How do you say “good morning” in Arabic?
Sabah il-kheir (صباح الخير), “morning of goodness,” is the same phrase across the Arab world; only the accent changes. The standard reply is sabah in-nur, “morning of light.”
Good morning
صباح الخير
How each dialect says it
Tap to hear it the way people from each place say it.
-
PalestinianJerusalem, Nablus, Gaza, Jenin0:01صباح الخيرsa-BAH il-KHEIR texted as saba7 el5eer
Often followed by “kif nimt?” (how did you sleep?).
-
LebaneseBeirut, Tripoli, Saida0:01صباح الخيرsa-BAH il-KHEIR texted as saba7 el5eer
“Bonjour” is common too, sometimes both in one breath.
-
EgyptianCairo, Alexandria0:01صباح الخيرsa-BAH il-KHEIR texted as saba7 el5eer
Egyptians love upgrading the reply: “sabah il-ful” (morning of jasmine), “sabah il-ishta” (morning of cream).
-
GulfKuwait, the Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar0:01صباح الخيرsa-BAH il-KHEIR texted as saba7 el5eer
Usually followed straight away by “shlonak?”
-
IraqiBaghdad, Basra, Mosul0:01صباح الخيرsa-BAH il-KHEIR texted as saba7 el5eer
Answered with “sabah in-nur,” as everywhere else.
-
Formal ArabicTextbooks, news, speechesصباح الخيرsa-BAA-hul KHAYR texted as saba7 al5ayr
Identical in writing. Formal speech pronounces every vowel: sabahu l-khayr.
Saying it like you mean it
Sabah is morning, from the root s-b-h, and kheir is goodness. So the greeting wishes someone a morning full of good. The reply trades goodness for light: sabah in-nur, morning of light.
That swap turned into a small game. Once “light” is taken, people reach for something sweeter. In Cairo you'll hear sabah il-ful, morning of jasmine, and sabah il-ishta, morning of cream. Others answer with roses, honey or the moon. Couples and old friends can keep it going for several rounds in a text thread before anyone gets round to asking how the other slept.
The evening version follows the same rule. Masa il-kheir, evening of goodness, gets masa in-nur back. Nobody expects you to invent a new flower, but a speaker who does usually gets a laugh and a warmer answer.
In a sentence
How people actually use it, dialect by dialect.
- Palestinianصباح الخير يمّا، كيف نمتي؟sabah il-kheir yamma, kif nimti?Good morning, mom. How did you sleep?
- Egyptianصباح الفل يا جماعةsabah il-ful ya gama'aMorning of jasmine, everyone.
- Lebaneseبونجور، صباح الخير، في قهوة؟bonjour, sabah il-kheir, fi ahwe?Morning, morning. Is there coffee?
People also ask
How do you reply to sabah il-kheir?
Sabah in-nur, “morning of light.” To be playful, answer with something sweeter: sabah il-ward (roses), sabah il-ful (jasmine), sabah il-'asal (honey).
How do you say good evening in Arabic?
Masa il-kheir (مساء الخير), answered with masa in-nur. It works from the afternoon on.
Until what time can you say sabah il-kheir?
Roughly until midday. After that most people switch to marhaba, and later in the day to masa il-kheir.
Related words
Words that tend to come up in the same conversation.
How we checked this page
Checked by two AI models, not yet by a native speaker
Each dialect form above is shown only if it passed an independent check. If we weren't sure how a dialect says it, we left that dialect out rather than guess. The audio is an AI voice tuned to each dialect; we're replacing it with real speakers over time. How we check words.