Egypt Discussion Forum

Discussions regarding holidays in Egypt.
basic phrases
75 Posts
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Nice one Roger. But I can't see one for "you have a face like a camels backside".

The most important one you need is

ساعة خارجا. هنا يأتي سويسرية

which means "watch out, here comes Swiss" (I think)
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You can just say it to me in english, i'll understand!

How did you work that arabic one out?
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I just let my 9 week old grandson scribble on the monitor.

http://www.systransoft.com/index.html
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طبعت نصك هنا. شهر ماي يذهب جمالك أبدا جائعة
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"Make famous [maay] your beauty goes hungry eternity" :?

Not about Swiss, is it?
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Thats all well and good you two, but my high school didnt stretch to teaching us how to read arabic... we only covered basic German!
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Everest,

What I actually put in to the translator was :-

May your camels never starve.

Fat lot of good that is :rofl
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I've just translated "watch out, here comes Swiss" into Arabic, then back to English. It comes out as

"Hour of outside. Here Swiss comes"

Think I'll stick to English too!
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Linzy, so sorry, we hijacked your thread. How many words have you learnt so far?
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Linzy... you don t need to say "get lost" in Arabic... The Carrot understands English... ( well he sometimes pretends to ).
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Unfortunately I dont think Carrot and I will cross paths whilst i'm in Egypt.

And So far I haven't really learnt that much, I printed out a list of words from the internet but the pronunciation (cant even spell that) is where I come a cropper!
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I've been learning some Arabic, bought a Mp3 from iTunes last week,

I can say, Hello, how are you?. I'm every well thank you. Whats your name?, my name is Mark. Thank you. Goodbye.

Think thats all I need really... gonna keep learning it though. Can't believe how hard it is though.
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I think all I really need to know is hello, Thank you and goodbye.

As usually thats all I need on holiday, just as courtesy!
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Linzy,

The mere fact that you try to say a few words in Arabic will earn you a lot of respect from most Egyptian people.
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Thank you for the advice, it is nice when you walk into a shop or restaurant to say hello to the staff, and then thank you when you leave.

I've always managed it in Spain/ Cuba, and it shows a bit of respect.

I just don't get all this masculine/ feminine versions, why cant one phrase/ word cover everything!
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Don't ask me, my Arabic is probably worse that yours!! :lol: :lol:
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Just back from Hurghada and learnt just a few basic words and your right-they do respcct you for it. Even if I said Thankyou in Arabic the locals seemed so impressed that I had made the effort! They are by far the friendliest people I come across in my life!
Don't know if someones already told you but heres a few and I know they are spelt wrong-I've spelt them how they are pronounced..

Salam Alako- think its a friendly way of saying hi but someone told me it means 'peace be with you'

Shock-ran - thankyou

la - no

naam - yes

Sapah Al-kar - (with a strongly pronounced h!)

Maya Maya! - good!

Akel Gameele - Beautiful food

Gameel- beautiful (for a man)

Gameela- beautiful (for a women)

Aotah - Cat

Maasalama - seeya/bye

Wahashdenny - i miss you

They certainly came in useful for me. Sorry if these are wrong -they are just what someone told me!

:wink:
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