If you're choosing between Egyptian and Levantine Arabic, you're choosing between two close relatives. The Levant here means Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Someone from Cairo and someone from Amman will talk for an hour without much trouble. Still, the first ten words out of each mouth are different enough that a beginner notices. We teach Egyptian, so this is written from the Cairo side, with Egyptian audio voiced in Cairene Egyptian and checked by a speaker. The Levantine words come from our Palestinian materials and are written the way we spell them there.
The sound you'll notice first: g and j
The letter ج is a hard g in Cairo. In the Levant it's j, as in "jam".
| Egyptian | Levantine (Palestinian) | Arabic | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| jibne | جِبْنَة | cheese | |
| jdeed | جِدِيد | new |
Hear gibna once and you'll pick out Egyptian anywhere. Our q and g guide goes deeper on this.
The q is where the two sides meet. In Cairo, ق is mostly a glottal stop, the catch in "uh-oh". City speakers in the Levant do the same thing. Our Palestinian spelling keeps the q (qahwe, hallaq), but in the cities it comes out as the same catch.
| Egyptian | Levantine (Palestinian) | English |
|---|---|---|
| qahwe | coffee | |
| qadeem | old |
Notice the ending too. Egyptian 'ahwa ends in -a. The Palestinian word ends in -e. You'll see that split again and again.
Five everyday words that change
This is the list that makes the two dialects sound foreign to each other at first. They're among the most common words in either one, so they come up in almost every sentence.
| English | Egyptian | Levantine (Palestinian) |
|---|---|---|
| what? | shoo | |
| I want | / | biddi |
| now | hallaq | |
| good | mnee7 | |
| where? | ween |
A few of these behave differently as well as sounding different.
what. Egyptian likes to put 'eeh at the end of the question. Palestinian puts shoo first: shoo haay? is what is this?
- What do you do? (to a man)
want. 3aayez is a participle, so it changes for a man or a woman. biddi is bidd plus the ending for I, so it changes for the person instead: biddak is you want, to a man. After either one, a bare verb says what you want to do.
- I want to visit my family. (said by a man)
In Palestinian, biddi azoor is I want to visit. Same idea, different word in front. Our guide to 3aayez has the full Egyptian pattern.
where. feen can go at either end of an Egyptian question:
- Where's the book?
- Where's the knife?
What carries straight across
Plenty does. If you learn one, a good part of the other is already yours.
is not in both. It goes in front of nouns, adjectives and places.
- No, Karim isn't in right now.
The Palestinian version of a sentence like that uses the same mish: il-mudeer mish hown, the manager isn't here.
Verbs get wrapped in ma...sh on both sides. ma- goes in front, -sh at the end.
- He doesn't work on Fridays.
- No, there's no change.
Palestinian says ma fee-sh for there isn't any, built the same way.
The word for the is el- in Egyptian and il- in our Palestinian spelling. Only the vowel differs. And the small stuff overlaps heavily: shukran, la' for no, 'aywa for yes and law sama7t for excuse me.
Why more people understand Egyptian
Cairo has been the Arab world's film and TV studio for about a hundred years. Its comedies, soap operas and pop songs play from Morocco to the Gulf. Kids in Amman or Beirut grow up hearing Egyptian without ever going to Egypt. That's why a Jordanian will usually follow you if you speak Egyptian. It doesn't run as strongly the other way. Levantine series are popular too, but Egyptian had a long head start.
So if you speak Egyptian, you'll be understood almost everywhere Arabic is spoken. Your listener may answer in their own dialect, and that's where the word list above earns its keep.
Which one to pick
Pick by who you'll talk to.
- Your partner, family or friends are Egyptian, or you're moving to Cairo or Alexandria: Egyptian.
- They're Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian or Lebanese, or you're moving to the Levant: Levantine. You'll hear it every day, and that daily exposure is worth more than any argument about reach.
- You love Egyptian films, music or comedy: Egyptian, obviously.
- No particular person or place yet: Egyptian. It has the widest audience, and it gives you a base you can adjust from later.
If Levantine is the one for you, the same team behind Bel Masri makes Tfaddalu, an app for Palestinian Arabic. Switching later isn't a restart either. You'd swap the common words in the table above, start saying j, and keep most of the grammar.
Common questions
Can Egyptians and Levantine speakers understand each other? Yes, with a little adjusting. The grammar is close, a lot of everyday vocabulary is shared, and Levantine speakers have usually heard plenty of Egyptian on screen. The handful of high-frequency words that differ, like 'eeh and shoo, take a day or two to get used to.
Is Egyptian or Levantine Arabic easier? Neither is harder in any real sense. They have the same kind of grammar and similar sound systems. The easier one is whichever you'll hear more of, because practice is what makes a dialect stick.
What's the biggest difference between Egyptian and Levantine Arabic? For a beginner it's a short list of very common words: what ('eeh vs shoo), want (3aayez vs biddi), now (delwa'ti vs hallaq), good (kwayyis vs mnee7) and where (feen vs ween). Then there's the Egyptian g where the Levant says j.
Which should I learn if I don't have a specific country in mind? Egyptian. It's the dialect the most Arabic speakers have grown up hearing, so it travels well beyond Egypt.