Arabic Learning Resources > Levantine Arabic Resources > Syrian Arabic
Syrian Arabic is the Damascus variety of Levantine, and it is the most widely understood dialect a learner can pick after Egyptian. Decades of Syrian drama exported it across the Arab world. Start free with the Foreign Service Institute courses on Live Lingua, and learn the fifteen phrases below before anything else.
Syrian Arabic is the northern branch of Levantine Arabic. Ethnologue puts Levantine speakers in Syria at 21 million in its 2025 edition, and counts millions more in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Germany among the communities displaced since 2011; the full per-country breakdown is on our Levantine Arabic page. The prestige variety is the speech of Damascus, often called Shami, and it is what most courses teach. Other cities have their own accents, but Damascene Arabic works anywhere in the country.
Few dialects travel as well. The musalsalat, Syrian television dramas that air every Ramadan, have drawn audiences across the Arab world for decades, and Turkish series are routinely dubbed into Syrian Arabic for pan-Arab broadcast. Viewers from Morocco to Iraq have absorbed years of Damascene speech, which makes Syrian one of the most widely understood varieties a learner can choose.
Older layers of language still show through in Syria. Aramaic, the region's dominant tongue before Arabic arrived, left words in everyday vocabulary and in place names; a few villages near Damascus still speak it.
What makes Syrian Arabic distinct
In Damascus and the other major cities, the classical qaf (ق) is pronounced as a glottal stop, so "qalb" (heart) comes out as "alb"; rural and some eastern speakers keep a harder sound. The present tense takes a b- prefix, as in "bektob" (I write), a feature shared across the Levant but absent from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). "Kifak" (how are you) is the everyday urban greeting, though "shlonak", literally "what is your color", is also heard. The words of daily life often part ways with MSA entirely:
| Syrian | Modern Standard Arabic | English |
|---|---|---|
| شو shū | ماذا mādhā | what |
| ليش lēsh | لماذا limādhā | why |
| وين wēn | أين ayna | where |
| إيمتى ēmta | متى matā | when |
| قديش ʾaddēsh | كم kam | how much, how many |
| كتير ktīr | كثيرا kathīran | a lot, very |
| هلق hallaʾ | الآن al-ān | now |
| بكرا bukra | غدا ghadan | tomorrow |
| منيح mnīḥ | جيد jayyid | good |
| بدي baddi | أريد urīdu | I want |
| هون hōn | هنا hunā | here |
| هيك hēk | هكذا hākadhā | like this |
| كيفك kīfak | كيف حالك kayfa ḥāluk | how are you |
Fifteen phrases to learn first
These come up on the first day of using Syrian Arabic with real people, and none of them is what a Modern Standard Arabic textbook will have taught you. Transliteration follows the same key as our common Arabic phrases page: a macron marks a long vowel, a dot marks an emphatic consonant, and the marks ء and ع are written as an apostrophe and an opening quote.
| Arabic | Transliteration | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| مرحبا | marḥaba | hello | The reply is marḥabtain, "two hellos". |
| أهلا | ahlan | hi, welcome | Less formal than marḥaba, and used everywhere. |
| كيفك | kīfak / kīfik | how are you (to a man / to a woman) | Same spelling, different final vowel. The most common beginner slip. |
| شلونك | shlōnak | how are you | Literally "what is your colour". Also heard across Iraq and the Gulf. |
| منيح، الحمد لله | mnīḥ, al-ḥamdu lillāh | good, thank God | The standard answer. Saying only mnīḥ sounds curt. |
| شو اسمك | shū ismak | what is your name | To a woman: shū ismik. |
| اسمي | ismi ... | my name is ... | |
| من وين إنت | min wēn inta | where are you from | inti to a woman. |
| ما بفهم | mā bifham | I do not understand | The single most useful sentence on this page. |
| شوي شوي | shwayy shwayy | slowly, little by little | Say this and people will slow down. They mean well, they just talk fast. |
| بدي هيدا | baddi hayda | I want this | baddi also takes a verb: baddi rūḥ, "I want to go". |
| قديش | ʾaddēsh | how much is it | The qaf is a glottal stop in Damascus, so ʾaddēsh, never qaddēsh. |
| تفضل | tfaḍḍal | go ahead, help yourself, here you are | Constant. Offering a seat, food, or anything at all. |
| شكرا | shukran | thank you | The reply is ʿafwan. |
| يلا | yalla | come on, let's go | Also means hurry up, fine, and goodbye, depending entirely on tone. |
Who should learn Syrian Arabic
Syrian Arabic is an obvious pick for anyone working with Syrian refugee and immigrant communities, which now number in the millions across Turkey, Germany, and the Middle East; interpreters, caseworkers, medical staff, and aid volunteers get immediate use from it. Heritage learners with Syrian family will find the dialect of home well documented, and fans of Arab television will recognize Damascene speech from years of drama and dubbing. Because Syrian sits so close to Lebanese and is readily understood in Jordan and Palestine, learning it effectively unlocks the whole Levant. If you are headed for North Africa, the Gulf, or formal written Arabic instead, start there.
