Before you start learning Egyptian Arabic, this is one of the first questions you will likely have: is Egyptian Arabic hard?
And it makes sense: learning any language is a serious time investment, and you want to have a good idea of its difficulty before you get started.
That’s exactly what I’m answering in this article: is Egyptian Arabic hard, why or why not, and some important factors that you need to keep in mind when studying the dialect.
I learned Egyptian Arabic to an upper-intermediate level myself, and know a lot of foreigners that have studied the dialect from my time living in Egypt, so I hope my experience can give you an idea of what to expect.
The Main Point Of This Article
At the risk of “giving it away” (but also to save you some time), here is my point with this post:
Egyptian Arabic is harder than a lot of languages you might otherwise study, but also likely much easier than you think.
This has all sorts of implications, which I will be diving into throughout this article. If that’s all you needed to hear, and are ready to dive into the language, here is a guide that might help you:
However, if you want a deeper background with a bit more detail on how difficulty / easy Egyptian Arabic actually is, then let’s get started!
Why Do You Want To Learn Egyptian Arabic?
Before we talk about anything else, we need to talk about your reason for learning Egyptian Arabic. This is your motivation for the whole process, and you need to have a general idea (not necessarily right away) of what it is before you can answer “Is Egyptian Arabic hard?”
This isn’t just some random exercise to “set your intention.” Instead, your answer to this question will have a very real effect on how “difficult” you find Egyptian Arabic to be.
That’s because the bigger your goal with the dialect gets, the better you have to be at the language, the deeper you need to dive into the intricacies of the dialect, and the more likely you are to encounter difficulties.
For example, you can see how different your experience learning Egyptian Arabic will be with the following two goals:
1. Learn a few phrases for my weeklong trip to Aswan
VS.
2. Learn how to have a relatively fluent conversation in Egypt so I can speak to my Egyptian in-law’s
#1 you can probably knock out in an hour or two, and don’t have to worry at all about grammar (or even pronunciation).
As for #2 with the in-laws? Well, you are looking at a much longer timeline and will need a much more nuanced understanding of how Egyptian Arabic works.
Very different endpoints, very different requirements of you as the learner.
So what is your main goal in learning Egyptian Arabic? Your answer to this question will, in a very real way, determine whether or not you think the language is easy.
It’s ok if you don’t know your goal / motivation now. In fact, your goal with a language can even change after you start studying it, so no need to worry about it too much. But it definitely helps to have this in the back of your mind (and we will come back to it in the last section titled “So…Is Egyptian Arabic hard?”)
For now, let’s move on to specifics.
Why Egyptian Arabic Is Hard For Some People
Arabic is known to be a difficult language for a lot of people. This is one of the first things we should dive into.
Going off of my own experience, as well as the experience of people I know, here are some of the reasons you could consider Egyptian Arabic a difficult language.
Arabic as a language is from a different linguistic family.
If you are a native English speaker (a decent chance if you are reading this post), it will take awhile. Same applies to any native speaker of a language not closely related to Arabic. I remember taking a look at the Foreign Service Institute’s estimations for how many hours a language takes and feeling my heart sink.
Arabic was going to take HOW MANY hours? Evolutionary linguistics is something you can’t really change. The fact of the matter is, studying Arabic if your native language (or any of your other language experience) is from a different family will take awhile.
Keep in mind, though, that this FSI estimate of Egyptian Arabic takes the end goal of high(ish) fluency. Upper intermediate. It will take significantly less time if you just want to learn a bit, and more time if you want to be hardcore fluent.
The pronunciation is different than many languages.
This difficulty has two parts. One general to all languages, and one specifically about Egyptian Arabic.
So, I’m a bit extreme in this opinion, but I think in many ways that pronunciation is more important than vocabulary and grammar. Both grammar and vocabulary you learn with exposure to the language, but it doesn’t mean much if you slaughter your pronunciation when speaking and nobody understands you.
This is obviously only applicable to speaking Egyptian Arabic, but it’s a safe assumption to say most people studying an Arabic dialect probably want to speak it at least a little bit. So if you want to get good at using Egyptian Arabic (or any language), your pronunciation has to be good.
Now, the more specific difficulty: odds are that Arabic (fusha and all dialects) have sounds that you have never heard before – much less needed to say before. I remember learning the Arabic alphabet took just a few days.
Learning how to pronounce letters correctly in words? Well, let’s be honest: it’s still a struggle! 🙂
All of this creates an inconvenient truth: pronunciation is super important to get right, but particularly hard with Egyptian Arabic. The solution? That’s right – a bunch of practice with a native speaker that can correct you. Really no way around this one.
