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