Egyptian Dialect Arabic

1. Import into Anki

Getting your deck into Anki takes about a minute. Your download link is in the receipt email from Lemon Squeezy, the payment service we use. It usually arrives within a few minutes.

Deck files are large, 130 MB or more depending on the deck, so use Wi-Fi when you download on a phone or tablet.

Another way: import the deck on a computer first, then sync it to your phone with a free AnkiWeb account. Your phone still needs the Anki app: AnkiDroid on Android or AnkiMobile on iPhone and iPad. The first sync can take a while because of the audio, so wait for it to finish.

Egyptian Arabic by Eidetic appears in your deck list with four sub-decks: Survival Arabic (A1), Conversational (A2), Fluency (B1) and Advanced (B2). The audio travels inside the file, so you have nothing else to download.

2. Recommended settings

Anki's defaults work, but these adjustments will give you better results with this deck:

• New cards per day: 10-15. That leaves time to play both voices on every card.
• Maximum reviews per day: 200. The default of 200 is fine. If your daily reviews regularly exceed 150, reduce new cards for a few days.
• Learning steps: 1m 10m. Anki's default. Leave it.

To change these: click the gear icon next to the deck name, then "Options."

3. How the three card types work

Start from أوي (awi), 'very'. The Recognition card runs from Arabic to English. The Production card runs from English to Arabic. The Cloze card blanks the word out of an Egyptian sentence.

The deck holds 1,642 entries, which become 4,926 cards, and 200 of the entries are tagged verbs. Every entry has transliteration and an example sentence, and about a third carry a cultural note. Many entries add a dialect variants note, which often lines up the same word in MSA, Saudi, Levantine and Egyptian.

Feeling overwhelmed? Suspend the Production cards for the first week. Focus on Recognition and Cloze. Add Production back once your daily reviews feel manageable. To suspend: select cards in the browser, right-click, "Toggle Suspend."

4. Where to start

This deck teaches Cairo Egyptian. The 42 themes are numbered by level: 1.1 to 1.12 in Survival Arabic (A1), 2.1 to 2.13 in Conversational (A2), 3.1 to 3.12 in Fluency (B1) and 4.1 to 4.5 in Advanced (B2). Each entry carries a theme tag, for example theme:1.4_Getting_Around_Cairo.

• Visiting or moving to Cairo. Survival Arabic (A1) has Getting Around Cairo, At the Restaurant & Cafe, At the Supermarket & Market, Numbers Money & Prices and At the Pharmacy. Conversational (A2) adds Cairo Traffic & Driving and Government & Paperwork.
• Following Egyptian film, music and TV. Egyptian is the dialect the Arab world grew up hearing, thanks to decades of cinema and music. In Fluency (B1), look at Egyptian Media & Entertainment, Egyptian Expressions & Slang and Social Media & Youth Slang.
• Coming from Modern Standard Arabic. The deck's own notes call دلوقتي ('now') an entirely distinct form and أوي ('very') a uniquely Egyptian intensifier. Learn them as new words, not as variants of words you already know.
• Heritage speaker. Test yourself in Conversational (A2). Suspend the cards you already know and put your time into the rest. Advanced (B2) includes a theme called Upper Egypt vs Cairo.

What is inside Egyptian Arabic

1,642 entries, 4,926 cards, with audio, transliteration and an example sentence on every entry.

• Four level sub-decks. Survival Arabic (A1) holds about 1,390 cards, Conversational (A2) about 1,620, Fluency (B1) about 1,380 and Advanced (B2) 540. The A1 to B2 levels are our own estimate of when a learner needs each word, not an official CEFR placement.
• 200 verbs. Tagged, on top of the everyday vocabulary.
• Two voices. A male voice and a female voice, for the word and the sentence.
• Cultural notes. On about a third of the entries.

One Egyptian entry, field by field

The entry for أوي is a good model for the rest.

• Arabic and transliteration. أوي and awi, an adverb.
• English. 'Very, a lot (intensifier).'
• Example sentence. الفيلم ده حلو أوي، شوفه means 'This film is very nice, watch it.'
• Cultural note. أوي is probably the most Egyptian word of all. It comes after virtually any adjective and intensifies it.
• Dialect variants. MSA says جداً (jiddan), Saudi says مرة or جداً, Levantine says كتير or جداً, Egyptian says أوي.

Two more Egyptian entries

Two everyday words, both from Survival Arabic (A1).

