هاي مي.

This is water.

Breakdown of هاي مي.

• هاي: this
• مي: water

Questions & Answers about هاي مي.

How do you pronounce هاي مي?

A common Levantine pronunciation is haay mayy.

• هاي sounds like high
• مي here means water and is usually pronounced mayy, with a slightly held or doubled y sound at the end

So it is not pronounced like English me.

Why is هاي used here for this?

Because هاي is a feminine singular form of this in Levantine Arabic, and مي (water) is grammatically feminine.

So the agreement is:

• هاي = this for a feminine noun
• مي = a feminine noun

This kind of gender agreement is very normal in Arabic, even for things that are not biologically female.

Where is the word is?

It is simply not said in the present tense.

In Arabic, sentences like This is water often do not use a spoken word for is. So:

• هاي مي = literally something like this water
• but the real meaning is This is water

This is a very common Arabic pattern called a nominal sentence.