Wednesday, April 18, 2012

An Arabic vocabulary guide

Here is a list of Arabic vocabularly that will probably make its way back to the states with me. It's a combination of both ameea (colloquial) and fusha (formal).

mumtas- excellent
mush mushkilah- no problem
esh- what?
bijanin- super excellent, so excellent it makes you crazy (this word is derived from the root majnoon which means crazy)
wain ____?- where is ______? I will also probably incoperate some Arabic grammatical rules into this and say something like wain hairbrushi? because "i" at the end of the word means it's mine.
habibti- my female love, girlfriend, term of endearment
habibi- my male love, boyfriend, term of enderarment
ana keman- me too
matha hadatha!?!?!?- what happened?!?!? in fusha. If you actually say this to an Arabic-speaker they will laugh at you becuase you're so formal, but it's so much more fun to say than shoo sahr?!?!?
sufi mafi- what's up (seriously Jordanian colloquial)
safia wafia- nothing (seriously Jordanian colloquial response)
assifa- sorry
shukran- thank you
la- no
mush- no, but used to negate nouns.
aywah- yes
sah- yes, true
mashi- ok
ahlan wa sahlan!!!- welcome! although translated literally it means you are among family and you should feel at ease. ahlan wa sahlan is a great Arabic filler that people say when no one is speaking to break awkward silences. it is also yelled at ajnabiyyah when they walk on the street.
ajnabiyyah- foreign girl
khalas- enough, done (this word is used all the time, although apparently not to pull cabs over)
itfudali/itfudul- go ahead, although it is used in many more situations than "go ahead" is in english.
mumkin-maybe
yanni- I mean.... it's another great Arabic filler
esh hal arif- that sucks bro
moosh my mooshkilah- not my problem. this is a good example of how much I love Arabish.
bidi falafel wahid law samat?- can I have one falafel please?

and then there are the allah's.  these are just a few of many, many, many.
yallah- let's go
inshallah- hopefully
alhamdulillah- good, great, awesome
yarhamukullah- bless you (what you say when someone sneezes)

2 comments:

  1. Oh great, now you can sing "Oh where is my hairbrush" in Arabic!

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  2. I think we should have Arabic time next year, when we are roommates.

    ReplyDelete