Levantine Arabic (Shami, شامي) is the everyday spoken Arabic of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine – about 60 million speakers. It is one of the two Arabic varieties understood almost everywhere in the Arab world, alongside Egyptian. It differs from Modern Standard Arabic mainly in pronunciation and in a simpler grammar, not in vocabulary.
This page has 38 recordings you can play. Every pronunciation difference described below has audio beside it, so you can hear the ق become a glottal stop rather than read a description of it. Look for the play buttons in the sections on pronunciation and grammar.
Levantine Arabic (Shami شامي ) is the variety of Arabic spoken by people in the region along the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. This region is called the Levant and it includes the countries Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and some southern parts of Turkey.
Levantine Arabic was heavily influenced by preexisting languages such as Syriac and Aramaic languages. Today, you will find many English and French words influencing the language.
There are differences in Levantine Arabic between urban and rural areas. Likewise, there are differences between countries and geographical regions. Linguists categorize the differences as accents due to the slight variations in pronunciations. Fortunately, people within the areas of the Levant fully understand each other. Learning one variation of Levantine Arabic enables you to communicate with everyone in the Levant. The most commonly taught version is what is spoken in cities.
Where Levantine Arabic is spoken, and by how many
Levantine Arabic has about 60 million speakers – 58 million who grew up with it and 2.9 million who learned it later, on Ethnologue’s 2025 figures. You will also see “over 30 million” quoted, and both numbers get cited in the same breath without anyone reconciling them. The two are counting different things – different years, and different decisions about who lives outside the region and still speaks it – but the sources rarely say which. The Ethnologue breakdown behind the 60 million is below, so you can see what is being counted.
| Country | Speakers |
|---|---|
| Syria | 21 million |
| Jordan | 12 million |
| Lebanon | 5.4 million |
| Palestine | 5.0 million |
| Turkey | 4.3 million |
| Egypt | 2.1 million |
| Israel | 2.1 million |
| Germany | 1.4 million |
| Qatar | 1.0 million |
| Saudi Arabia | 800,000 |
Syria and Jordan alone account for more than half of it. The four core Levant countries come to roughly 43 million between them, so more than a quarter of all Levantine speakers live somewhere else – Turkey, Egypt, Germany and Qatar add close to 9 million on their own. Any total you read depends entirely on where the author stopped counting.
Modern Standard Arabic vs Levantine Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic is the form of Arabic used for reading, writing, religion, news, and formal academic settings. Levantine Arabic is the every-day spoken form of Arabic used in the Levant region. Even though they are used for different situations, both forms of Arabic still share the majority of the words.
Levantine Arabic is different from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) due to variations in pronunciations and grammar rules. The grammar rules are simpler than MSA. For MSA, the grammar alone makes the sentences precise, leaving no question to the meaning. For Levantine Arabic, the grammar makes the sentences less precise but the meaning can be easily derived from the sentence.
Check out our guide on how to learn Arabic. It discusses both Modern Standard Arabic and dialects.
Characteristics of Levantine Arabic
This section outlines how Levantine Arabic differs from Modern Standard Arabic. The most typical differences in Levantine Arabic are discussed below.
Pronunciation rules
Differences in pronunciation for the Levant region:
- The letter “ق” is pronounced by some people as “أ”or “g for galaxy”. For example, the word “قَلَمْ”which means pen could also be pronounced as “أَلَمْ”or “لَمْg”.
- The letter “ث” is sometimes changed to a “ت”. For example, the Arabic word for snow “ثَلْجْ”becomes “تَلْجْ”.
- The letter “ذ” becomes “د”or “ز”in Levantine Arabic. The word for
liar “كَذَّابْ”will become “كَدَّابْ”or “كَزَّابْ”. - The letter “ظ” is sometimes pronounced like a “ز”or a “ض”. The type of pronunciation used depends on the word. The word for envelope “ظَرْفْ”will be “زَرْفْ”. Similarly, the word for shadow “ظِلْ”will be pronounced as “ضِلْ”.
Grammar rules
Differences in grammar rules for Levantine Arabic:
- When a person uses a verb to talk about what they are doing in the present tense, they change the letter “أ” into a “ب”. For example, instead of saying “أَلْعَب” for “I play” they will say “بَلْعَبْ”.
- Male Singular Verb: When talking about what a male doing in the present time, the present form in MSA starts with “ي”. For Levantine Arabic, the letter “ب” is added to the verb while keeping the “ي”. For example, Ahmad is playing “أحمد يَلْعَب” will become “احمد بْيِلْعَبْ”.
- Female Singular Verb: The female present singular verb which starts with “ت” also adds the letter “ب” in Levantine Arabic. For example, Jana is playing “جنى تَلْعَب” will become “جنى بْتِلْعَبْ”.
