Saudi 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.

Saudi Arabic by Eidetic appears in your deck list with four sub-decks inside it: Survival Arabic (A1), Conversational (A2), Fluency (B1) and Advanced (B2). The audio and the tags come with the file, so there is nothing else to set up.

2. Recommended settings

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

• New cards per day: 10-15. Ten to fifteen keeps the pile light while you get used to the Najdi sounds.
• 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

Pick the phrase الله يعطيك العافية (Allāh yaʿṭīk al-ʿāfiyah), 'may God give you strength'. On a Recognition card you see the Arabic and give the meaning. On a Production card you see the meaning and say the Arabic. On a Cloze card the phrase sits in a sentence with a blank, and you supply it.

Every entry makes these three cards, so the 1,744 entries in the deck become 5,232 cards. The 200 essential verbs are tagged, so you can pull them into a session of their own. About one entry in four carries a cultural note. They are worth reading, because they tell you how a word is used and not only what it means.

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

The 43 themes are numbered by level. Themes 1.1 to 1.12 sit in Survival Arabic (A1), 2.1 to 2.14 in Conversational (A2), 3.1 to 3.11 in Fluency (B1) and 4.1 to 4.6 in Advanced (B2). Every entry carries a theme tag such as theme:1.3_At_the_Restaurant, so you can filter by theme in the Anki browser.

• Moving to Riyadh or central Saudi Arabia. This is the dialect the deck teaches: Urban Najdi. Start with Survival Arabic (A1). Conversational (A2) adds At Work, Saudi Hospitality and Government & Paperwork.
• Living in Jeddah or the west. The deck teaches Najdi. A few Hijazi variant notes mark where Jeddah differs from Riyadh, and Regional Variations is a theme in Advanced (B2). Treat Najdi as your base and read the Hijazi notes as they come up.
• Coming from Modern Standard Arabic. Your reading will carry over. Your ear is what needs retraining, so play the audio before you look at the card. The Najdi notes below begin with the qaf, a letter that sounds different from the MSA you may know.
• Starting from zero. Begin with Survival Arabic (A1). Every entry has transliteration, so you can study before you can read the script and pick up the letters as you go.

What is inside Saudi Arabic

1,744 entries, 5,232 cards. Every entry has Arabic, transliteration, an example sentence and audio.

• Four level sub-decks. Survival Arabic (A1) holds about 1,360 cards, Conversational (A2) about 1,830, Fluency (B1) about 1,360 and Advanced (B2) 690. The A1 to B2 levels are our own estimate of when a learner needs each word, not an official CEFR placement.
• 43 themes. They follow real situations, from In the Taxi to News & Vision 2030.
• 200 essential verbs. Tagged, so you can study them as a group.
• Variant notes. Gulf notes mark where the UAE and Kuwait differ, and a few mark the Hijazi forms.

One Saudi entry, field by field

Open any entry in the Anki browser and you will see the same fields. This one is الله يعطيك العافية.

• Arabic and transliteration. الله يعطيك العافية and Allāh yaʿṭīk al-ʿāfiyah.
• English. 'May God give you strength (thank you to workers).'
• Example sentence. الله يعطيك العافية يا أخوي, with its transliteration and 'God give you strength, brother.'
• Cultural note. Say it to anyone doing work: a waiter, a taxi driver, a security guard, a colleague.

Two more Saudi entries

A plain word and a note from the Gulf, both from Survival Arabic (A1).

• طيب (ṭayyib). 'Okay, alright, good.' The sentence is طيب، نشوفك بكرة, 'Okay, see you tomorrow.' A Gulf variants note says that in the UAE and Kuwait, زين (zayn) is often used where Saudis say طيب.
• دجاج (dajāj). 'Chicken', a masculine noun, in the At the Restaurant theme. The sentence is أبغى كبسة دجاج, 'I want chicken kabsa.'

Najdi sounds and patterns to listen for

These are the places where Saudi Arabic parts ways with the Arabic of a textbook. Do not memorize them. Listen for them in the audio and they will start to feel normal.

• The qaf is a g. The letter ق is said as a hard g in Najdi, so قهوة (coffee) is gahwah.
• Question words. وين (wayn) for where and ليش (lēsh) for why replace the textbook words.
• No with a verb. ما goes before the verb. أبغى (abghā, I want) becomes ما أبغى (mā abghā, I do not want).
• The future. A ب or رح before the verb makes the future, as in بروح (barūḥ), 'I will go'.

Saudi words vs the textbook

Courses built on Modern Standard Arabic give you one set of everyday words. Riyadh uses another. These are different words, not different accents.

• I want. أريد (uridu) in MSA. أبغى (abghā) in Saudi.
• Now. الآن (al-an) in MSA. الحين (al-ḥīn) in Saudi.
• Okay, good. جيد (jayyid) in MSA. طيب (ṭayyib) in Saudi.

Common questions about Saudi Arabic

Short answers, drawn from our Saudi Arabic guide.

• Should I learn Modern Standard Arabic first? Not if you want to talk to people in Saudi Arabia. MSA is the language of news and formal writing. Start with the dialect and add MSA later for newspapers or speeches.
• Do I need to read the script before I start? No. Begin with the transliteration and add the script as you go. Arabic has 28 letters, and learning them is worth it: it helps your pronunciation, lets you read signs and menus, and opens up more study material.
• Will this help elsewhere in the Gulf? Partly. Saudi shares a lot with Emirati, Kuwaiti, Bahraini and Qatari Arabic, so you start ahead. Expect to adjust to local words and pronunciation.
• Which phrases come first? Greetings. السلام عليكم (al-salām ʿalaykum), كيف حالك (kayf ḥālak), الحمد لله (al-ḥamdu li-llāh), شكرا (shukran) and تفضل (tafaḍḍal) open many everyday conversations.

Setting a Saudi pace

Each word makes three cards, so 10 to 15 new cards a day is about 3 to 5 new words. Survival Arabic (A1) holds about 1,360 cards, which is roughly 90 to 135 days of new cards at that pace. Think of the whole deck as a library you work through level by level, not a course with an end date.

When greetings, shopping and the taxi feel easy, give the 200 tagged verbs a short session of their own.

Practice and reading for Saudi Arabic

Everything below is free. Send the browser preview to anyone who is deciding between decks, or use the reading to go further into Saudi Arabic.

• Free browser preview. Twenty Saudi cards in your browser, with audio and nothing to install.
• How to Learn Saudi Arabic. Najdi against Hejazi, greetings, grammar patterns and a four-phase study plan.
• Can You Order at a Riyadh Coffee Shop? A 10-question quiz on Saudi coffee culture.
• Which Arabic Dialect Should I Learn? How to choose between Saudi, Egyptian and Levantine.
• Learn Arabic. Every Arabic deck we make, side by side.

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 plays Najdi-accent audio, the accent of Riyadh, in a male and a female voice. Play it before you read the Arabic. The qaf is the first thing your ear will catch: قهوة is gahwah, with a hard g, in Riyadh. The transliteration on each card is there to help you along. It does not replace listening.

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.