Hellos and Greetings in Arabic

Hellos and Greetings in Arabic

      Audio Post
In this lesson, we will discuss the necessary phrases for greeting one another. The normal Hello/Hi in Arabic Greetings has two forms. The first one is “As-salaamu alaykum”       السلام عليكم which is made of two words and means “Pease be upon you”. The response is switching words and adding a small “wa” at the beginning which means “and”, the result is “Wa Alaikum salam”       وعليكم السلام which means “And on you be the peace”. So, let’s say you’ve just walked into a room. I’d say “Salamu Alaykom” which means “Hello”. You would say “wa alaikom a salaam” meaning “Hello back”. The other form of saying Hello/Hi in Arabic is “Marḥaban”       مرحبا . The response could be the same keyword Marḥaban, Ahlan, or any other form of greeting presented in the table below:

 English GreetingArabic GreetingGreeting Response
1HelloAs-salam alaykom      السلام عليكم Wa Alykom As-slam      وعليكم السلام
2HiMarḥaban      مرحبا Ahlan Wa Sahlan      أهلا وسهلا
3WelcomeAhlan      أَهلا Ahlan Wa Sahlan      أهلا وسهلا
4Good morningSabaḥu Al-khair      صباح الخير Sabaḥu An-Nur      صباح النور
5Good afternoonMasa’u Al-khair      مساء الخير Al-khair An-Nur      مساء النور

From an Islamic perspective, As-salaam alaykum is the most common and recommended way to greet a person whether it’s day or night. However, it’s important to either match or outdo the person you converse with in the extent of your greetings. So, if someone were to greet you with as-salaam alaykum, you should respond with at least “wa alaykum assalaam”, or you should better it with “wa 3alaykum as salaam wa wa raḥmat allahi ta’ala wa barakatuhu       وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله تعالى وبركاته which means “And on you be the peace and mercy of Allah and his Blessing”.

Some people may also use some additional words with “marḥaban” and “ahlan”, like marḥaban bika (for male)/marḥaban biki (for female) or ahlan bika/Ahlan biki (bika/biki means “with you”, so greetings to you, or greetings with you).

I hope this article was useful to you in Arabic learning. Please check our other posts and come back again for more Arabic lessons.

6 Comments.

  1. hi, i would really like to learn Arabic language from very long time, but its become a need, as i am working in a organization where there are lot of people who speak only Arabic and its become difficult to communicate with them, so can u please help me!!!!!

  2. Assalam-Aleykum.
    I really appreciate for nice Project infact it’s useful to each and every individually like me who’s interested to know Arabic language. Your are educating World Wide and May God Bless the Work of your Brain and also Bless the Project. I really enjoy the Traslation. Shuqran.

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