Egyptian often builds one relation from two or more written words: من غير “without,” بدل من “instead of,” بالنسبة لـ “as for/regarding,” and على حسب “depending on.” Their pieces retain traces of ordinary meanings, but the whole phrase has its own syntax and register.
Treat each compound as a frame with a complement slot. The last element usually shows how a noun or suffix attaches, but learners cannot safely replace one piece with an English preposition. This page teaches mainstream Cairene forms (informal) and labels common formal alternatives. Review simple source من on the من page before comparing it with compound من غير.
Rule 1: من غير means “without,” not merely “from other”
من غير introduces something absent from an event or situation. A following noun is bare or definite according to its own meaning.
هاتلي القهوة من غير سكر لو سمحت
hātli l-ʾahwa min gher sukkar law samaḥt
Bring me the coffee without sugar, please.
مشينا من غير ما نستنى آخر الاجتماع
mishīna min gher ma nistanna ʾākhir il-igtimāʿ
We left without waiting for the end of the meeting.
Before a clause, everyday Egyptian normally uses من غير ما + bare imperfect. English uses an -ing form, but Egyptian uses a finite-looking imperfect after ما. Before a pronoun, the suffix attaches to غير:
كنت حتتصرف إزاي من غيرهم؟
kunt ḥatitṣarraf ʾizzāy min gherhum?
How would you have managed without them?
Relative clauses keep the full compound and attach the resumptive suffix to its final member: الأدوات اللي مانقدرش نشتغل من غيرها “the tools we can’t work without.” Deleting or separating ـها would copy an English gap instead of completing من غير.
Formal بدون is common in signs, administrative prose, and careful speech (formal). It is not wrong in conversation, but من غير is the ordinary Cairene baseline.
Rule 2: بالنسبة لـ sets a reference frame
بالنسبة لـ does not merely mean “about.” It establishes the person or topic relative to which the following claim should be interpreted: “as far as X is concerned,” “for X,” or “regarding X.”
بالنسبة ليا المكان مناسب بس الميعاد بدري
bin-nisba liyya l-makān munāsib bass il-mīʿād badri
As far as I’m concerned, the place works, but the time is early.
بالنسبة للميزانية لازم نراجع الأرقام تاني
bin-nisba li-l-mizāniyya lāzim nirāgiʿ il-ʾarʾām tāni
Regarding the budget, we need to check the figures again.
In rapid colloquial spelling and speech, بالنسبالي and related fused forms are widespread (informal). The analytically transparent spellings below keep the لـ suffix paradigm visible; both written practices occur.
| Person | Transparent spelling | Common fused spelling | Cairene reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg | بالنسبة ليا | بالنسبالي | bin-nisba liyya / bin-nisbāli |
| 2msg | بالنسبة ليك | بالنسبالك | bin-nisba lek / bin-nisbālak |
| 2fsg | بالنسبة ليك | بالنسبالك | bin-nisba leki / bin-nisbālik |
| 3msg | بالنسبة ليه | بالنسباله | bin-nisba leh / bin-nisbālo |
| 3fsg | بالنسبة ليها | بالنسبالها | bin-nisba leha / bin-nisbālaha |
| 1pl | بالنسبة لينا | بالنسبالنا | bin-nisba lena / bin-nisbālna |
| 2pl | بالنسبة ليكو | بالنسبالكو | bin-nisba leku / bin-nisbālku |
| 3pl | بالنسبة ليهم | بالنسبالهم | bin-nisba lehum / bin-nisbālhum |
بالنسبالهم التأخير مشكلة أكبر من السعر
bin-nisbālhum it-taʾkhīr mushkila ʾakbar min is-siʿr
For them, the delay is a bigger problem than the price.
Rule 3: بدل من marks substitution
بدل من X presents one option as replacing X. Colloquial بدل ما + clause presents one action instead of another.
ركبنا المترو بدل من التاكسي عشان الطريق واقف
rikibna l-mitro badal min it-tāksi ʿashān iṭ-ṭarīʾ wāʾif
We took the metro instead of a taxi because traffic was at a standstill.
كلمه دلوقتي بدل ما تفضل مستني
kallimo dilwaʾti badal ma tifḍal mistanni
Call him now instead of keeping on waiting.
Formal بدلًا من with tanwīn belongs to MSA prose (formal). Ordinary Egyptian uses بدل من without a case ending.
Rule 4: على حسب makes the result conditional on a factor
على حسب means “depending on” or “according to.” It introduces the factor that determines an outcome.
حنقرر على حسب الجو الصبح
ḥaniʾarrar ʿala ḥasab il-gaww iṣ-ṣubḥ
We’ll decide depending on the weather in the morning.
