How do you say “What’s your name?” in Egyptian Arabic?

To ask someone’s name in Egypt, say اسمك إيه؟ (esmak eh?), or اسمِك إيه؟ (esmek eh?) to a woman. Literally it’s “your name, what?” The question word إيه (eh) sits at the end, right where the answer will go. Standard Arabic puts it first (ما اسمك؟), but Egyptian keeps the statement’s word order and simply swaps in eh.

The answer uses the same frame: أنا اسمي تامر (“my name is Tamer”). Then the lesson points at other people: هو اسمه محمد صلاح (“his name is Mohamed Salah”), هو اسمه إيه؟ (“what’s his name?”). The endings -i, -ak/-ek, -uh and -ha all hang off the same اسم. Other questions work the same way: ده إيه؟ (“what’s this?”), انت فين؟ (“where are you?”).