There aren’t so many resources out there.
Let me guess: you got super excited to learn Egyptian Arabic, started learning the dialect with a bunch of energy and enthusiasm, and then…realized that the language learning world doesn’t really care about Arabic dialects. Trust me: I feel your pain. In fact, this lack of good Egyptian Arabic learning resources is the entire reason that we started Cleo Lingo: to become the best resource in the world for people learning Egyptian Arabic.
That’s not to say that these resources don’t exist. There just aren’t that many of them, and the ones that do exist can be pretty hard to find.
What this means for you? Well, a lot of the reason Egyptian Arabic can be hard isn’t even about the language itself, and much more that you just don’t have anything to learn it with!
Sad day indeed. 🙁
Certain grammar things.
Yes, you can tell how much of a grammar nerd I’m not by calling them “grammar things”. In the next section (“Why Egyptian Arabic Is Easier Than You Probably Think”), I’m basically going to tell you that you don’t need to worry about grammar. So take this with a grain of salt, but…
Grammar itself is important. And certain things will just be…weird to get used to. Here are two examples:
- There’s no verb for “is.” You already knew this if you started with Standard Arabic before a dialect, but it does take awhile to wrap your head around.
- The use of the word mish. This word (which basically negates verbs) is really weird…but honestly, kinda cute. Regardless, depending on the complexity of the verbs in a sentence, it can be a nightmare to get right. We wrote a post on this exact topic on the website, and affectionately call it making mish sandwiches.
The difference between Egyptian Arabic and fusha.
You knew it was going to come up. The difference between Egyptian Arabic and fusha is a big one, and it’s one that I want to focus on for a bit.
If you are looking to learn Egyptian Arabic, there is a decent chance that you have experience with Modern Standard Arabic (fusha). You probably think that it prepared you well for the dialect, and that your skills will mostly transfer over.
Well….that’s true, in a way. But I’ll burst your bubble right now: Modern Standard Arabic and the Egyptian dialect are very different things. In fact, from my experience, they are different enough that you might even consider them two different languages. Start with fusha and transition to Egyptian Arabic and you are basically guaranteed at least a little confusion for awhile.
One example is the use of the letter B at the beginning of verbs. Once you get used to conjugating verbs in fusha, it can be really difficult to just add a B at the beginning of verbs. However, do it enough and you get used to it.
While there are always things that some people find hard that others find easy (perceived difficulties will vary from person to person), these are the main ones I have seen many Egyptian Arabic students struggle with.
But, alas…not all hope is lost. As I said, there are also a few things that make Egyptian Arabic much less difficult than you probably think.
Why Egyptian Arabic Is Easier Than You Probably Think
Same deal as the last section: there are numerous factors I could mention, but I will stick to the ones that I think are the most important.
Teachers will be cheaper than many other languages.
Most of the teachers you will find online that teach Egyptian Arabic will be located in Egypt. For better or worse, they are living in a cheaper country and simply charge less for their services.
What this means if you are serious about getting better at Egyptian Arabic? Well, you can take speaking classes…a lot of them.
Egyptian Arabic is less “structured” than fusha.
Whereas Modern Standard Arabic has very clear rules about what you can and can’t do, dialects tend to be a bit more fluid. That’s not to say you can say whatever you want and get away with it. Rather that “rules” are often broken and don’t affect your ability to be understood.
This is very reflective of my own time learning both Standard Arabic and the Egyptian dialect. With my college classes for fusha, there was a very clear way to say everything, grammar rules you had to follow (and that we drilled down on weekly), and one mistake here and there could completely destroy your hope of being understood.
With Egyptian Arabic? Well, it was (and is) the exact opposite. This isn’t to say that Egyptian Arabic doesn’t have rules, that you can do whatever you want and still be understood. Rather, the rules you do have to follow are simply a bit more flexible.
When I first started living in Cairo, I would often ask why an Egyptian friend had said a sentence with the same words, but in a different order than I would. The answer was usually something along the lines of: “I don’t really know, they both work, I guess.”
Which brings me to my next point…
Egyptian Arabic grammar actually isn’t that difficult.
I find with a lot of things that people tend to overestimate just how difficult it is to learn Egyptian Arabic. This is exactly what happens with Egyptian Arabic grammar.
There’s some assumption that Arabic as a language is just impossible to learn, and a big part of that thought seems to come from this misplaced assumption about the difficulty of the grammar. Well, I’m here to tell you that Egyptian Arabic grammar is actually quite easy to get the hang of. This is especially great when you follow my advice of “don’t focus too long on grammar” (more on that in the next section).
