Literal Translations and Phrase Explanations

I was the only foreigner sitting in a classroom of Egyptian twenty-somethings, trying my best to sound just smart enough to let my classmates go on believing I was half Arab of some variety during a remedial Arabic grammar class. Suddenly, a distraction grabbed by attention: فين المبتدا يا ماما؟ يا ماما!!؟ “Where’s the subject, mom? Mom!!?” I looked around for some sort of reaction, like the giggles and pointing that always broke out in elementary school when one unfortunate student accidentally called the teacher ‘mom.’ No no, this situation was the reverse: it was our professor that had called the student ‘mom,’ and it was absolutely, 100% fine. ...

مش هاعرفك تاني “mesh ha3refak/ek tany“ Sticking to our current theme of insulting other people: when another person makes your blood boil so much that you don’t want anything to do with them ever again and have no qualms about burning a bridge, you can whip out this phrase which basically means, “I will never speak to you again.” The word ‘know’ in Arabic is used in ways that sound curious to English speakers; more on that here. ...

شايف نفسه “shayf nefso“ Far removed from the Harry Potter definition of ‘seer,’ this phrase means that someone is stuck-up or thinks they’re some kind of hot-shot (‘hwa shayf nefso awi‘ – ‘he’s really stuck-up’ is the most common way to use it in my experience). Another similar phrase would be عايش الدور (aysh ed-dor), lit.: ‘living the role.’ It also means that someone is somewhat arrogant or takes themselves way too seriously. ...

يضرب حشيش “yadrab hashish“ aka, “He smokes hash.” This applies to all illicit drugs: You don’t smoke, take, or inject them, you just…hit them. Although I guess you can drink hash too. #TheMoreYouKnow

الجو عامل ايه؟ “el gaw 3amel eh?“(accompanied by a wink, nudge, & grin) I think it’s kind of great that ‘So, how’s the weather?’ is used in English as a kind of cultural signifier for not having anything better to talk about or feeling awkward, but in Egypt, it’s sometimes used to ask about someone’s significant other. Same phrase, COMPLETELY different meaning. My guess for the reason there’s a euphemism for this that may be the fact that dating before getting engaged or married is widely considered a no-no / something you usually (not always) have to hide from your parents here, but correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve also never actually heard this one firsthand because it’s mainly used among guys (there’s a whole other world of speech out there that I’ve only been able to see glimpses of. I call it: Shabab Arabic) but one generous shab named Fady was kind enough to share this one with me. I will be poking around for more of this type of phrase in the future. ...

If you want to communicate effectively with Egyptian friends, you’re going to have to know how to properly disparage, praise, and express tepid enthusiasm about events and people. In Egyptian, the three main words you’ll need to do this literally translate to “balls” “cream” and “solid.” -The word بيضان (‘beydan’) comes from a slang term for testicles (which, incidentally, literally means eggs) and is used to say that something is lame. As in, الحفلة بيضان – The party is lame. Sometimes when someone that you’re out with is being annoying or difficult, I’ve heard friends say ايه البيضان دا which literally translates to ‘what is this ballsness.’ Go ahead and put that one in your back pocket for later. ...

UPDATE: It has come to light that the phrase يضرب عشرة (lit. ‘hit ten’ and a common Egyptian euphemism for masturbation) only, apparently, applies to men. For women, the equivalent euphemism is تضرب سبعة ونص or ‘hit seven and a half.’ Many questions have emerged in light of this discovery, including but not limited to: Why do men get more what I presume to be fingers than women? [I believe the answer we’re looking for here is ‘patriarchy’ but if there’s a reason a bit more specific than that, THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW.] Why do men even need both hands? Doesn’t that seem frivolous to you? Why half a finger? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?? What are the other two and a half busy with while this is going down? Ugh. Arabic, your mysteries are boundless. ...

يخرب بيت حلاوتك “ya5rab bayt 7elawtek” The game spit by this aspiring Romeo actually means something roughly like, “Screw your hotness!” Let’s go ahead and break that one down because it makes approximately zero fucking sense. يخرب بيتك (literally “May God destroy your house”—the full phase is actually الله يخرب بيتك) is basically the lowest vulgarity grade you can get for wishing someone harm. If someone bumps into you on the street and you don’t want to start a fight, that’s a good one to mutter quietly under your breath, if you feel the need. “Screw you” may be the most accurate translation. حلاوة means ‘sweetness,’ but is also used to refer to how attractive a woman is. ...

مالكش دعوة “malaksh da3wa“ Very often means, “This is none of your business.” Ex: If you try to step in on an argument between two best friends, one of them might tell you to bug off by saying what literally translates to, “YOU DO NOT HAVE AN INVITATION!!!” But it can also serve another meaning: for example, if someone tries to blame you for a copyediting mistake at work that wasn’t actually in your purview, you could say “malish da3wa bmodo3 el copyediting” = lit. “I don’t have an invitation for the subject of copyediting” = “Copyediting is not my responsibility.” ...

!حلو قوي زي العسل. يا سلام يا قشطة “7elo awi, zay el 3asl. ya salam, ya 2eshta!“ Actual thing that was literally said to me once by a real person (I think).