Arabic Learning Resources > Emirati Arabic Resources
Emirati Arabic is the Gulf (Khaleeji) dialect of the United Arab Emirates, with about 1.5 million native speakers. Its grammar is close to Kuwaiti and Qatari, but it turns the standard j sound into y, so jadeed (new) becomes ydeed, and it uses local words such as wayed for very and mashkoor for thank you.
Emiratis call the dialect الرمسة الإماراتية (el-ramsa el-Emaratia). Nearly everything sold as a "Gulf Arabic" course teaches the shared regional standard instead, which is useful and incomplete: you will be understood in Abu Dhabi and you will still miss half of what is said back. The shared Khaleeji core underneath the local words is covered on its own page.
How to read the Arabic. Arabic script comes first, our transliteration after it, one scheme throughout, the same one used on our tables of common Arabic phrases. kh is the ch of Scottish loch, gh is a gargled r, ch is the ch of church, ʿ is the throat squeeze of ع, and ʾ is a glottal stop. We do not mark the emphatic consonants with dots; the script column is there for that. Every form on this page is checked against a published Emirati source, mostly Eton Institute's Emirati word list, Gulf News's reporting on the dialect, and published descriptions of Emirati phonology. Where sources disagreed, the row was dropped rather than guessed.
Where Emirati Arabic is spoken
Emirati Arabic is spoken across the seven emirates by UAE nationals, who are a small minority of the people around them. Ethnologue's 2024 edition puts native Emirati speakers at about 1.5 million, inside a Gulf Arabic total of roughly 11 million. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' published figures put nationals at 947,997 against 7,316,073 non-nationals, about 11%, with a total resident population of 9.3 million recorded in 2017. Those remain the newest official numbers the ministry publishes. Everyone else speaks English, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Tagalog or another Arabic dialect.
That ratio is the whole argument for learning it. In Dubai you can live for a decade without needing Arabic, which is why so few expatriates try. It is also why the few who do get a reaction. Step out of the malls and the office towers into a majlis or a family home in Al Ain and Emirati Arabic is what is being spoken, and almost no foreigner has bothered.
The dialect is not uniform inside the country. The clearest internal split is the word for "not": Abu Dhabi says مش (mash), Dubai and the northern emirates say مب (mub), and the east coast around Fujairah and Khor Fakkan says ما (ma). Bedouin, coastal, farming and mountain varieties differ further. None of this blocks comprehension, but a tutor from Ras Al Khaimah will model something different from one in Abu Dhabi, so pick for where you will live.
Where Emirati Arabic breaks from general Gulf Arabic
Emirati Arabic breaks from general Gulf Arabic in two ways: sound shifts, chiefly jim pronounced as y, and a set of everyday words that is simply different. Thanks is mashkoor, not shukran. "How are you" is shahalak, not shlonak. A general Gulf course teaches the consensus form of Khaleeji, which leans on Kuwaiti and Bahraini speech, and it misses the layer of Persian, Urdu, Hindi and English loanwords on top. The table lists what will not transfer.
| Meaning | General Gulf or Modern Standard | Emirati |
|---|---|---|
| new | جديد jadeed | يديد ydeed |
| beautiful | جميل jameel | جميل yameel |
| chicken | دجاج dajaj | دجاج diyay |
| mountain | جبل jabal | جبل yibal |
| how are you? (to a man) | شلونك shlonak | شحالك shahalak |
| thank you | شكرا shukran | مشكور mashkoor (to a man) |
| how | كيف kaif | كيف chaif |
| why | ليش laish | شو حقه shu haggah |
| not | مو mu | مش / مب / ما mash, mub, ma by emirate |
| yes | نعم naʿam | هيه heh |
| like this, this way | هكذا hakadha | جي chee |
| send it to me | أرسل لي arsil li | طرشلي tarrishli |
| sharply dressed, smart | أنيق aneeq | كشخة kashkha |
| straight ahead | على طول ʿala tool | سيدا seeda |
Two rows are worth pausing on. Kashkha كشخة has no clean English equivalent: it covers a fresh haircut, a pressed kandura and a well-turned-out room, and Emiratis use it constantly. Seeda سيدا came in from Urdu and is what a taxi driver expects when you want him to keep going straight. Loanwords like it are a permanent feature rather than slang: دريشة (dareesha, window) is Persian and خاشوقة (khashooga, spoon) is Turkish.
One word that does transfer is wayed وايد, "a lot, very". It is heard across the Gulf and it replaces Modern Standard katheer كثير completely, so learn it early and use it everywhere.
The jim shift, worked through
The single feature that marks Emirati speech is jim, ج, pronounced as the y of "yes" rather than the j of "jam". Elsewhere in the Gulf jim usually stays j, so this is the change most likely to make a word you already know unrecognisable. The spelling normally stays the same and only the sound moves, though Emiratis do sometimes respell with yaa: "what's new?" is written شو اليديد؟ (shu el-ydeed).
Run it across words you already have. جديد jadeed (new) becomes ydeed. جميل jameel (beautiful) becomes yameel. جبل jabal (mountain) becomes yibal. دجاج dajaj (chicken) becomes diyay, with both jims moving at once.
Two other consonants shift alongside it. Kaf, ك, often becomes ch, so سمك samak (fish) is simach, كلب kalb (dog) is chalb, and the "you" ending on a word addressed to a woman turns from -ak to -ich, which is why "how are you" is shahalak to a man and shahalich to a woman. Qaf, ق, becomes a hard g as it does across the Gulf, so قهوة qahwa (coffee) is gahwa; in the UAE it sometimes goes further to j, so قريب qareeb (near) can come out as jireeb.
