اقعد على الكرسي.

A common Egyptian pronunciation is eʔʕod ʕala l-korsi.

A few notes:

• اقعد = eʔʕod or sometimes oʔʕod depending on how people transliterate it
• على = ʕala
• الكرسي = el-korsi or il-korsi

In fast speech, على الكرسي often sounds connected, almost like ʕalal-korsi.

The letter ع is a sound English does not really have. It appears in:

• اقعد
• على

It is a deep throat sound, often written ʕ or 3 in transliteration.

You do not need perfect pronunciation on day one. If you cannot say it clearly yet, focus first on recognizing it and not replacing it with a normal English vowel too casually. Learners often hear:

• على as ala
• but a more accurate version is ʕala

In many Egyptian accents, ق is pronounced as a glottal stop ʔ, which is the little catch in the middle of uh-oh.

So:

• اقعد is not pronounced like Standard Arabic iqʿud
• in Egyptian it is usually closer to eʔʕod

This is one of the most noticeable differences between Egyptian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic.

Because Arabic imperatives normally do not need an explicit subject.

In English, you say Sit on the chair, and you is understood. The same thing happens here:

• اقعد already means sit! addressed to someone

So the subject you is built into the verb form.

Yes. اقعد is the singular masculine imperative.

Common forms are:

• اقعد = say it to one male
• اقعدي = say it to one female
• اقعدوا = say it to more than one person

So:

• to one man: اقعد على الكرسي
• to one woman: اقعدي على الكرسي
• to a group: اقعدوا على الكرسي

على usually means on.

So this sentence literally matches English quite well:

• اقعد = sit
• على = on
• الكرسي = the chair

In Arabic, sitting on a chair, sofa, bed, or bench commonly uses على.

الكرسي means the chair, while كرسي means a chair.

So:

• اقعد على الكرسي = sit on the chair
• اقعد على كرسي = sit on a chair

Using ال makes the chair specific, usually one already known from the context.

Here it is pronounced clearly, because ك is a moon letter, not a sun letter.

So:

• الكرسي = el-korsi

The l sound stays.

This is different from words beginning with sun letters, where the l sound disappears in pronunciation.

This sentence is natural Egyptian Arabic.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the more typical verb would be:

• اجلس على الكرسي

In everyday Egyptian speech, اقعد is much more normal.

So a learner should recognize:

• اجلس = formal / Standard Arabic
• اقعد = everyday Egyptian

In context, it can cover both ideas.

Depending on the situation, اقعد may be understood as:

• sit
• sit down

With على الكرسي, the meaning is clearly to take a seat on the chair.

In some contexts, قعد in Egyptian can also relate to staying or remaining somewhere, but here the meaning is straightforward.

By itself, it is a direct command. That is not automatically rude, but tone and context matter a lot.

It can sound fine when:

• talking to a child
• giving a simple instruction
• speaking casually with family or friends

To make it softer, you can add something like:

• لو سمحت، اقعد على الكرسي = please sit on the chair
• اتفضل اقعد على الكرسي = please, have a seat on the chair

So the bare imperative is normal, but softening words make it more polite.

Arabic usually does not write short vowels in normal everyday text, so learners have to know or learn the pronunciation.

Also, the last letter in على is ى, called alif maqṣūra. It represents a final aa-type sound historically, even though in Egyptian speech the word is usually pronounced ʕala.

So a learner has to get used to two things:

• short vowels are often not written
• some spellings reflect older or standard conventions, even when colloquial pronunciation is different