Literal Translations and Phrase Explanations

يضرب عشرة “yadrab ashara“ To masturbate. #Sorry #NotSorry

أنتي ساكنة في الدقي؟ “Enty sakina fil do2i?“ Smoother translation: Do you live in Dokki? In Egyptian colloquial Arabic, verbs are often replaced with a structure called the ‘Ism Fa3l,’ a concept that I like to call a ‘Verbal Noun.’ For example, when we want to ask the question ‘do you understand?’ instead of using a verb as you would in MSA (هل تفهم؟), it’s more common in Egyptian colloquial to employ the ism fa3l (فاهم؟ – Are you an understander?) and drop the هل because هل is for squares. ...

دي حاجة ودي حاجة “Dee haga w dee haga“ Actually means, “Those are two different things.” In the sense of: “I’m nervous about getting my visa renewed here in Egypt because when I was living in Europe they were very strict about paperwork!” And because official procedures are a whole different ball game in Egypt versus Europe, you’d say طب دي حاجة ودي حاجة – literally, ‘Well, this is a thing and this is a thing.” ...

أنا بموت فيك “Ana bamoot fiik” (‘fiiky’ when said to a girl) “I love you! / You are so great!” If you’ve been searching for a phrase at just the right crossroads of creepy and disturbing to let your loved ones know that you appreciate them, this one’s for you!

يستعبط استعباط رهيب “yasta3bat isti3bat raheeb“ aka, something to the effect of: “He really tried to pull the wool over our eyes” Potent combination of my favorite verb form, Form IX, and most ridiculous grammar structure, المفعول المطلق. [Yasta3bat is a great word that usually means someone is playing dumb. A synonym would be يستهبل and the roots of these verbs, عبيط and اهبل, mean stupid/idiot.]

يا ولاد الجزمة “ya welad eg-gezma“ Similar to, but different from, ‘bastards.’

!يا حاج “Ya hagg!“ “Hey, person that appears to be over fifty years old and thus most likely visited Mecca to perform the Hajj once.” Why yes, those 21 words DID just condense themselves into two syllables.

تشرب سجارة؟ “tashrab sigara?” “Do you want a cigarette?” I cannot fully express to you all how confusing this one is the first time you hear it.

طيازهم تقيلة “teyazhom ta2eela“ Basically means, ‘they’re lazy.’ So accurate tho.

طيزين في الباس “teezayn fil bas“ “Inseparable / best friends.” Exponentially more intimate and evocative than “two peas in a pod.”