How to use these resources
Live Lingua Syrian collects free Foreign Service Institute and Defense Language Institute courses, each pairing an eBook with matching audio, and is the best no-cost starting point. If you would rather begin by ear, Pimsleur Eastern Arabic teaches through listen-and-repeat audio built on Syrian Arabic, and Syrian Mango Languages drills short practical conversations. The book Shou fi ma fi? explains Lebanese and Syrian grammar side by side with recorded samples. For live practice, book a tutor through italki Arabic, keep Talk In Arabic's dialect lessons in rotation, and let Playaling's captioned videos of real speakers sharpen your listening. Keep Living Arabic open as your Syrian dictionary, back it with A Dictionary of Syrian Arabic in print, and browse the free lessons at SyrianArabic.com.
For listening, the musalsalat are the reason to learn this dialect rather than another one, and they are free on YouTube. Our page of Arabic cartoons, TV shows and films marks which series are in a dialect and which are dubbed into fusha, so you do not spend an evening on the wrong one.
If you are still weighing Syrian against its neighbours, compare it with Lebanese, Palestinian and Jordanian, or see every Levantine course side by side on the Levantine Arabic hub.
The table below lists every Syrian Arabic resource we recommend and what each does best.
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Shou fi ma fi? | A book explaining the Lebanese and Syrian dialect with audio samples. |
| Syrian Mango Languages | Course that focuses on conversations in Syrian Dialect. |
| Live Lingua Syrian | Based on Syrian dialect. Courses from Defense Institute and Foreign Service Institute that include an eBook and accompanying audio. |
| Pimsleur Eastern Arabic | Conversational practice with spaced repetition technique of listening and repeating audio. Based on Syrian Arabic. |
| italki Arabic | Connect with Arabic tutors and practice your conversational skills. |
| Talk In Arabic | A service that teaches you how to speak in Arabic dialects. |
| Living Arabic | Online dictionary for Syrian Arabic. Offers mobile apps. |
| Playaling | A free service that allows you to view videos of people speaking Arabic. You can filter by difficulty. |
| SyrianArabic.com | A website dedicated to teaching Syrian Arabic |
| A Dictionary of Syrian Arabic | Excellent dictionary to help you learn Syrian Arabic |
Frequently asked questions
Is Syrian Arabic the same as Lebanese Arabic?
No, but they are the two closest major Arabic dialects. Both belong to northern Levantine Arabic, share the b- present tense prefix and most everyday vocabulary, and their speakers converse without effort. The differences come down to accent and a scattering of words, with Lebanese carrying more French loanwords. Materials made for one are largely usable for the other, which is why some resources here teach both.
Can other Arabic speakers understand Syrian Arabic?
Better than almost any other dialect. Decades of hugely popular Syrian drama series, plus Turkish shows dubbed into Syrian Arabic for the pan-Arab market, mean audiences from the Gulf to North Africa grew up hearing Damascene speech on television. A learner who speaks Syrian will be understood in most Arab countries, even when the reply comes back in the local dialect.
Should I learn Syrian Arabic or MSA first?
A workable rule of thumb: learn the register you will use in your first hundred conversations, which for anyone drawn to Syrian Arabic means the dialect rather than MSA. The caveat is literacy - Syrian Arabic is rarely written down, so if reading matters to you, MSA needs to enter the picture sooner rather than later.
What is the difference between Syrian and Levantine Arabic?
Levantine Arabic is the umbrella term for the dialect continuum of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. Syrian Arabic is its northern wing, alongside Lebanese, while Jordanian and Palestinian make up the southern wing. Courses sold as Levantine usually teach a Damascus or Beirut variety, so a learner aiming for Syrian can use them with little adjustment.