How to say "how are you?" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaninghow are you?
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
kayfa l-ḥālכיף אל-חאל
كيف الحال؟
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
ma shlomkha?مَا شْلُومْخَا؟
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
ح-و-لIsraeli slang borrowed this whole phrase: כיף חאלק, 'having a blast,' comes from Arabic kīf ḥālak, 'how are you.' The slang word כיף itself is Arabic kayf, 'pleasure.'
Related Hebrew word:כיף חאלקkif khalakكِيف خَالَاك
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
kīfak to a man, kīfik to a woman; MSA ay flattens to ī.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo's signature how-are-you: izzayyak to a man, izzayyik to a woman.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija asks labās? ('no harm?') or kī dāyr? (kī dāyra to a woman); the answer is labās, l-ḥamdu llāh.
In a phrase
how are you, my brother?