Pimsleur is one of the few big names with a course built for Egyptian Arabic. Lots of "Arabic" courses teach the formal written standard, and learners find out later that nobody in Cairo talks that way. Pimsleur's Egyptian course avoids that trap. You hear Egyptian from the first minute.
We make Bel Masri, which competes with it, so read this knowing that. We've tried to give Pimsleur the credit it's earned. We've also left out prices and anything else that changes from year to year, so check those on Pimsleur's own site.
How a Pimsleur lesson works
Each lesson runs about 30 minutes, and lessons are grouped into levels of 30. Everything happens through audio. A lesson usually opens with a short conversation between two speakers, and then an English narrator takes it apart a piece at a time. You're asked how to say something. You use the gap the narrator leaves, say it out loud, and then a speaker gives you the right answer to check yourself against.
Phrases come back at growing intervals. Something you learned ten minutes ago gets asked again, then again near the end, then again a lesson or two later. Pimsleur calls this graduated interval recall. It's a kind of spaced repetition, and it does what it promises: a phrase you've had to dig out of memory five or six times tends to stay put.
What it asks of you is small. Show up every day and answer out loud, even when you're not sure.
What it does well
You speak on day one. Plenty of apps let you tap and drag for weeks before you say a word. Pimsleur makes you build whole phrases with your own mouth in the first lesson. That habit pays off the first time someone in Cairo asks you a question and waits for an answer.
Pronunciation and rhythm. Since almost everything reaches you through your ears, you get the sound of Egyptian before you ever see it spelled. That includes the two sounds that place you in Cairo: ق as a catch in the throat, so coffee is , and ج as a hard g, so new is . Our guide to the Egyptian q and g explains both.
It fits a commute. Once a lesson starts you don't need a screen. A lot of people get through Pimsleur on the drive to work or out on a walk. If your study time only exists in the gaps of the day, that counts for more than any feature list.
Where it falls short
Reading. You'll pick up very little of the Arabic script. That's fine for the first few weeks. It gets frustrating once you can say a word out loud but can't spot it on a menu or a shop sign.
Vocabulary grows slowly. That's the price of all the repetition. A half-hour lesson drills a small set of phrases until they're solid, and they will be solid. Still, at the end of a level you'll know fewer words than the hours might suggest.
Some phrasing leans formal. In places the course reaches for the polite register, the way you'd speak to an official or someone much older. Polite Egyptian is real and worth knowing. Compare , a polite "Are you Karim?", with the everyday , "What's your name?" You'll use both. Just expect to need more of the casual side before you're chatting with friends.
Price. Pimsleur sits near the top of what language courses cost. Some public libraries lend Pimsleur courses, so ask at yours before you pay.
The Egyptian you should be hearing
Whichever course you choose, the goal is the Arabic people use at the shop, in a taxi and on the sofa at a friend's place. Here are three sentences from our A1 course. After a few weeks with Pimsleur or with us, you should understand every one of them by ear.
- At the corner shop: , "No, thanks. How much is the bill?"
- Flagging down a cab: , "Taxi! Are you free, driver?"
- Running into an old friend: , "How are you doing? It's been ages!"
A Modern Standard course would word most of these differently. 'osTa for a driver and 3aamel 'eeh for "how's it going" are pure Cairo.
Pimsleur next to Bel Masri
Here's the one comparison, kept short. Bel Masri is a daily app with short lessons. Every word shows Arabic script beside a simple Latin spelling, so you start reading while you learn to speak. Every word and sentence has audio, voiced in Cairene Egyptian and checked by a speaker. It's on Android now, iPhone is next, and it's free to try.
Pimsleur is better at one thing we can't fully copy on a phone screen: long stretches of answering out loud with nobody watching. Where it's thin, on reading and on the number of words you meet each week, is where we're strongest. Some learners use both, with Pimsleur in the car and a few minutes of Bel Masri before bed.
Who it suits
Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic is a good fit if you learn best by ear and like talking back. It also suits anyone whose free time comes in half-hour blocks away from a screen, or who's flying to Egypt soon and mostly wants to be understood.
It's a weaker fit if you want to read soon or you're on a tight budget. People who like grammar laid out on a page may also find it thin. For the wider field, see the best app to learn Egyptian Arabic.
Common questions
Does Pimsleur teach Egyptian Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic? It has a separate Egyptian Arabic course, so you hear Egyptian pronunciation and everyday Egyptian words. Pimsleur sells a Modern Standard Arabic course too, so check the course name before you buy.
Does Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic teach the Arabic alphabet? Very little. It's an audio course built around listening and answering out loud. If you want to read, pair it with something that puts the Arabic script in front of you.
How long is a Pimsleur lesson? About 30 minutes. Lessons come in levels of 30, and the course is designed for one lesson a day.
Is Pimsleur worth it for Egyptian Arabic? If you want to speak with a decent accent and can give it half an hour a day, yes. If reading or a big vocabulary is your goal, you'll need a second resource next to it.