السعر بيتغير على حسب المقاس والخامة
is-siʿr biyitghayyar ʿala ḥasab il-maʾās wi-l-khāma
The price changes according to the size and material.
حسب alone is common in formal reports and news style (formal). على حسب is the conversational Cairo baseline (informal). This is a register contrast, not an error contrast.
Rule 5: compounds can stack spatial relations
Some multiword sequences combine a path preposition with a relational location. من قدام means “from in front of,” while لحد عند means “as far as/up to someone’s place.” Each piece contributes to the scene.
العربية اتحركت من قدام البيت ووقفت جنب الصيدلية
il-ʿarabiyya tḥarrakit min ʾuddām il-bet wi-wiʾfit ganb iṣ-ṣaydaliyya
The car moved away from in front of the house and stopped beside the pharmacy.
وصلته لحد عند الباب ورجعت
waṣṣalto laḥadd ʿand il-bāb wi-rigiʿt
I walked him as far as the door and came back.
Do not flatten every relational noun into an English preposition. قدام، جنب، عند have noun-like histories and distinctive suffix behavior. The complete expression determines whether it denotes location, path, endpoint, or an abstract limit.
Rule 6: compounds have lexical register profiles
بسبب “because of” is common in news, explanations, and careful speech (neutral/formal); conversational عشان can introduce either a cause or a purpose (informal). They overlap in causal contexts but are not always interchangeable.
الرحلة اتأخرت بسبب الشبورة
ir-riḥla tʾakhkharit bi-sabab ish-shabbūra
The trip was delayed because of the fog.
نزلت بدري عشان ألحق أول مترو
nizilt badri ʿashān ʾalḥaʾ ʾawwil mitro
I left early so I could catch the first metro.
The second sentence expresses purpose, so replacing عشان with nominal بسبب would change the structure and meaning.
Common Mistakes
1. Omitting a required piece of the compound.
❌ القهوة من سكر
Incorrect for ‘coffee without sugar’—the frame is من غير.
✅ القهوة دي من غير سكر خالص
il-ʾahwa di min gher sukkar khāliṣ
This coffee has no sugar at all.
2. Using a noun frame directly before a clause.
❌ خرج من غير يستنى أصحابه
Incorrect in the ordinary Cairo construction—a clause after من غير needs ما.
✅ خرج من غير ما يستنى أصحابه
kharag min gher ma yistanna ʾaṣḥābu
He left without waiting for his friends.
3. Confusing a reference frame with a selected topic complement.
❌ اتكلمنا بالنسبة للمشكلة ساعتين
Incorrect for the intended predicate ‘talk about’—اتكلم selects عن.
✅ اتكلمنا عن المشكلة ساعتين كاملين
itkallimna ʿan il-mushkila sāʿten kāmlīn
We talked about the problem for two full hours.
4. Importing an MSA case ending into Egyptian.
ركبنا المترو بدل من الأتوبيس
rikibna l-mitro badal min il-ʾutobīs
rikibna l-mitro badalan min il-ʾutobīs
Pronunciation error—badalan is a formal MSA case form, not ordinary Cairene بدل.
5. Separating the suffix that completes the compound.
❌ دي الأدوات اللي مانقدرش نشتغل من غير ها
Incorrect—the resumptive feminine suffix attaches to غير.
✅ دي الأدوات اللي مانقدرش نشتغل من غيرها
di l-ʾadawāt illi ma-niʾdarsh nishtaghal min gherha
These are the tools we can’t work without.
Key Takeaways
- Store من غير، بالنسبة لـ، بدل من، على حسب as complete frames.
- Noun complements, clause complements, and suffixes attach in different prescribed ways.
- Multiword spatial sequences can encode path plus location.
- Formal and colloquial alternatives are register choices only where actual usage permits them.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- من — from, of, and thanA1 — Use Cairene من for sources, separation, partitives, comparisons, and the lexical frames that English expresses with several different prepositions.
- لـ — for, to, and belonging toA1 — Use attached Cairene لـ for recipients, beneficiaries, ownership, destinations, and lexical frames, with correct article and suffix forms.
- Pronoun Suffixes after PrepositionsB1 — Attach Egyptian pronoun suffixes to prepositions and choose the host-specific forms used after على، مع، في، من، and لـ.
- Prepositional-Phrase Scope and AttachmentC1 — Diagnose whether an Egyptian prepositional phrase modifies an event, a participant, a noun phrase, or a focused alternative.
- Competing Prepositions and RegisterC1 — Choose among colloquial, formal, and construction-specific Egyptian prepositions without treating near-synonyms as freely interchangeable.
- قدام، ورا، فوق، and تحتB1 — Describe Egyptian spatial axes and their abstract extensions with قدام، ورا، فوق، تحت and attached pronoun suffixes.