How are you?

07:19 May 14, 2001
English to Arabic translations [Non-PRO]
English term or phrase: How are you?
Salatation
Usman Khan


Summary of answers provided
naكيف الحال or كيف الأحوال
Fuad Yahya
naKayfa haluka
yacine


  

Answers


4 hrs
كيف الحال or كيف الأحوال


Explanation:
The two suggested translations above are pronounced:

KAIF EL-HAL
KAIF EL-AHWAL

There are many other ways of saying "how are you" in Arabic, but most of them are gender-specific, so one needs to learn a masculine form and a feminine form for each. The two suggested translations above avoid the issue of gender by rephrasing.

Another way to avoid the issue of gender is to use the plural form of "you", which is commonly used in many languages as a way of showing respect. Although there are two forms of plural "you" in Arabic, a masculine plural and a feminine plural, the two forms are usually collapsed into one form in spoken (colloquial) Arabic. Here are two examples of “how are you” using the plural form of “you”:

KAIF HALKUM
KAIF AHWALKUM

By virtue of the pronunciation indicated, the four phrases suggested above fall within the perimeter of spoken (colloquial) Arabic, not standard written (classical) Arabic.

You may already know that spoken Arabic varies from region to region. The suggestions above are closer to common Persian Gulf varieties. It would not be tenable in this forum to present an exhaustive inventory of "how are you" in all modern Arabic dialects, but here are a few samples from various Arab countries:

IZZAYYAK (Egypt)
KAIF INNAK (Sudan)
KEEFAK (Lebanon)
SHLONAK (Iraq)
SH-HALOK (Some East Arabian regions)
etc., etc., etc.

Needless to say, in each region, there isn't just one way of saying "how are you," but a variety of ways. Some of these ask specifically about health (ASSIHHA) or the latest happenings (AL-AKHBAR), etc.

Note: I have previously answered this question when a different ProZ.com server was on. Since we are now on another server, the first answer was lost (at least temporarily). I am reposting my answer just in case the first answer was permanently lost.

Fuad


    Basic Arabic
Fuad Yahya
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 7371
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3 days 11 mins
Kayfa haluka


Explanation:
Ka differs according to the pronoun

yacine
Local time: 14:39
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 51
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