هو كويس.

• هو = he
• كويس = good, fine, okay, or well, depending on context

So the whole sentence means something like He is good, He is fine, or He’s okay.

In Egyptian Arabic, as in Arabic generally, the verb to be is usually not said in the present tense.

So:

• هو كويس = He is fine
• literally: he good

This is completely normal Arabic structure. You do not need to add a separate word for is in a present-tense sentence like this.

In Egyptian Arabic, هو is usually pronounced huwwa or howwa in careful transliteration systems, though learners often first see it written as huwwa.

A rough pronunciation is:

• huw-wa
• with a doubled w sound

So the full sentence is often pronounced something like:

• huwwa kwayyis
• or huwwa كويس depending on how you transliterate it

You may also hear slight variations in vowel quality depending on the speaker.

كويس is commonly pronounced something like:

• kwayyis
• sometimes written kuwayyis, kwayyes, or kowayyis

The exact spelling in English letters varies because transliteration is not fully standardized.

A useful rough guide:

• kwa as in qu
  • a
• then a stressed yyi sound
• ending with s

So: huwwa kwayyis

Not always. كويس is a very common everyday word and can mean different things depending on context, such as:

• good
• fine
• okay
• well
• nice
• all right

For example:

• about a person’s health: He’s fine / well
• about performance: He’s good
• about a situation or thing: It’s okay / good

So هو كويس is flexible and natural in many situations.

Yes. Context decides the best translation.

For example:

• If someone asks about his health, هو كويس probably means He’s fine or He’s well.
• If someone asks what you think of him, it may mean He’s good or He’s a good guy.
• If someone asks how he did on something, it may mean He did well or He’s good.

So the Arabic phrase is broader than any one single English translation.

Yes, sometimes.

Arabic often allows pronouns to be dropped if the meaning is already clear from context. But with a sentence like this, keeping هو is very natural when you want to explicitly say he.

Compare:

• هو كويس = He’s fine
• كويس = Fine / good / okay

If someone asks How is he?, you might answer simply كويس because he is already understood.

Yes.

With a feminine subject, you usually say:

• هي كويسة = She is fine / good

So:

• masculine: هو كويس
• feminine: هي كويسة

This is an important agreement pattern in Egyptian Arabic adjectives.

Yes, it can.

Common forms include:

• هو كويس = He is fine
• هي كويسة = She is fine
• همّا كويسين = They are fine

So the adjective usually agrees with the person in gender and number.

كويس is especially common in Egyptian Arabic and many spoken dialects.

In Modern Standard Arabic, a learner is more likely to meet words like:

• جيد
• حسن
• بخير in some contexts

But كويس is extremely common in everyday Egyptian speech and very useful to know.

Not always.

Arabic often uses the subject pronoun when you want to:

• make the subject clear
• emphasize it
• avoid ambiguity

But if the context already makes the subject obvious, speakers may leave it out.

So both can work depending on context:

• هو كويس = explicitly He’s fine
• كويس = He’s fine / It’s fine / Good, depending on the situation

Yes.

هو is the masculine singular pronoun, so it can refer to:

• a man or boy
• a masculine noun
• sometimes it, if the thing referred to is grammatically masculine

So هو كويس could also mean:

• It’s good if it refers to a masculine noun in Arabic.

The usual Egyptian Arabic negation here is with مش:

• هو مش كويس = He is not fine / He is not good
• often simply مش كويس = Not good / not fine

This is one of the most useful patterns in spoken Egyptian Arabic:

• كويس = good
• مش كويس = not good

Yes, absolutely.

هو كويس is short, simple, and very natural in conversation. It sounds like normal spoken Egyptian Arabic and is the kind of sentence people say all the time when talking about someone’s condition, quality, or situation.