Introduction to Levantine Arabic

Levantine Arabic is spoken in the Levant region which is composed of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. The dialect isn't as different from Egyptian as it is from, say, Iraqi or Gulf Arabic. A few important facts about the Levantine dialect are,

1. Levantine Arabic changes the ق to a ء in most words.
2. ة is changed to ي in most words.
3. The word عم adds -ing to the verb after it.
   
4. The letter ب is added before present tense verbs in most cases. This basically just makes the words flow together better.
   

Here's a list of some high frequency words in the Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Palestinian dialects. Since it's really not very helpful to just see a list an not know exactly how to pronounce the words I've made a video of the correct pronunciations of the words along with sentences to show their uses in context.

• What - ايش/شو

شو بدك؟ - What do you want?
ايش عم بيصير؟ - What's going on?

• Where - وين

لوين رايح - Where are you going? (said to a male)

• Why - ليش

ليش ما بترد على جوالك؟ - Why don't you answer your cellphone?

• When - إمتى

إمتى رح ترجع من شغلتك؟ - When are you returning from your job? (basically, when are you coming home from work)

• Who - مين

مع مين عم تحكي - Who are you talking with?

• How - شلون/كِيف

كيف الأجوا الرمضانية - How is the Ramadan atmosphere?

• How much - قًدّيش

قديش الساعة؟ - What time is it?

• Now - هَلّق

هلق انا صرت جاهز - Now I'm ready. (literally, now I've become ready)

• Good - مْنيح

الجو اليوم مش منيح - The weather today is not good.

• Tomorrow - بُكْرة

بكرة رح بتشوفيني - Tomorrow you will see me. (said to a female)

• Yesterday - مْبارِح

وَصَلْتْ مبارح - I arrived yesterday

• Also - كمان

و شو كمان؟ - And what else?

• Only - بَس

بس بدي اشرب الحليب - I only want to drink milk.

• But - بَس

بس ما عرفت إسمه - But I didn't know his name.

• Not - مش

شكلها مش بطال - She doesn't look bad. (مش بطال means "not bad")

• Still - لسة

لسة عم ببرم عليه - I'm still looking for him

• Outside - بَرّا

برا البيت - Outside the house

• Inside - جوّا

جوا قلبي - Inside my heart

• With - مع/وَيّا

عم بحكي وياهن - I'm talking with them.

• Which/Who - إللي/يللي

يللي بيلبس القميص الأصفر - The one who is wearing the yellow shirt.

• To be able to - فيّ

ما في اركض بسرعة - I can't run fast.

• In order to/for/because of - عَشان

عشان خاطري فكري شوي - for my sake think a little bit

• After that - بَعْدين

رح أروح لعند الحكيم و بعدين رح أرجع لعندك - I'm going to go to the doctor and after that I will return to your place. (عند means the "house" or "place of" in this case. حكيم in MSA means "wise man", but in Levantine it means "doctor".)