How do you say “how are you” in Arabic?
It depends on where the person is from. A Palestinian or Lebanese says kifak, an Egyptian says izzayak, and in Iraq and the Gulf you'll hear shlonak. The ending changes when you ask a woman.
How are you?
كيفك؟
How each dialect says it
Tap to hear it the way people from each place say it.
-
PalestinianJerusalem, Nablus, Gaza, Jenin0:01كيفك؟KEE-fak texted as kifakTo a woman: كيفِك؟ kifik
Often followed by “kif il-ahl?” (how's the family?).
-
LebaneseBeirut, Tripoli, Saida0:01كيفك؟KEE-fak texted as kifakTo a woman: كيفِك؟ kifik
Same as Palestinian. “Kifak, shu l-akhbar?” adds “what's new?”
-
EgyptianCairo, Alexandria0:01إزيك؟iz-ZAI-yak texted as ezayakTo a woman: إزيِك؟ izzayyik
“'Amil eh?” (how are you doing?) usually follows.
-
GulfKuwait, the Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar0:01شلونك؟SHLOO-nak texted as shlonakTo a woman: شلونچ؟ shlonich
Heard in Kuwait, the Emirates and Bahrain. Many Saudis say “kef halak?” instead.
-
IraqiBaghdad, Basra, Mosul0:01شلونك؟SHLOO-nak texted as shlonakTo a woman: شلونچ؟ shlonich
The Iraqi classic. Often doubled with “shlon il-sihha?” (how's your health?).
-
Formal ArabicTextbooks, news, speechesكيف حالك؟KAY-fa HAA-luk texted as kayf 7alakTo a woman: كيف حالكِ؟ kayfa haaluki
Textbook Arabic. Understood everywhere, sounds formal in conversation.
Saying it like you mean it
Greetings in Arabic come in volleys. You ask how someone is, they answer and ask back, then you ask about their health, their family, their work, and they ask about yours. Rushing it reads as cold.
The first word of that volley is also one of the fastest ways to tell where someone grew up. Kifak is the formal kayfa (how) worn down by everyday speech, plus -ak (you). Egyptians go a different way with izzayak. Shlonak, heard from Baghdad to Kuwait, is often said to come from a phrase meaning “what colour?”, though its origin is uncertain.
Whichever one you use, the right answer is almost always il-hamdilla, thank God, said whether your day is going well or not.
In a sentence
How people actually use it, dialect by dialect.
- Palestinianكيفِك يا خالتي؟ كيف الصحة؟kifik ya khalti? kif is-sahha?How are you, auntie? How's your health?
- Egyptianإزيك يا باشا؟ عامل إيه؟izzayyak ya basha? 'amil eh?How are you, boss? How're you doing?
- Gulfشلونك؟ عساك طيبshlonak? 'asak tayyibHow are you? Hope you're well.
People also ask
What's the most common way to say how are you in Arabic?
There isn't one. Kifak covers Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan; izzayak covers Egypt; shlonak covers Iraq and much of the Gulf. Pick the one for the person you're talking to.
How do you reply to kifak?
“Mnih, il-hamdilla” (good, thank God) and then ask back: “w inta?” to a man or “w inti?” to a woman.
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.