How do different Arabic dialects say “very”?
كلمات وتعابير من لهجات عربية مختلفة
B1 Arabic listening practice · Arabic · Picked for people who know some
Arabic dialects each pick their own all-purpose intensifier for very, and the choice tells you almost instantly which region a speaker is from. Maghrebi Arabic uses بزاف (bezzaf). Egyptian Arabic uses قوي (awi), sometimes خالص (khaliṣ). Levantine Arabic uses كتير (ktīr). Khaleeji Arabic uses مرة (marra) or وايد (wāyid). Yemeni Arabic uses شديد (shadīd). Modern Standard Arabic uses جداً (jiddan), the textbook word most learners meet first but few people actually say casually. Arabic-dialect comedy reels love stacking these together to riff on regional differences.
In this clip, a creator runs through bezzaf, qawi, marra and other dialect equivalents back-to-back.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this B1 Arabic listening practice video?
How common in Arabic
How common in spoken Arabic
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than B1. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In pan-Arab dialect-comparison TikTok and Instagram reels
- ▸In Arab dubbed children’s shows where each character speaks a different dialect (Open Sesame, Shaabiat al-Cartoon)
- ▸In Egyptian, Moroccan, and Levantine standup specials (Bassem Youssef, Nadim Naaman)
- ▸In Arabic-language MENA region radio call-in shows
- ▸In MBC pan-Arab reality TV (Arab Idol, Arabs Got Talent, The Voice Ahla Sawt)