Learning Arabic Good Afternoon and the Reply

Hello Katabah!

In English, we can reply expression “Good afternoon” with “Good afternoon” too. In Arabic, we usually reply “Good afternoon” with a different expression.

مَسَاءَ الْخَيْر!

Good afternoon.

مَسَاءَ النُّوْر!

Good afternoon (reply)

Let’s see the vocabularies:

مَسَاءَ adapted from مَسَاءٌ (afternoon)

الْخَيْرُ adapted from خَيْرٌ (fine)

النُّوْرُ adapted from نُوْرٌ (ray)

In practice, we can say:

مَسَاءَ الْخَيْر، يَا اَخِى!

Good afternoon, my brother!

مَسَاءَ الْخَيْر، يَا اُخْتِى!

Good afternoon, my sister!

مَسَاءَ الْخَيْر، يَا اُمِّى!

Good afternoon, my mother!

مَسَاءَ الْخَيْر، يَا اَبِى!

Good afternoon, my father!

OK. That’s all. See you next Arabic lesson!