متل العالم
mitl il3aalam (zayy il3aalam)
متل الناس
mitl innaas (zayy innaas)
متل العالم والناس
mitl il3aalam winnaas (zayy il3aalam winnaas)
As the different variations on the expression given above show, ‘like the world’ is a pretty misleading translation. (Psych!!!) As you probably know, عالم (in this sense feminine, not masculine) means ‘people’:
في عالم بتقول انو…
fii 3aalam bit2uul inno…
There are people who say that…
The expression متل العالم and its variations thus literally mean ‘like people’. What they actually mean, though, is ‘like [normal, respectable] people’, or by extension ‘properly’ or ‘decent[ly]’:
المهم يضل عنا بلد نعيش في متل العالم
ilmohimm yDell 3anna balad @n3iish fii mitl il3aalam
The important thing is that we still have a country where we can live decent/normal lives [= we can live in like people]
لما تقول لحدا كول علكة زيالعالم والناس
lamma t2uul la7ada kool 3alke zayy il3aalam winnaas
When you tell someone to chew gum like a normal/respectable person [= like people and people]
احكيلك جملة جالسة متل العالم
i7kiilak jimle jaalse mitl il3aalam
Speak properly [= say a straight sentence like the people]
In these two examples the meaning can be relatively straightforwardly derived from the meaning of ‘people’, since the comparison is with a person. By extension, though, متل العالم and its variations can be used to refer to objects too!
لو في دوله متل العالم والناس ما بخلوا كلب متلك يعوي
law fii dawle mitl il3aalam winnaas maa bikhallu kal@b mitlak y3awwi
If we had a decent government [= a state like the people and the people] they wouldn’t let a bastard like you mouth off [= a dog like you bark]
ما اجى نص متل العالم تحت ايديه
maa 2ija naSS mitl il3aalam ta7t iidee
Because he wasn’t sent any decent scripts [= because a script like the people did not come under his hand]