Welcome to a new lesson from our Spoken Egyptian online course series. In today’s lesson, we focus on three ways to ask ‘how are you’ in spoken Egyptian. In these short and to-the-point lessons, we will learn together the spoken Egyptian dialect via a series of blog articles and podcasts. This will be an excellent free companion to our YouTube channel. You will find referrals between blog posts and YouTube episodes whenever necessary. Make sure to check for new articles by visiting our blog regularly. Also don’t forget to join my free ‘Egyptian Arabic 101’ course, where I explain various essential components of the Spoken Egyptian Dialect.
There are three common ways Egyptian natives ask ‘how are you (doing)?’ in spoken Egyptian. In my online Accelerator courses, the students find these greetings very easy and use them with ease after 1 or 2 conversation sessions. We will learn about them in this article. Refer to our previous article to know all the other essential greetings.
Egyptian Greeting 1: Ezzayak/-ik إزيك؟
The first important greeting in spoken Egyptian is ‘ezzayak’. This word combines ‘ezzay’ (how) and ‘ak’ (the preposition: you). In Egypt, you will hear this word many times because it is a widespread greeting and used anywhere and anytime.
The feminine equivalent is ‘ezzayik’. So if you are talking to a lady, you end the greeting with ‘-ik’ instead of ‘-ak’ – simple, right?
Egyptain Greeting 2: Akhbaarak/-ik eih? أخبارك إيه
The second of three ways to ask ‘how are you’ in Egyptian is ‘akhbaarak eih’. If you refer to my YouTube episodes about the question articles, you will find that ‘eih إيه’ in spoken Egyptian means (What). The word ‘akhbaar أخبار’ is the plural of ‘khabar خبر’ which means ‘news’
So when you ask ‘akbaarak eih? أخبارك إيه؟’ you are literally saying ‘What is your news’. This greetings is also very common on Cairo streets. So you can use it with (or instead of) ezzayak.
Egyptians often combine greetings together, so it is very likely to hear an Egyptian asking ‘Ezzayak, akhabaarak eih?’
Egyptian Greeting 3: A’aamel/Amlaah eih? عامل / عاملة إيه
The phrase ‘A’aamel eih’ is a third synonym and means ‘how are you.’ Literally, ‘3aamel’ comes from the verb ‘ye3mel’ which means ‘to do’.
So feel free to use any of the three versions in this article. They are straightforward to pronounce, except for the last phrase, where the letter ‘ayn’ ع requires some practice. Now don’t forget to enrol 100% free in my ‘Egyptian Arabic 101’ course to get a great essential background about spoken Egyptian.
Did you hear any of these phrases before?
Could you share it with me in the comments?