Say How Are You in Arabic
Edited by Hotelier, priya, Eng, Rushell
Hello, and thank you for watching VisiHow. Today, we will learn how to write and pronounce a short dialogue in Arabic asking someone how they are doing. This is specifically for beginning non-native speakers of the language, and we will use some extra notes, but mostly the modern standard Arabic form of the language. There may be many ways that you can say this depending on where you are at.
Steps
1
The traditional modern standard Arabic form of "How are you?" is "kayf al hâlu?"
.
2
"Kayf" is spelled kaaf, yaa, faa
.
3
Then, for "al hâlu", we have "al", which is alif, laam, followed by haa, alif, laam with a dhamma
.
4
The question mark at the end will go backwards
.
Again, it is "kayf al hâlu?". This is extremely proper, and perhaps not very common to actually hear people speaking this way.
5
One very common way that we will hear people speaking is to say either, "kayfa haluka" or "kayfa haluki"
.
6
"Kayfa" in this case will be the same as "kayf"
.
7
For "haluk", we will copy a little bit from above in "hâlu", but without the "al"
.
We have haa, laam, and ending kaaf. Again, it is "kayfa haluk".
8
Let's write it a second time as well so we can see the difference between the masculine and feminine form
.
9
In order make "kayfa haluk" masculine, we will add a fatha above the ending kaaf
.
That makes it "kayfa haluka".
10
In order to make this "kayfa haluki", we will add a kasra below the ending kaaf
.
11
Again, the masculine form is "kayfa haluka"
.
12
The feminine form is "kayfa haluki"
.
13
The answer, "I'm fine" may be heard two ways
.
The first way is, "bikhayr".
14
"Bikhayr" will be written baa, haa, yaa, ra with a kasra underneath the baa to make the "bih" sound
.
15
We may also hear "alhamdulillah", which means roughly, "thanks to God"
.
It can also be used as a way of saying that someone is doing okay.
16
"Alhamdulillah" would begin "al", then haa, miim, daal for "alhamdul"
.
Then, it is laam, laam, and haa.
17
We will have a dhamma on the ending daal
.
Again, altogether it is pronounced "alhamdulillah".
18
"And you?" is said in two ways depending if we are asking a man or a woman
.
"Wa ant" is the general form, so we will write it twice.
19
In order to see exactly the difference between the masculine and the feminine form, view the video on Arabic personal pronouns that is on this website
.
In brief, in order to make this "wa anta", we need a fatha above the taa. Again, it is "wa anta" for a man.
20
For a woman, it is "wa anti", so we will add a kasra below the ending taa
.
21
Again, it is "wa anta" for a man
.
22
"Wa anti" is for a woman
.
23
If we are a woman speaking with another woman, we can ask, "How are you?" commonly by saying "kayfa haluki"
.
24
She can answer, "bikhayr wa anti?"
.
25
This concludes today's tutorial on how to ask and respond to "How are you?" in the Arabic language
.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them in the space below.
Video: Say How Are You in Arabic
Categories :
Language
Recent edits by: Eng, priya, Hotelier