Sunday, April 06, 2014

Arabic in songs- commonly heard words;

It always helps whilst dancing to a song if you know what it means.
Sometimes a translation give you the meaning of the song but not the actually word for word direct translation. This is fine, but it helps if you can recognize a few of the actual words so you can indicate in your dance that you know them. 
Don't however feel you have to mime every word you hear. I've seen that done and it just doesn't work. But occasionally, if you mime a word here and there, it will give the impression to all Arab speakers watching that you understand the lyrics fully! 
This list is by no means exclusive... But hopefully you will find it useful and informative. 

Ana - I / me
We- and
Enta- you (m)
Enti- you (f)

Habibi- my darling (m)
Habibti- my darling (f)
Hayati- my life
Omri- my life , enta omri- you are my life
Hob- love
Baheb to love
Bahebik- I love you
Howa- wind, but also another word for love
Zay- like, similar to.
Zay il howa- like the wind

Elb / qelb- heart
Add an i on the end to make it possessive. elbi - my heart
Eid- hand, eidi- my hand
3Ein- eyes, eyouik- your eyes, eini- my eyes

Shams- sun
Amar- moon
Donya- world and also means life
Nour- light

Ouli- tell me
Sibni- leave me
Khalass- finish
Gambi- beside me
Ta-alli- come to me
Yalla- let's go
Shuf- to see
Bos- to look
Bosa- kiss
Faakir- to remember , lissa fakir- I still remember

Shwaya- a little
Fein?- where?
Taht- under
Foq.- above, on top. Min taht le foq.- from down to up (sexual connotations)
Mish/mush- 'not' - put in front of any word to negate it. Hinna- here , Mish hinna- not here.

Zaman- a long time ago
Dilwati- now
Abiden- never
Teni- again

Washtini- I miss you
Magnoon- crazy
Nar- fire/hell
Walla/ wallahi- I swear to god

Aywa- yes 
Ayoo- yes (Alexandrian)
La'a- no

Helwa- sweet/ beautiful
Gameela- beautiful
Gamda- strong (in sexy way)
Moza- sexy (In a curvaceous way)
Awii- very

These next two are popular in shaabi;
Ashra alla ashra/ sitta illa sitta/ maya maya- 10/10, 6/6, 100%
Coca- coca cola, ie shape like a cola bottle.

Bint- girl, Binet- girls
Waled- boy, 'ya waled'- an exclamation 'oh boy!'
Ragal- man
Sitt- woman
Besha- sir (from pasha)
Allah- god
Layla- night
Yom- day, ayam- days
Kool- every, kooliyom- everyday
Sena- year
Bahr- sea


As you can see, it's a bizarre vocabulary list for a language, but go see how many you can hear in the Egyptian songs you are dancing to! Hope it helps! 

I do not speak Arabic fluently by any means, but if you have the odd word or two you would 
Like me to translate (or ask someone better qualified for advice) please do leave a comment... 

Please do not ask me to translate entire songs... There are some fabulous sites already where you can find this, eg  www.shira.net 


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What an awesome list. I will bookmark or even better print it. :)