Get enough exposure to the language, you will learn the most important basic rules of how it works. After that, you are basically off to the races.
There are only a few sounds in Arabic that take some practice.
This isn’t specific to Egyptian Arabic so much as applicable to just about any Arabic dialect. The Arabic script has 32 letters, and really, there are only four or five of them that are difficult.
Now, admittedly, these letters can be quite difficult. Plus, like I said, pronunciation is the sort of thing that can take a while of practicing before you say words correctly automatically. You might find yourself able to pronounce a certain letter in the majority of words, but then you come across the same letter in a different word and all of a sudden it’s really difficult.
Trust me: I feel your pain. Still, it’s not like the entire Arabic script is just waiting to trip you up
Egyptians are some of the most “excited about life” people I have met.
While this is mostly applicable to people living in Egypt, it’s relevant for everybody regardless of where they are. At some point, whether you are practicing Egyptian Arabic or using it in real life, you will be interacting with Egyptians. And once you do…well, the reaction you get will be the best motivation you’ve ever had!
Foreigners learning Arabic generally are hard to come by. Egyptian Arabic specifically? Even more rare. Trust me when I say this: Egyptians that you meet are going to think it’s the coolest freaking thing that you are trying to learn their specific dialect. The hit of motivation this can give you is invaluable.
Things That Will Speed Up Your Learning
Alright. At this point we’ve seen a few reasons why Egyptian Arabic can be hard, but also why it’s not nearly as difficult as you think.
Regardless of whether or not Egyptian Arabic sounds hard, there are a few things that really helped me learn the dialect faster than most. Here is the advice I would give you to speed up your learning, no matter what your end goal is:
Have a very clear motivation.
We went over this in the first section, but it’s so important that I’m repeating it here. When it comes to learning a language effectively (consistent and over the long term), clear motivation really is the most important thing. Think about why you want to learn Egyptian Arabic. The more specific the better.
My motivation for learning / maintaining my Egyptian Arabic skills have varied over the last eight years, but I’ve always had one. And thank God I have: motivation is what builds your study habit until studying Egyptian Arabic everyday becomes automatic.
Which leads me to my next point…
A little frequently is much much better than a lot infrequently.
You have heard it before, so I won’t talk about it too long. Studying almost every day is the schedule that you have to try your hardest to maintain. Even if it’s just for a few minutes.
When I was in Cairo, I literally kept a piece of paper on my desk. I used it to cross off each day that I studied Egyptian Arabic for at least 30 minutes. These are things that all of us have heard about, and they sound cliche. Still, they’re cliche for a reason: they work.
This will obviously depend on your end goal, but even just 15 minutes of Egyptian Arabic everyday will progress you faster than anything else.
Understand that you don’t need to know everything.
A language is a big thing, and having the expectation that you will be perfectly fluent in it will only leave you disappointed. That’s not to say that you can’t build a legitimately high fluency in Egyptian Arabic…just that you don’t need to know it all to do so!
Kind of related to your overall goal with Egyptian Arabic, but…you’re probably not trying to become the world’s leading expert in Egyptian Arabic. And even if you are, hopefully Cleo Lingo can help a bit. 🙂
But for everybody else (myself included), simply getting good at the language is a high enough goal. I’ve said this before, but I don’t consider myself perfectly fluent in Egyptian Arabic, and there are a lot of things that I don’t know how to say. But that’s alright for me, and it should be alright for you!
Embrace how important it is to make mistakes.
Notice here that I didn’t just say that it’s “ok” to make mistakes. That’s too passive. What I mean is that it is a fundamentally IMPORTANT thing to make mistakes. You WANT to make mistakes.
Listen, I get it: for a lot of people, saying something incorrectly can hurt, is demotivating, and can make you feel like you’re not really improving. But it’s really the only way to get better.
Here’s a story for you. I had a job as a business English teacher the first year or so that I was in Egypt. They would basically send me to different companies throughout Cairo so I could teach their employees. As part of the contract, I got hooked up with a driver that took me to these businesses. Three times a week, he would drive me to and from these companies…and he didn’t speak English.
The result? I made a ton of mistakes in communicating with him in Egyptian Arabic, he would correct me when needed…and I got super good at speaking Egyptian Arabic as a result. And the best part of all? I had awesome experiences with one of the coolest Egyptian dudes I’ve ever met.
Thank you Hani – I am forever indebted to you.
Challenge yourself to see how much you can learn over a short time period.