Essential Emirati Arabic phrases
Hello in Emirati Arabic is as-salamu ʿalaykum السلام عليكم in any situation, or hala هلا among friends; the Emirati greeting worth adding is marhaba al-saaʿ مرحبا الساع. Sorry is aasif آسف from a man and aasifa آسفة from a woman. Most of the phrases below change shape depending on whether you are speaking to a man or a woman, and the table marks which form is which.
| English | Emirati Arabic | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Peace be upon you (works with anyone) | السلام عليكم | as-salamu ʿalaykum |
| And upon you peace (the reply) | وعليكم السلام | wa ʿalaykum as-salam |
| Hi (to a friend) | هلا | hala |
| Good to see you, welcome | مرحبا الساع | marhaba al-saaʿ |
| How are you? (to a man) | شحالك | shahalak |
| How are you? (to a woman) | شحالج | shahalich |
| What's your news? (to a man) | شخبارك | shakhbarak |
| Fine, praise God | بخير، الحمد لله | bi-khair, al-hamdu lillah |
| What's new? | شو اليديد؟ | shu el-ydeed |
| Nothing much | ما شي | ma shay |
| Thank you (to a man / to a woman) | مشكور / مشكورة | mashkoor / mashkoora |
| I'm sorry (said by a man / by a woman) | آسف / آسفة | aasif / aasifa |
| Forgive me (to a man / to a woman) | سامحني / سامحيني | samehni / samhini |
| Excuse me, may I (to a man / to a woman) | اسمح لي / اسمحي لي | ismah li / ismahi li |
Mashkoor is the one to drill first. Shukran is understood everywhere and marks you instantly as someone who learned Arabic from a book; mashkoor to a man and mashkoora to a woman is what Emiratis actually say, and they notice when you use it.
How to learn Emirati Arabic
Start at Al Ramsa Institute in Dubai, which is the only school in the UAE devoted to the Emirati dialect. Two Emiratis, Hanan Al Fardan and Abdulla Al Kaabi, founded it in 2014. It runs beginner and intermediate courses in group, private and online formats, holds accreditation from Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority, and has published a spoken Emirati phrasebook, كتيب الرمسة الإماراتية, covering roughly 1,500 words and phrases. We name it rather than a bigger brand because the material is Emirati-written and Emirati-taught, and nothing else in this market is.
We would skip Talkio AI, which ranks for Emirati Arabic and sells chatbot speaking practice at about $10 to $15 a month across more than eighteen Arabic dialects. Conversation practice is worth paying for, but a beginner cannot tell a correct Emirati sentence from a fluent-sounding wrong one, and a model trained mostly on other Arabic has no obligation to give you the Emirati form. Spend the money on a human instead: filter our list of Arabic tutoring services for teachers from the UAE and say which emirate you are aiming at.
Where Emirati material runs out, the neighbours fill in. Kuwaiti, close enough that materials overlap, has more published for learners than any other Gulf country variety, and most of a Kuwaiti course transfers once you apply the sound shifts above. Saudi Arabic, where the Gulf dialects meet the Peninsula's Bedouin varieties, is the other useful reference point, and its Eastern Province speech is close to what you hear in Abu Dhabi.
If you have not settled on a dialect yet, our guide to choosing an Arabic dialect weighs the Gulf against Egyptian and Levantine, and the full dialect index covers the rest. Choose Emirati only if the UAE is where you will actually be. It is a small dialect with thin material, and the payoff is entirely in the room you are standing in.
Frequently asked questions
What is Emirati Arabic called?
Emiratis call their own dialect el-ramsa el-Emaratia, and that is where the Dubai school Al Ramsa Institute took its name. Linguists file it under Gulf Arabic, or Khaleeji, the family that also covers Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, eastern Saudi Arabia and northern Oman. Emirati is one country variety inside that family, not a separate language.
How do you say hello in Emirati Arabic?
Say as-salamu alaykum. It works with anyone in the UAE and the reply comes back as wa alaykum as-salam. Among friends Emiratis say hala. The local greeting worth learning is marhaba al-saa, roughly welcome at this hour, and the usual follow-up is shahalak to a man or shahalich to a woman.
How do you say I'm sorry in Emirati Arabic?
Aasif from a man and aasifa from a woman covers ordinary apologies. For something that needs real repair, say samehni to a man or samhini to a woman, which means forgive me. To squeeze past someone or interrupt politely, use ismah li to a man and ismahi li to a woman. Emiratis also say mashkoor rather than shukran for thanks, so the two often come as a pair.
Is Emirati Arabic the same as Gulf Arabic?
Emirati Arabic sits inside Gulf Arabic rather than beside it. Ethnologue counts about 1.5 million Emirati speakers within a Gulf Arabic total of roughly 11 million, and the grammar and most vocabulary carry across. What does not carry across is the sound system and a layer of local words: a general Gulf course teaches shlonak for how are you, where Emiratis say shahalak, and it will not warn you that jim turns into y.
How to speak Arabic like an Emirati?
Three habits do most of the work. Pronounce jim as y, so jadeed becomes ydeed and jameel becomes yameel. Use mashkoor instead of shukran for thank you. Use wayed instead of katheer for very. After that it is vocabulary: seeda for straight ahead, kashkha for sharply dressed, tarrish for send, and heh for yes.