Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Arabic grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about الست هي المديرة.
How would a Levantine speaker usually pronounce الست هي المديرة?
A common Levantine pronunciation would be something like:
es-sitt hiyye l-mudīre
A few useful notes:
- ال before س assimilates, because س is a “sun letter,” so الست is pronounced es-sitt, not al-sitt.
- هي in Levantine is often pronounced hiyye.
- المديرة is often pronounced l-mudīre in Levantine, with the final ـة sounding like -e in pause.
So even though it is written in standard Arabic spelling, the spoken Levantine sound is a bit different.
What does الست mean here?
الست means the lady or the woman here.
In Levantine, ست is a common and often polite way to refer to a woman, especially an adult woman. Depending on context, it can sound respectful, like the lady.
It is different from:
- امرأة = woman (more formal / standard)
- مرَة = woman/wife in colloquial speech, depending on dialect and context
So الست is a very natural word to learn in spoken Arabic.
Why is there a هي in the middle?
هي literally means she, but here it helps link the two parts of the sentence: