انا عايز القميص الازرق.

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Breakdown of انا عايز القميص الازرق.

• عايز: to want
• قميص: shirt
• ازرق: blue

Questions & Answers about انا عايز القميص الازرق.

How do I pronounce انا عايز القميص الازرق in Egyptian Arabic?

A common Cairene pronunciation is:

ana ʿāyez el-ʔamīṣ el-ʔazraʔ

A rough breakdown:

• أنا → ana
• عايز → ʿāyez or ʿāyiz
• القميص → el-ʔamīṣ
• الأزرق → el-ʔazraʔ

A few helpful notes:

• ʿ stands for the Arabic letter ع
• ʔ stands for a glottal stop, a little catch in the throat, like the break in uh-oh
• In Egyptian Arabic, الـ is usually pronounced el-, not al-

What does عايز mean exactly?

عايز is the normal everyday Egyptian Arabic way to say want.

So:

• أنا عايز... = I want...

Historically, عايز comes from a participle-like form, but as a learner, you can safely treat it as the usual colloquial way to say want.

If you know some Modern Standard Arabic, you may have seen أريد for I want. That is correct in formal Arabic, but in everyday Egyptian speech, عايز is much more natural.

Why is there no separate word for am in أنا عايز?