While a bit most days is a recipe for Egyptian Arabic success…sometimes going crazy with it helps too! I’ve talked about it before, but I learned German super fast. I speak it fluently now (lived in Germany for four years), but knew literally five words when I first moved there. Four months later, I passed each section of the B1 Goethe Institut test, which normally takes people a few years.
The reason is because I literally just told myself “OK, let’s see how much German I can learn before I fly home for Christmas in four months”, and then did exactly that.
A few months after that, I also challenged myself to do an hour long conversation in Egyptian Arabic for 30 days in a row before I went back to Cairo for a wedding. And let me tell you – my skills in Egyptian Arabic + comfort speaking it (even after already having a high level) skyrocketed as a result.
The point of these two stories: if you have the time and resources, try challenging yourself a bit. You might be surprised how quickly you can bump up your Egyptian Arabic skills!
Prioritize the vocabulary and phrases that are most important to you and stay away from the other stuff (at least at the beginning).
I always laugh when I pick up an Egyptian Arabic book and see overly specific topics. For example, an entire chapter dedicated to something like colors. Like….what? How often am I ever going to use color words? I hardly even say colors in English!
This should be obvious, but to some people it’s not. You need to focus on learning the vocabulary for topics you think you are going to be talking about. Fluency in a language is really just “topic fluency.” This means that your level in a topic is directly tied to how many topics you can comfortably converse in.
I have Egyptian Arabic fluency in a whole range of topicS. But put me in a room with Egyptian lawyers and ask me to talk about the intricacies of law? No chance. Heck, even in English, my native language, I still wouldn’t do so well.
Time is limited – if you aren’t going to be talking about colors, there are better things to be learning with your study time. Pro tip: keep a digital note on your phone / piece of paper on your desk with a list of things you want to learn how to say. Life has a tendency to teach you all the different things you wish you could say – but can’t.
Don’t learn Egyptian Arabic grammar directly.
Alrighty, unpopular opinion here, especially for the people that consider themselves grammar nerds, but I’ll say it anyway…
The way you learn and internalize grammar is by a ton of exposure to how the language works in reality. This can come from phrases or listening to people speak it or reading content. You don’t actually learn Egyptian Arabic grammar all that effectively by grabbing a grammar book and sitting down to “learn grammar.”
When I tell people learning Egyptian Arabic that studying grammar isn’t important, I don’t mean that grammar isn’t important. It most certainly is – it’s the way the language works, and you need to understand it if you hope to use the language accurately.
But often, the least efficient way to learn grammar is also the most common way people approach it: sitting down with a grammar book and “learning the rules.”
My own experience? Even though I have a relatively advanced level in Egyptian Arabic, I don’t think I ever spent more than a few hours TOTAL studying grammar specifically. It’s the same exact story when I learned German quicker than anybody expected.
Indeed, this is one of the big reasons that I see a lot of people get “stuck” with Egyptian Arabic and hit a plateau super early: their “over focus” on Egyptian Arabic grammar. Again, you learn grammar with a ton of exposure to the language.
Just something to think about!
So…Is Egyptian Arabic Hard?
Long story short, it’s however hard you want to make it. Once you get over a few things at the beginning, how hard Egyptian Arabic is depends to a large extent on what your goal is with the language. It will also depend on how much time you are able to devote to studying / using it.
I know – very vague answer. Unfortunately, it’s hard to give a specific answer, because each person learning Egyptian Arabic has a unique situation in life.
However, because you just did the work to read this entire guide, I made a handy dandy table for you. It takes into account two main factors: what your end goal is and the average amount of time you can dedicate each day to learning Egyptian Arabic.
Note that the table below isn’t some random crap I thought up. It’s actually loosely based on my own experience learning Egyptian Arabic. It’s also based on the stories of numerous other foreigners I have chatted with who have done the same.
That said, do take it with a grain of salt, because there are all sorts of other factors at play. You will see the “end goal” (remember, your most important bit of information), as well as the average amount of time you can study each day.
Important note about your study time: if you are somewhat serious about Egyptian Arabic, I think one hour a day is the sweet spot. You can learn a lot in this length of time (done consistently), but anything more (especially more than three hours a day) starts to be counterproductive for how much your brain can actually retain.
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you. Regardless of your own answer, I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts:
- Skills get easier the more you practice them. Egyptian Arabic, like anything else, is a skill. The more you practice the easier it will get.
- A little bit, every single day, will get you further than you can imagine. Easy to say, much harder to do. (Habit is the key)
- Regardless of its difficulty, Egyptian Arabic is guaranteed to open up doors and usher in some incredible life experiences. It sure did for me. So…go for it!
As always, happy learning.
…
Cleo Lingo
