Conversational Arabic Phrases
As many of you are getting ready to go back to school and work, you’ll likely be doing a lot of small talk as you catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while. It’s easy to have the same conversation, using basic words and phrases over and over again - I know I’m guilty of this - but small talk can be a great opportunity to test out new phrases, exclamations, and interjections. For today’s post, we have a list of Levantine Arabic conversational phrases to spice things up. If you keep scrolling, you'll also find an example conversation using a lot of this vocabulary.
حكي بين هاني وبين مروة
هاني: كيفك حبيبتي؟ والله زمان! كيف كان الصيف؟ شو عملت؟
مروة: اشتاقتلك يا هاني! ماشي الحال, انا منيحة, الحمد الله. امي كانت مريضة
هاني: سلامتها
.مروة: الله يسلمك. وكل شي تمام هلا. انا و اختي انتقلنا الى شقة جديدة وحلوة, بحبها
هاني: نيالك
مروة: فيك شي حبيبي؟ ليش قالب وجهك؟
هاني: طلقنا أنا و منى
مروة: عم تحكي عنجد؟
هاني: اه, للأسف. قبل شهر ونص
مروة: يا خسارة
…هاني: وبدها كل شي: البيت, السيارة
!مروة: العَما
هاني: يعني, كان بدها البسة كمان بس البسة ماتت الأسبوع الماضي
مروة: الله يرحمها
.هاني: تعيشي. بصراحة, كله مشاكل بمشاكل حالياً بس يلي ضرب ضرب و يلي هرب هرب
.مروة: ما بعرف شو بدي أقول حبيبي. أن شاء الله رح يكون في شي منيح جاي عالطريق
!هاني: اكيد, أن شاء الله. طيب, لازم اروح, عندي موعد. بشوفك بوقت قريب, أن شاء الله. عاش من شافك. سلمي على أختك
.مروة: انتبه على حالك! شغل بالي عليك
A conversation between Hani and Marwa
Hani: How are you, my dear? It’s been a while! How was the summer? What did you do?
Marwa: I missed you Hani! Things are alright. I’m good, thankfully. My mom was sick.
Hani: [There’s no English equivalent to this phrase in Arabic. It translates literally to “her health” but in English here, we’d probably say something like, “I hope she’s okay”]
Marwa: [Literal translation: God bless you. Used in response to سلمتها to say thank you for the well wishes and acknowledge their sympathy.]
Everything is fine now. My sister and I moved to a new apartment and it’s nice, I like it.
Hani: I’m jealous.
Marwa: Is something wrong, Hani? Why the long face?
Hani: Mona and I got divorced.
Marwa: Are you serious?!
Hani: Yeah, unfortunately. A month and a half ago.
Marwa: What a loss.
Hani: And she wants everything: the house, the car
Marwa: What?! My goodness!
[Refer to vocabulary list for an explanation of this phrase]
Hani: She wanted the cat too, but the cat died last week.
Marwa: [Literal translation: may God have mercy on her]
Rest in peace
Hani: [Literal translation: she lives. Used as a polite response to someone saying “rest in peace”]
Honestly, it’s problem after problem these days but, what’s done is done.
Marwa: I don’t know what to say, my friend. I hope something good comes along.
Hani: Yeah, hopefully so. Well, I should go. I have an appointment. See you soon, I hope. It was wonderful to see you. Say hi to your sister for me!
Dialogue edited by Saeed Alaktaa
