere, and you will be helped either way.

Dialect or Modern Standard Arabic: which column should you learn?

Learn the dialect column for the country you are going to, and use Modern Standard Arabic only if you have no country in mind. Modern Standard is the language of newspapers and the evening news. Every Arabic speaker was taught it at school, so every Arabic speaker will understand you. Nobody greets a friend in it, though, and the reply comes back in dialect regardless.

If you have no destination and want the broadest reach, take the Egyptian column. Egyptian film, television and music were exported across the Arab world for most of the twentieth century, so a Moroccan and an Iraqi will both follow you. Our Egyptian Arabic resources page lists the courses and channels for it.

I learned Modern Standard first, through a year of daily lessons and then a university certificate built on the Al Kitaab series, and the only genuinely new material in that certificate was the dialect audio attached to each chapter. Everything else I already had. If I were starting again I would pick a dialect on day one and let the Modern Standard come along behind it.

If your reason for learning is family, work or study in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria or Palestine, take the Levantine column, and start from our Levantine Arabic resources. And if you are still weighing the options, we scored all thirteen dialects on speaker numbers and available material in which Arabic dialect you should learn.

Four common mistakes with Arabic phrase lists

The most common mistake is memorizing a phrase list without checking which variety it is. In August 2026 we reviewed the six pages Google ranks and cites for common Arabic phrases. All six gave a single undifferentiated Arabic, mixing Modern Standard vocabulary with Egyptian pronunciation and Levantine grammar into something nobody speaks, and none of them separated Modern Standard from the spoken dialects. That is the reason this page has three columns.

Second, do not lean on the transliteration. Transliteration is a ladder you throw away: it cannot show you the difference between س and ص, or between ه and ح, and those differences change meanings. The script column above is the real one. Reading it takes about two weeks with our Arabic alphabet chart.

Third, watch the gender. Arabic marks the person you are speaking to, so kifak to a man is kifik to a woman, and a man saying sorry says asif while a woman says asifa. Use the wrong one and you are understood, but you sound like you learned from a book.

Last, Levantine is not one thing. Palestinian and Jordanian speakers say هاد (had) for this where Lebanese speakers say هيدا (hayda), and city speech in Beirut, Damascus and Jerusalem turns ق into a glottal stop while rural and Bedouin speech keeps it. The Levantine column here is the common core that works across all of it.

Where to go next

Fifty-four phrases get you through a first trip. A conversation needs vocabulary. Our Arabic vocabulary lists hub has printable word lists and ready-made Anki decks, including the Al Kitaab list that gives every word in Modern Standard, Syrian and Egyptian, which is the same three-column idea applied to a few thousand words instead of 54 phrases.

Then pick a script and a dialect and stop hedging. The Arabic alphabet chart covers all twenty-eight letters in their four positional forms, and the Levantine and Egyptian resource pages tell you which book, course, or tutor to start with in each.

Every row above was checked against the dialect forms we teach across this site. If you hear something different where you are, that is the point of the fourth mistake above: write to us at contact@openarabic.org and we will look at it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most useful Arabic phrase to learn first?

As-salamu alaykum, written السلام عليكم. It means peace be upon you, it works in every Arabic-speaking country, it is used with strangers and friends alike, and it is the one greeting that does not change between Modern Standard Arabic, Levantine, and Egyptian. The reply is wa alaykum as-salam.

Should I learn Arabic phrases in Modern Standard Arabic or in a dialect?

Learn the dialect of the people you will talk to, and use Modern Standard Arabic only if you have no specific destination. Nobody greets a friend or haggles over a price in Modern Standard Arabic; it is the language of news broadcasts and printed books, so a phrase like kayfa haluk is understood everywhere and sounds odd everywhere. OpenArabic.org lists every phrase in Modern Standard, Levantine, and Egyptian side by side so you can pick the form used where you are going.

Will people understand me if I use Modern Standard Arabic phrases?

Yes. Every Arabic speaker studies Modern Standard Arabic at school, so a phrase like ayna al-hammam for where is the bathroom will be understood from Morocco to Iraq. You will simply sound formal, roughly the way a tourist sounds asking whither the lavatory. Being understood is not the problem; the reply coming back in dialect is.

What is the biggest difference between Levantine and Egyptian phrases?

The everyday verbs and question words. Levantine says biddi for I want, shu for what, wein for where, and addesh for how much. Egyptian says ayiz for I want, eh for what, fein for where, and bikam for how much. Egyptian also puts the question word at the end of the sentence, so what is your name becomes ismak eh.

How do you say thank you in Arabic?

Shukran, written شكرا. It is identical in Modern Standard Arabic, Levantine, and Egyptian, and the reply is afwan. In the Levant people often say yislamu instead, which is warmer and roughly means bless your hands, and in Egypt you will hear mutashakkir from a man and mutashakkira from a woman.

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