• إيه ده (eih da). 'What is this / what's going on.' The sentence is إيه ده؟ مين حط الحاجة دي هنا؟, 'What is this? Who put this thing here?' Register casual.
• دلوقتي (delwaʾti). 'Now.' The sentence is أنا مش قادر أيجي دلوقتي، استنى شوية, 'I can't come right now, wait a little.' The variants note lists MSA الآن, Saudi الحين, Levantine هلق and calls the Egyptian form entirely distinct.

What makes Egyptian sound Egyptian

Speaking Egyptian takes patterns that no subtitle teaches. Watch for these as you study.

• Two ways to say no. مش (mish) negates nouns and adjectives. With a verb, the no goes around it: the entry for ما تخليش (ma-tkhallish), 'don't let', puts ma- in front and -sh on the end.
• Words with no MSA twin. دلوقتي for now and أوي for very are Egyptian words, not changed versions of textbook ones.
• The rhythm. It is different, and so is the humor. Both come through in the audio and the cultural notes.
• Two voices. Play the male voice and the female voice on a card. Hearing one word from two speakers helps you catch it when a stranger says it.

Egyptian words vs the textbook

Modern Standard Arabic and Cairo Arabic share a written form but differ in everyday vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. These swaps come up in your first hour in Egypt.

• I want. أريد (uridu) in MSA. عايز (ʿāyiz) in Egyptian.
• What. ماذا (madha) in MSA. إيه (eih) in Egyptian.
• Now. الآن (al-an) in MSA. دلوقتي (delwaʾti) in Egyptian.
• Good, fine. جيد (jayyid) in MSA. كويس (kuwayyes) in Egyptian.

Egyptian among the dialects

Arabic is a family of spoken languages that share a written form. Each region has its own.

• Egypt. Egyptian Arabic, the most widely understood dialect across the Arab world, thanks to Egypt's film and music industry.
• The Gulf. Gulf Arabic. Our Saudi deck teaches it as spoken in Riyadh.
• Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Levantine Arabic. The four countries have their own flavors, and they understand each other without much effort.
• Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Maghrebi Arabic. Moroccan Darija is the most distinct family, so it needs its own study.

Common questions about Egyptian Arabic

Short answers on choosing among dialects, from the same guide.

• Is Egyptian the best dialect? Only if it fits your life. It is the most widely understood because of Egyptian film, TV and music, but widely understood is not the same as best for you. If you have a link to another dialect, learn that one.
• Which dialect is best for songs and shows? Egyptian or Levantine. Many famous Arabic singers and actors come from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.
• Will people outside Egypt understand me? Often, yes. Our guide says Arabic speakers from Morocco to Iraq can follow Egyptian, because of Egypt's film, television and music industry. Speakers still tend to prefer that you use their own dialect.

Setting an Egyptian pace

New cards at 10 to 15 a day come to 3 to 5 new words, since each word makes three cards. Survival Arabic (A1) holds about 1,390 cards, so plan on roughly 90 to 140 days of new cards there. Work through the level sub-decks in order and let the themes you care about, such as Egyptian Expressions & Slang, set which cards you meet first.

Practice and reading, Egyptian

Everything below is free. If someone you know is still choosing a dialect, send them the preview and the dialect guide.

• Free browser preview. Twenty Egyptian cards with audio, ready to open in the browser.
• Which Arabic Dialect Should I Learn? It says plainly when Egyptian is the right pick and when it is not.
• The Arabic Dialect Problem Nobody Talks About. Why Arabic is a family of spoken languages.
• Learn Arabic. Which Arabic deck suits which learner.

The "Again" button is your friend

When Anki shows you a card and you don't know the answer, hit Again. Not "Hard." Not "Good." Again.

Spaced repetition works best when you're honest about what you don't know. Cards you mark "Again" come back sooner. Cards you know well space out further. The algorithm adjusts to you. Trust it.

Audio on every card

Every word card has professional audio. On desktop, audio plays automatically when the card appears. On mobile, tap the speaker icon.

Every entry has audio in two voices, one male and one female, for the word and for the example sentence. Play both on each card. You get the same word from two speakers, and the transliteration is there for the days you are not ready for the script.

Lifetime updates

Your purchase includes free updates for the life of the product. When we add new cards, fix audio, or improve translations, you can re-download the latest version from Lemon Squeezy at no extra cost.

When we release a new version, it appears on your original Lemon Squeezy download link; download it again to get it.

Need help?

Reply to any Eidetic email or reach out at hello@eidetic.cards. We read everything and respond fast.