Egyptian Arabic Text Conversations explained
Today we are back with Egyptian Arabic Conversation 20.
In each Conversations post, we will provide you with:
We think learning Egyptian Arabic from actual, authentic conversations between Egyptians is both fun and effective. We hope you like it too!
As always, we will start out with a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation in Egyptian Arabic.
The conversation is in Franco, but we put the actual Arabic below.
Before getting started with this Conversations post, be sure to check out our post on writing in Franco Arabic.
Important note – this is a conversation between two women (in Egypt, Nevin and Manal are both female names).
This is why the verbs are conjugated in the feminine.
Imagine this WhatsApp conversation happening after they saw each other at a shopping mall from a distance.
Nevin: Manal?? What brought you here? What a nice coincidence. : Manal? A elly gabek hena? A elsodfa elhelwa de?
منال ؟؟ ايه اللي جابك هنا؟ ايه الصدفة الحلوة دي؟
Manal: Whaaat… how are you Nevin what are you doing here? : A daaa, 3amla eh ya nevin, enti bt3mli eh hena??
ايه داااا… عاملة ايه يا نيفين بتعملي ايه هنا؟؟
Nevin: I came to meet my friends and you? : Ana gaia a2bel sohabi w enti
انا جاية اقابل صحابي و انتي؟
Manal: I came to do shopping. : Ana gaia a3mel shopping.
.انا جاية اعمل شوبنج
Nevin: I’m so glad that I saw you habibty. : Mabsota awy eni shoftek ya habibty.
.مبسوطة قوي اني شوفتك يا حبيبتي
Manal: And me more I swear habibti. Text me before you leave. : W ana aktar walahy ya habibty. Eb3ateli abl matmshi.
.وانا اكتر والله يا حبيبتي. ابعتيلي قبل ماتمشي
Nevin: Ok great see you in a bit. : Ok tamam, ashofek shwya keda.
.اوكي تمام اشوفك شوايا كده
What brought you here? : A elgabek hena?
ايه اللي جابك هنا؟
What a nice coincidence. : A elsodfa elhelwa de?
ايه الصدفة الحلوة دي؟
This can be said as either a statement or question.
The literal translation is “What the coincidence the nice this?”
What… : A daaa…
…ايه داااا
This is a great phrase to learn. In Egyptian Arabic, you use it when you can’t believe something / are surprised.
A rough translation would be something like “Wow, seriously?”
I came to do shopping. : Ana gaia a3mel shopping.
.انا جاية اعمل شوبنج
In Egypt, you won’t use the Arabic word for shopping. Instead, Egyptians will literally say “shopping” (albeit, in an Egyptian accent – more like show-ping).
I’m so glad that I saw you. : Mabsota awy eni shoftek.
مبسوطة قوي اني شوفتك
A common phrase.
The literal translation here is “Happy very that I saw you.”
And me more I swear… : W ana aktar walahy…
…وانا اكتر والله يا حبيبتي
This phrase sounds slightly awkward when translated to English.
The literal translation: “And me more I swear habibti.”
Manal is basically saying “I’m more happy to see you, I swear.” To make full sense of this phrase, learn all about the word habibti.
Message me. : eb3ateli.
.ابعتيلي
The phrase above is two parts:
Eb3ate / ابعتي
This is the way you command a female to send something (she is commanding her friend send her a message).
(A very common Egyptian Arabic command).
And to whom?
“To me” / li / لي
This is what you add to the end of a command to indicate that it should be done to you. So, we end up with:
لي + ابعتي
Which, of course, is eb3ateli / ابعتيلي.
See you in a bit. : ashofek shwya keda.
.اوكي تمام اشوفك شوايا كده
Read all about the word keda (كده)!
As we mentioned at the beginning, this is a conversation between two women.
We might imagine two Egyptian women running into each other at a mall in Cairo like City Stars. They probably aren’t the best of friends, though, since they haven’t seen each other in awhile.
This longer absence in each other’s lives is implied by A daa / ايه داااا, which is a common thing to say when you can’t believe that you are seeing somebody.
Altogether, it’s a pleasant conversation. Just remember to conjugate the phrases correctly if you are speaking to a man instead of a woman.
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Happy learning,
Cleo Lingo
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