Lessons

How To Use Franco-Arabic To Write Arabic Words

In this post we will be unpacking the secrets of “Franco-Arabic” writing.

This is a great way to help you pronounce Egyptian Arabic words. Unfortunately, it can be a bit confusing, and there aren’t so many guidelines available online.

Trust us – if you are serious about learning Egyptian Arabic, Franco-Arabic is important to understand!

So let’s try to understand how it works. 🙂

The History of Franco-Arabic

Franco-Arabic is a new writing style that has spread around the Arab world. It’s not really Arabic, and it’s not really English.

Instead, it’s a system of using the Latin alphabet and numbers to replace certain Arabic letters to write, phonetically, what Arabic words sound like.

To understand a little bit about the history behind it (or why Arabs needed to invent such a weird mix), let’s go back to the 90s.

This is when mobile phones and personal computers started to become more abundant for average users. At that time, the Arabic alphabet wasn’t an optional feature for phones, and the Latin alphabet was the only form of communication (before more languages were later added).

Even after adding the Arabic language to cell phones, a certain problem remained: Arabic letters take up more space on average than Latin letters. This made text messages longer, and as a result…more expensive.

So, how could Arab users adapt to that?

Well…..Franco-Arabic!

This system was invented, and has spread everywhere from social media to (especially) WhatsApp messages.

How To Read and Write Franco-Arabic

To learn how to read it, you need to know one simple general rule (of course after learning the Arabic alphabet): You write what you say.

There is really no strict, specific way to write in Franco-Arabic.

Just remember to type words (in Latin) as you pronounce or hear them.

Note: letters will also take into consideration the Tashkeel of different letters (if you haven’t learned what those are yet, don’t worry).

This means that you can use “A” to replace the Alef sound ( ا ), but at other times you might use the number ” 2 ” to replace the Alef sound (Hamza).

In other cases you can use ” E ” for Alef instead (like in “El madrasa”, depending on how you pronounce it).

Yeah, we know: it’s almost like anything goes, as long as you get the numbers right!

Rule number two: Arabic letters which have no equivalent in Latin are instead represented by numbers (which we will explain below).

This is weird at first, having words which are a “letter + number combo,” but it’s quite easy to remember.

Your Guide To All Franco-Arabic Letters and Numbers

Let’s take a look at the basic sounds and how they are represented in Franco-Arabic.

Hamza sound (ء) / Alef (أ) in some words where it is not a straight “A” sound / (ق Qaf) = 2

(remember that Alef in the middle of the word would be a normal “A”)

Beh (ب) = B

Teh (ت) / (Tah (ط)) = T

Seh (ث) (pronounced thh in Standard Arabic) / Seen (س) / Saad (ص)= S

Geem (ج) (pronounced J in Standard Arabic) = G

7ah ( ح ) / Haa2 ( ه ) = H or 7

(خ) khah = 5 or Kh

Daal (د) = D

Zaal (ذ) / Zeen (ز) / Zah (ظ) = Z

Reh (ر)= R

Sheen (ش) = Sh

3een = 3 (ع)

Gheen (غ) = Gh

Feh (ف) = F

Qaf (ق) = Q / K (as we said above, for words that are skipped over and NOT pronounced like a “Q”, use 2)

The curious case of the missing “Qaff” might help you with these weird letter.

Kaf (ك)= K (some people use a K for a “Qaff” as well)

Lam (ل) = L (always remember that L sound in Arabic is a flat sound, its Lam not Lahm)

Meem (م) = M

Noon (ن) = N

Wow / damma (و) = W or O (depends on how you pronounce it in the word)

Yeh (ي) = Y or I or EE (could be all a replacement for the Yeh sound) (depends on how you pronounce it in the word)

MOST CONFUSING ONE: Kasra Sound = One E usually means a kasra after the letter or a slight E sound. Two EEs means that its a long Yeh sound. I and Y usually come at the end of the word for the Yeh sound.

Taamrabota (ة) = A

NOTE: While this may seem confusing if you are a beginner in Egyptian Arabic, when you start to build up your vocabulary (and know the Arabic alphabet) it gets easier and easier. Just takes time – we promise!

Some Examples in Franco-Arabic

قرية Village : Qaria (the Qaf here is pronounced as a “Q”)

كوباية Cup : Kobaya

حُصان Horse : 7osan

طريق Road: Taree2 (the Qaf here is pronounced as Hamza (2), or basically just skipped over)

العربية The car : El 3arbya

غني Rich : Ghani / Ghany

بقرة Cow : Ba2ara
(notice that the letters “a” after “B” and after “2” are kind of like placeholders, while the original word doesn’t have the letter “A” at all)

Would it be Ok if wrote it down as B2ra?

Its not a big deal – type what you hear. Still, as we mentioned before, Franco-Arabic takes into consideration the tashkeel (which is not the most important thing to learn), so it would be better to type exactly what you hear.

يلا نروح النادي Let’s go to the club : Yalla nroo7 el nady

واحد شاي لو سمحت One cup of tea, please : Wa7ed shai law sama7t

اسم name : Esm / 2esm

قسم Department/station : Esm or 2esm

How would you differentiate between these last two examples written in Franco-Arabic?

In Arabic it would be easy, as they are written differently in the original language. However, since they are pronounced the same way in Egyptian Arabic, they will be written the same way in Franco-Arabic.

The only way to tell the difference between Esm (name) and Esm (department/station) is by reading the context.

Police station would be قسم الشرطة (esm elshorta) or any meaning related to a department.

The word اسم would, meanwhile, appear in applications or when you want to introduce yourself.

And if you want to introduce yourself in a police station??

Well….I think you have bigger problems now than reading Franco-Arabic. 😉

Tips On Using Franco Arabic

When using Franco-Arabic, there is no specific rule for writing. Every Egyptian will use it differently.

However, here’s the main tip for using Franco-Arabic like a native Arabic speaker:

Avoid the overuse of letters to imitate the sounds.

This requires a few things:

Knowing the the pronunciation of a word
Knowing how numbers correlate to different sounds / letter (the purpose of this post)
Using less letters than you think you need to

Remember: Franco-Arabic is not really a tool to remember the exact pronunciation of the word, so much as a representation of the word (assuming the person you are writing to knows how to pronounce the word in question).

Here’s one example of using less letters than you think you need to:

ادخل (I enter)

In Franco this could be: edkhol, odkhol or ed5ul (or something very similar).

What you would hardly ever see (and what people just starting to learn Arabic will often write) is something like “ed-kh-haul”. This is an excessive use of letters.

Other than this, feel free to write words the way you pronounce them when using Franco.

That said – as useful as Franco-Arabic can be, we do recommend learning actual Arabic letters first before jumping into Franco. It’s what I did and it helped tremendously!