Cooking verbs in spoken Egyptian are super useful if you are an enthusiast and love Egyptian cuisine. Whether it is your job or just a hobby, learning Egyptian cuisine vocabulary is very important and will help improve communication in the kitchen. Don’t forget to check my blog for other interesting resources about Egypt, the Arabic language, and Spoken Egyptian.
In this article, I list 7 important cooking verbs that you can use in Egypt right away.
So let’s start
1. To add
We add components all the time during cooking. Our first verb ‘to add’ means in spoken Egyptian ‘yedeef يضيف’
So you can say for instance: Ana badeef el tamatem أنا بضيف الطماطم (I am adding tomatoes)
2. to bake
What is more satisfying than fresh-backed cookies? This is one of the most ‘delicious’ cooking verbs in spoken Egyptian.
In Egyptian, the verb ‘to bake’ means ‘yekhbez يخبز’, which is derived from ‘khobz خبز’ (bread) in MSA. So you can say: ‘ana hakhbez eesh ennaharda انا هاخبز عيش إنهاردة’ (I will bake bread today)
3. to blend
The verb ‘to blend’ means ‘yekhlet’ يخلط – from which comes ‘khallat خلاط’ (blender). Commonly Egyptian also say: ydrab fel khallat يضرب فى الخلاط (to mix in the blender). Get my ‘100 most-used-phrases in daily life’ Phrase pack and other cool digital ebooks with a special discount
4. to boil
The verb ‘to boil’ means ‘yeghly يغلي’ in spoken Egyptian. So for instance, if you want to say ‘the water is boiling now’ you say ‘el-mayyah beteghly delwa2ty المية بتغلي دلوقتي’. You can acquire a wonderful background in the spoken Egyptian by enrolling in my ‘Egyptian Arabic 101’ course.
5. to chop
If you are a salad fan like me, you would love this verb. The verb ‘to chop’ in Egyptian means ‘ye2ata3 يقطع’. Don’t panic seeing these numbers, they are just there to make the pronunciation easier. Check my Linguamid YouTube channel: Pronunciation playlist, where I explain how we pronounce difficult letters like ayn ع (I refer to as 3) in the verb above.
6. to fry
Who on earth doesn’t love fries? In Egypt fries have their esteemed position too. We usually love to eat fries alongside with fool (beans) and tammeyya (falafel).
The verb ‘to fry’ means ‘ye2lyيقلي’ or ‘ye7ammarيحمر’ in Egyptian. For example, I fry potatoes means ‘ana ba2ly batatesأنا بقلي بطاطس ‘ or ‘ana ba7ammar batatesأنا بحمر بطاطس ‘
So can you guess what ‘batates me7amarraبطاطس محمرة ‘ means?
Great job! fried botatoes.
7. to grate
The verb ‘to grate’ means ‘yebshorيبشر ‘ in Egyptian. This is an important verb and is usually used with cheese cubes and onions.
So we say: ‘ana habshor gebnaانا هابشر جبنة ‘, which means ‘I am going to grate cheese’
I hope you liked this list.
As I said, using the cooking verbs is mega important if you want to communicate in the kitchen. The Egyptian Cuisine is very delicious and exotic. If you want to know more about it and the Egyptian culture in general, you are most welcome to enroll for free in my ‘Egyptian Arabic 101’ course.
Now tell me in the comments,
Do you know other cooking verbs?