- Present Plural Verb: In Levantine
Arabic either the letter “ب” or “م” are added to the plural form. For example, we are playing “نَلْعَب”in MSA will become “بْنِلْعَبْ”or “مْنِلْعَبْ”. The first version starting with “ب” is more commonly used by Levantine speakers in Jordan and Palestine, while the second one is more commonly used by Lebanese and Syrian. - Sometimes the expression “عَمْ” is added before the verb when talking in the present tense. It can be correlated with the word “am/are” in English. For example, if someone asks what are you doing, to respond by saying “I am playing” you would respond with “عَمْ بَلْعَبْ”.
- When using the future tense in Levantine Arabic, instead of using the expressions from MSA “سوف” and “سـ”, Levantine Arabic speakers use “رَحْ”. For example, “رَحْ أَدْرُسْ”means “I will study”.
How the four countries differ from each other
“Levantine” is not one accent. A Damascene and a Jordanian understand each other without effort, but they do not sound the same, and the differences are small enough to list. The last three rows are identical across all four on purpose – that shared core is why learning one variety gets you the other three.
| Feature | Syria (Damascus) | Lebanon (Beirut) | Palestine | Jordan (Amman) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The letter ق (qāf) | glottal stop, ʾ | glottal stop, ʾ | glottal stop in cities, k in villages | glottal stop in cities, g among Bedouin |
| “what?” | شو shū | شو shū | إيش ēsh | شو shū |
| “now” | هلق hallaʾ | هلق hallaʾ | هسه hassa | هسه hassa |
| “good, nice” | منيح mnīḥ | منيح mnīḥ | كويس kwayyis | كويس kwayyis |
| “how are you?” (to a man) | كيفك kīfak | كيفك kīfak | كيف حالك kīf ḥālak | كيفك kīfak |
| “I want” | بدي biddī | بدي biddī | بدي biddī | بدي biddī |
| “like this” | هيك hēk | هيك hēk | هيك hēk | هيك hēk |
| Present-tense prefix | بـ b- | بـ b- | بـ b- | بـ b- |
The single most audible marker is the first row. In Damascus, Beirut and Jerusalem the ق is dropped to a glottal stop, so qalam (pen) becomes ʾalam. Step outside the cities and it comes back as a k in Palestinian villages and a hard g in Bedouin Jordanian speech. You can hear both pronunciations in the recordings below.
Learning Levantine Arabic
Learning Levantine Arabic requires a systematic approach in order to truly be fluent. Arabic learners find that acquiring an Arabic Dialect is one of the hardest challenges due to lack of resources. As you learned above, Levantine Arabic is only used for spoken situations so you rarely find it in written form, including educational books.
People learn many different ways but here are some suggestions on how you can learn Levantine Arabic:
- Children Cartoons – watch children cartoons because they usually use simpler words and speak slowly
- News – local news channels are sometimes spoken in the Levantine Arabic
- Movies and Series – after you gain some fluency, try movies and series
- Learn MSA! – many words are similar between Levantine Arabic and MSA
- iTalki – practice with native speakers. iTalki is one of the best ways to practice speaking. (There are many services out there like this but this seems to be the best and most popular).
- Memorize phrases – memorize phrases and words you don’t know to help build your vocabulary
- Make friends – make friends with people from the Levantine region to practice speaking with them.
We compiled a list of Levantine Arabic Resources to help get you started.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Arabic and Levantine Arabic?
Modern Standard Arabic is the written and formal register - newspapers, broadcasts, contracts, the Quran. Levantine Arabic is what people in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine actually speak at home, at work and with friends. Nobody grows up speaking Modern Standard, and nobody writes a letter in Levantine. Most of the vocabulary is shared; what differs is pronunciation and a noticeably simpler grammar, with the case endings of Modern Standard dropped in speech.
How do you say "I love you" in Levantine Arabic?
Bahibbak to a man and bahibbik to a woman. The verb is the same in all four Levantine countries, and only the final vowel changes with the gender of the person you are addressing. Bahibbkun addresses a group.
How do you say "hi" in Levantine Arabic?
Marhaba is the everyday hello across the whole Levant. The customary reply is marhabtein, literally two hellos, which returns the greeting with a little more warmth. Ahlan is a slightly warmer opener, and ahlan wa sahlan is the fuller welcome you would hear from a host.
Are Levantine and Arab the same thing?
No. Arab is an ethnic and linguistic term covering some 400 million people from Morocco to Oman. Levantine describes the people, culture and dialect of one region within that - the eastern Mediterranean coast and its hinterland. Every Levantine Arabic speaker is an Arabic speaker; the reverse is not true, and an Egyptian or a Moroccan is equally Arab without being Levantine.
How many people speak Levantine Arabic?
About 60 million on Ethnologue's 2025 figures, of whom 58 million grew up with it. You will also see a figure of around 30 million, which counts native speakers inside Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine only. The higher number adds the large communities in Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Germany and the Gulf. Neither is wrong; they are counting different things.
Is Levantine Arabic worth learning instead of Modern Standard?
If your goal is conversation, yes. Levantine is one of the two dialects understood almost everywhere in the Arab world, thanks to decades of Syrian and Lebanese television and music, so it travels further than its speaker count suggests. The trade-off is literacy: Levantine is rarely written down, so anyone who wants to read Arabic will need Modern Standard sooner or later.