Levantine vs Modern Standard Arabic: Which Should You Learn?

Two kinds of Arabic, one language

Arabic speakers live with two varieties side by side. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, or فصحى, fus7a) is the shared written language of the Arab world. It is used in newspapers, books, official documents, news broadcasts and formal speeches, and it is broadly the same from Morocco to Oman.

Alongside it, everyone grows up speaking a local dialect, or لهجة (lahje). Levantine Arabic is the dialect family of Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. It is what people use at home, with friends, in shops, in taxis and in most TV dramas and songs from the region. Nobody chats over dinner in MSA, just as nobody speaks in the style of a legal contract.

The two are closely related. They share most of their vocabulary roots, the same alphabet and much of the same grammar. But the most common everyday words are often different, and that is exactly where beginners notice the gap.

Everyday words that differ

Many of the first words you learn are the ones where the dialect and the standard language part ways. Here are some of the most frequent.

Some words are shared but pronounced a little differently. كيف (how) is kayfa in careful MSA and simply keef in Levantine. Other words are completely the same, such as كتاب (book) and بيت (house).

Negation is another area where the two differ. Levantine uses ما in front of verbs (ما بحكي, "I don't speak") and مش for most other things (مش بعيد, "not far"). MSA has a whole family of negative words, such as لا، لم، لن and ليس, each with its own rules. For a beginner aiming at conversation, the Levantine system is much quicker to get comfortable with.

Verbs: the بـ present and the رح future

The biggest grammar difference for beginners is in the verbs. In everyday Levantine, the normal present tense starts with بـ: بَدرُس (badrus) means "I study". MSA has no such prefix and says أدرُس (adrus). In Levantine, the form without بـ is kept for use after words like بدّي (I want) and لازم (must): بدّي أدرُس هلّق, "I want to study now".

For the future, Levantine uses رح (ra7) in front of the verb: رح أدرُس, "I will study". MSA uses سـ or سوف instead, as in سأدرس. Levantine also simplifies some things. It drops the case endings of MSA, and it does not use the separate dual and feminine plural verb forms that the standard language has.

• أنا بَدرُس عربي كل يوم.ana badrus 3arabi kull yoom.I study Arabic every day.
• بدّي أدرُس هلّق.biddi adrus halla2.I want to study now.
• بكرة رح أدرُس من الصبح.bukra ra7 adrus min is-sub7.Tomorrow I'll study from the morning.
• شو بدّك تشرب؟shu biddak tishrab?What do you want to drink?
• هاد بيتنا.haad beitna.This is our house.

Pronunciation differences

A few letters sound different in everyday speech. The letter ق is pronounced as a glottal stop (written 2 in Arabizi) by many city speakers, so قهوة (coffee) sounds like 2ahwe. Many Jordanians, especially outside the cities, say it as a hard g, and in some Palestinian villages it becomes k. In MSA it is a deep q.

The letters ث and ذ are also often softened in towns. ثلاثة (three) becomes تلاتة (tlaate), and هذا becomes هاد. None of this is "wrong"; it is simply how the spoken language works, and Arabs switch between the styles without thinking.

Tip: If you speak MSA in a Jordanian café, people will understand you, but it can sound like reading aloud from a newspaper. Most will happily reply in dialect, which is a great chance to pick up the everyday words.

Which one should you learn?

It depends on your goal. If you want to speak, to talk with friends, family, colleagues or people you meet while travelling in Jordan or Palestine, start with Levantine. It is what you will actually hear, and Levantine is widely understood across the Arab world thanks to its TV series and music.

If your goal is to read books and newspapers, follow the news, or study religious or classical texts, you need MSA. Many serious learners eventually learn both. A sensible route is to start with the dialect for confidence in conversation, while learning the alphabet you will need for MSA later. Because the two share so much, time spent on one is never wasted on the other.

The Filblad workbook teaches spoken Jordanian and Palestinian Arabic, written in Arabic script, with Arabizi to help you with pronunciation along the way.

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