Good Morning
SabāH il-kheir

                                             

SabāH il-kheir which literally means 'Morning of goodness' and can be used the whole morning till noon time - in Arabic it is written this way الخير صباح

The Common Response: SabāH in-nūr written as النور صباح

There are other colloquial variants for (SabāH il-kheir/in-nūr) that are commonly used as a response by Egyptians as a way of making the day very beautiful, some words like;

SabāH il-ishta - literally means morning of cream… (In the Egyptian culture the 'cream' is a symbol of purity and all goodness because of its white optimistic color)

SabāH il-full - literally means morning of jasmine

SabāH il-ward - literally means morning of roses
                                   

Good Afternoon?

I am extremely sorry to disappoint you in this lesson, but the thing is … I mean unfortunately we do not have specific greetings for the afternoon, so we usually use a more general greeting during the day;

As-salāmu 3aleikum which literally means Peace be upon you, it can be used as a general greeting all day long regardless of the time. It is used by majority of Muslims and some Christians use it as well… it used to be said by Muslims only as a religious greeting, but nowadays it became neutral used by non-Muslims as well.

Here is how you write it in Arabic; السلام عليكم

The Response: w3aleikum as-salām and some devout Muslims like to add waraHmatu llāhi wabarakātu - which means and God's mercy and blessings.

The good thing about this greeting is that it is NOT gender or number specific meaning that both the greeting and the response can be used with men, women or groups all the same way…
 

     Good Evening       

Masā' il-kheir

                                     

Masā' il-kheir which literally means 'Evening of the light' and can be used the whole evening starting from 3:00pm which is afternoon somehow till very late in the evening until you part the person  - in Arabic it is written this way الخير مساء

The Common Response: Masā' in-nūr written as النور مساء

There are other colloquial variants for (Masā' il-kheir/in-nūr) that are commonly used as a response by Egyptians as a way of making the day very beautiful, some words like;

Masā' il-ishta - literally means evening of cream… As we said earlier that 'cream' is a symbol of purity and all goodness…

Masā' il-full - literally means evening of jasmine

Masā' il-ward - literally means evening of roses

Do you want to sound more formal?

To make the greeting more formal, let's say you are at place of work and you want to show some degree of formality/respect to someone who is senior, older or with high authority then you can simply add the word 'Ya Fandem' after 'SabāH il-kheir'

This is how it goes when formally greeting someone;

  SabāH il-kheir ya fandem (Good morning sir/mam) à for both genders.

  Masā' il-kheir ya fandem (Good evening sir/mam) à for both genders.  

Do you want to greet a specific person?

To make the greeting more specific or addressed to certain person, let's say you have greeted everyone in the room then someone else just arrived in so you would love to greet this person specifically add the word 'Ya + (the person's name)' after 'SabāH il-kheir'

This is how it goes when greeting certain person whose name is Omar;

 SabāH il-kheir ya Omar …

 'As-salāmu 3aleikum ya Omar …

The word 'Ya' is a functional word that adds no meaning whatsoever it is just for the purpose of the getting attention of a certain person or making it specific to someone.
 

Today's Vocabulary

SabāH à  morning

Kheir à goodness

Nūr à light

Ishta à cream

Full à Jasmine

Ward à roses warda àrose (singular)