Responding to “How are you?” in Egyptian Arabic
Last week IBL published the article A study: “How are you?” in Egyptian Arabic. If you’ve studied the material, and also learned How to say “Hello” in Egyptian Arabic, you are likely at a stage where you want to be ready to properly respond when greeted in Egyptian Arabic. This article will provide you this very information!
What is to follow are 10 common ways that Egyptian Arabic speakers respond to an interlocutor when asked how they are doing.
Positive responses
1. El 7md lelah / الحمد لله
The most common way that Egyptian Arabic speakers respond to “How are you?” is with the phrase El 7md lelah / الحمد لله. El 7md means “The praise” or “The thanks” and Lelah / لله means means are “for Allah”. When someone says this phrase they are giving a humble acknowledgement to Allah. But it has been cited that many non-Muslim Egyptian Arabic speakers also say this phrase during a greeting.
IBL Contributor, Samar A. pronounces El 7md lelah:
2. (m) Kyws / كويس (f) Kwysa / كويسة
A common way to respond when asked How are you? in Egyptian Arabic is (m) Kyws / كويس (f) Kwysa / كويسة. Kyws Kwysa mean “Good” in an emotional context. These phrases are akin to “I’m good.” And in the plural “We’re good” this phrase is Kwysen / كويسين.
Samar A. pronounces Kyws, Kwysa & Kwysen:
3. Kolo kwys / كله كويس
Kol / كل means “All”. Kolo means “All things” or “Everything”. And Kwys you may remember from the article A study: “How are you?” in Egyptian Arabic means “Good”. So by saying Kolo kwys you are saying “Everything is good.” A note that this phrase Kwys is always associated to this phrase not Kwysa because Kolo (“Everything”) is a masculine-based. In Arabic, the gender form of the adjective used corresponds to the gender designation of the noun being described.
4. Kolo tmam / كله تمام
A similar phrase to Kolo kwys is Kolo tmam. As covered in the section above, Kolo / كله means “Everything”. And Tmam means “Okay”. So by saying or writing this phrase you’re communicating that All or Everything is okay.
5. Bonus response
At the end of this article here we added one more bonus positive response that one can communicate in response to how one is doing.
Opposite mood responses
Sometimes the speaker may not being in a good mood or a best of mood and wishes to still be sincere when asked how they are doing. Here are four ways that Egyptian Arabic speakers express their mood when they aren’t having their brightest of day:
6. Nos nos / نص نص
The first we’ll cover in this section is Nos Nos / نص نص. In Egyptian Arabic (like in Tunisian Arabic), Nos / نص means “Half”. So in English, this has the direct translation as “Half half”. (If you’re curious to know, in Standard Arabic (Fos7a / الفصحى), “Half” is Nsf / نصف) In English, Nos nos be akin to the phrase “So so” or the popular French phrase, Comme ci comme ça.
7. El 7md lelah 3la kol 7al / الحمد لله على كل حال
This phrase is essentially a break down of El 7md lelah (Covered in #1 above — Thanking God) + 3la kol 7al. As also covered above Kol means “All” and 7al means “states” or “statuses”. So by saying El 7md lelah 3la kol 7al the speaker is Thanking God for all states or statuses. (A version of 7al also shows up in the greeting Eh el a7wal? / ايه الاحوال؟ which means, colloquially, “What’s your status?”. For more information on this and other Egyptian Arabic greetings see the article, A study: “How are you?” in Egyptian Arabic)
8. Msh a7sn 7aga / مش احسن حاجة
Next we have Msh a7sn 7aga / مش احسن حاجة. In Egyptian Arabic Msh / مش creates a defirmative statement, being akin to “Not”, a7sn / احسن means “Best” and 7aga / حاجة means “Thing”. In this case “Thing” is a metaphor for the state someone is in. So by putting the words together, Msh a7sn 7aga, someone is essentially saying “Not in the best of state” or “Not doing great”.
9. Mashy el 7al / ماشي الحال
Then we have Mashy el 7al / ماشي الحال. In Egyptian Arabic Mashy means “Going” or “Walking” and el 7al shows up again. (“States” or “Statuses”, as we covered in #7 above) By saying this phrase the speaker is communicating that “although they aren’t in a great (or good) state in the moment, it will pass.”
10. (m) T3ban / تعبان (f) T3bana / تعبانة
A final conventional response when asked how you are doing is T3ban / تعبان – (f) T3bana / تعبانة. In Egyptian Arabic T3ban T3bana means “Tired” in the adjective form. So, by saying (m) T3ban (f) T3bana the speaker is communicating that they are Tired or not feeling well. (As in, physically sick) In the plural, this expression is T3banen / تعبانين.
We didn’t want to end this article with five negative mood responses to “How are you?” so we’re going to end it with a positive response that acts as a bonus for this article!
An interesting and colourful way to respond when asked how you’re doing is Zy el fol. Zy / زي means “Like” (resemblance) and Fol / فل is a type of flower that has a strong and attractive scent to it. So by saying this phrase you are saying “Like a flower”. It’s a conventional phrase but likely more applicable to use amongst friends versus in a formal setting.
Samar A speaks Zy el fol:
In closing
By studying and learning this article’s material you’re equipped to speak or understand nine different responses to “How are you?” in Egyptian Arabic. If you haven’t read the article yet, a natural follow-up to this article is the prelude IBL article: A study: “How are you?” in Egyptian Arabic. (1121 words with nine principal translations with recordings) There is also the IBL article How to say “Hello” in Egyptian Arabic that contains nine ways to say “Hello” in Egyptian Arabic. Ithaca Bound Languages is in the process of documenting Egyptian Arabic. At the time of this publication it has over 700 pages of Egyptian Arabic content with recordings and over 3000 statements translated. So, you may want to use the IBL catalogue as an ongoing resource for learning Egyptian Arabic — IBL: Egyptian Arabic.
Enjoy learning Egyptian Arabic, a fascinating dialogue of Arabic.
And as always, we wish you a marvellous journey!
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