Excuse me!
Law-samaHt

Law-samaHt which literally means 'If you allow/permit' so it implies some sort of a polite permission request in it.

Since we are using the addressee pronoun ‘You’ in this phrase hence we have 3 different variations for this phrase depending on whether we are speaking to a man, woman or group;

Law-samaHt      à talking to a man

Law-samaHti     à talking to a woman

Law-samaHtu    à talking to a group of people

It can be used in the following situations;

Asking permission (walking through a crowd asking to move…)

Getting someone's attention politely (Excuse me, where is…?)

Pardon? (asking someone to repeat something) 

But can NOT be used in the following situations;

Asking forgiveness (something embarrassing; your body makes noise/burps...etc)

Interruptions (picking up a phone call)

Polite disagreement

                                   

Ma3’a-lesh

Ma3’a-lesh I cannot find any equivalent for this word in English due to the fact that it can be used in so many situations in order to calm down people or to make things less worse or so many situation…

It can be used in the following situations;

Apologizing Gently

Interruptions

Polite disagreement

Ma3’a-lesh should be combined with the word ‘assif’ which means sorry in order to apologize for inconvenient situation including interruptions, polite disagreement..etc. 

The Response: Hassal Kheer nothing bad happens, it’s fine or don’t worry.

As for Asking forgiveness we usually apologize but not necessarily use the previous word ‘Ma3’a-lesh’ or ‘Law-SamaHt’

Informal Polite Requests

We can also use the word Ma3’a-lesh together with the word ‘monkin’ which means Possible, in order to make informal yet still polite request among friends and family member.

For example;

è   Ma3’a-lesh monkin te3-melli aHwa?

(Sorry, can you please make me a cup of coffee?)

To learn how to apologize in Arabic move on to the next lesson… see you there!