عنوان المستشفى ايه؟

A natural Egyptian pronunciation is:

ʿonwān el-mostashfa ēh?

A rough English-friendly guide:

• ʿonwān = on-WAAN, but with the Arabic sound ع at the beginning
• el-mostashfa = el-mo-STASH-fa
• ēh = eh? / what?

A few notes:

• The first sound in عنوان is ع, which does not exist in English. Many learners approximate it at first, and that is normal.
• ال is pronounced el- here because م is a “moon letter,” so the l sound stays.

Because Arabic often leaves out the verb to be in the present tense.

So the sentence is literally something like:

the hospital’s address what?

But the meaning is:

What is the hospital’s address?

This is very normal in both spoken Arabic and Standard Arabic.
If you wanted was, then Arabic would use a verb, for example:

كان عنوان المستشفى ايه؟
= What was the hospital’s address?

ايه in Egyptian Arabic means what.

In this kind of sentence, it often comes at the end to ask for identification or information:

• اسمك ايه؟ = What’s your name?
• رقمك ايه؟ = What’s your number?
• عنوان المستشفى ايه؟ = What’s the hospital’s address?

So ايه is one of the most common Egyptian question words.

In Egyptian Arabic, a very common pattern is:

X + ايه؟
= What is X?

So:

عنوان المستشفى ايه؟
literally: The hospital’s address—what?

This is a very natural Egyptian structure.

You can also hear:

ايه عنوان المستشفى؟

That also means What is the hospital’s address?
But X ايه؟ is especially common in everyday speech.

This is an idafa construction, often called a possessive construction.

It works like this:

• عنوان = address
• المستشفى = the hospital

Put them together:

عنوان المستشفى
literally: address of the hospital
natural English: the hospital’s address

Arabic usually does this instead of using an apostrophe ’s.

Because in an idafa construction, the first noun usually does not take ال.

So Arabic says:

• عنوان المستشفى = the hospital’s address

not:

• العنوان المستشفى ❌

The definiteness comes from the second noun:

• المستشفى is definite = the hospital
• therefore the whole phrase عنوان المستشفى becomes definite = the hospital’s address

This is a very important Arabic grammar pattern.

This is Egyptian Arabic.

The clearest sign is ايه, which is colloquial Egyptian for what.

In Modern Standard Arabic, you would more likely say:

• ما عنوان المستشفى؟
• ما هو عنوان المستشفى؟

So if you are learning spoken Egyptian, عنوان المستشفى ايه؟ is natural and useful.

Not exactly.

عنوان means address, so this sentence asks for the hospital’s address.

If you want to ask for the hospital’s location more generally, especially in conversation, Egyptians often say:

المستشفى فين؟
= Where is the hospital?

So the difference is:

• عنوان المستشفى ايه؟ = What is the hospital’s address?
• المستشفى فين؟ = Where is the hospital?

Yes, it is natural and neutral in everyday Egyptian Arabic.

If you want to sound a little more polite, you can add something like:

لو سمحت، عنوان المستشفى ايه؟
= Excuse me / please, what is the hospital’s address?

So:

• without anything added: normal and direct
• with لو سمحت: more polite

Both are common and useful.