LESSON NOTES

Survival Phrases #10

Apologies (I'm sorry)

CONTENTS
2
2
3
3
3
4
4

Arabic
Romanization
English
Vocabulary
Sample Sentences
Grammar
Cultural Insight

10

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ARABIC
.1
.2
.3
.4

ROMANIZATION
1.

afwan

2.

smahli

3.

souk

4.

siki

5.

llalla

6.

Smahli a siid

7.

Smahli a lalla

8.

makayn

9.

mushkil

CONT'D OVER
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S URVI VAL PHRAS ES #10 - APOLOGI ES (I 'M S ORRY)

10.

Makayn mushkil.

ENGLISH
1.

no problem

2.

there isn't

3.

Im sorry / Excuse me (casual / Spoken Arabic)

4.

excuse me

VOCABULARY
A r abic

R omanization

English

C lass

makayn mushkil

no problem

expression

mukil

problem

noun

makayn

there isn't

expression

Im sorry / Excuse

isma li

me (casual / Spoken

afwan

excuse me

Arabic)

expression
expression

SAMPLE SENTENCES
.
there is no problem.

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.
Please let me introduce my self

S URVI VAL PHRAS ES #10 - APOLOGI ES (I 'M S ORRY)

? ,
Excuse me, can i pass?

GRAMMAR
As you havent quite mastered Arabic yet, it's probably very prudent to go over the phrases for
apologizing as they just might come in handy. In todays lesson well learn the phrases Im
sorry and excuse me and what to say in case someone says them to you. Well start with

cafwan (). This phrase means excuse me and because it is Standard Arabic, it is usually
used in a formal context such as a business meeting. You can use it when you sneeze or
cough while in a meeting, or if you have to interrupt a conversation to answer a phone call, for
example. A more casual way of saying excuse me is smaHlii () . This is Spoken Arabic
and by far the most common word for apologizing in Morocco, because you can use it
everywhere and everyday. Basically, whenever you mess up! Literally, smahlii means forgive
me, so we use it to say sorry, excuse me, and forgive me (but lets hope you dont get
yourself into that much trouble here). When you go to a suuq ( )which is Arabic for
marketplace, chances are it will be overcrowded. If you step on somebodys foot, or you
push them by mistake, just say smaHlii and youll be okay. Or, if you want to ask someone a
question, like at an information desk or to call a waiter, you say smaHlii to get their attention
before asking them. If youre late, just say smaHlii when you arrive. Now, what if someone
says smaHlii (sorry) to you? In the case that someone uses this expression towards you, the
proper response is makayn mushkil ( ) which literally means no problem or thats
ok. The first word makayn ( )means there isnt and the second word mushkil ()
means "problem". So literally, the expression means theres no problem.

CULTURAL INSIGHT
Arabic is a very polite language and Moroccans tend to use the honorific "sir" and "madam" a
lot when they speak even in casual situations. "Sir" is sidi ( )and "madam" is lalla ().
Let's look at a few situations when the honorifics are most commonly used. When you
interrupt a conversation and when you want to get someone's attention (a bank clerk, a
waiter, a police officer, etc.), you say smaHlii a sidi (excuse me sir) or smaHlii a lalla (excuse
me ma'am). smaHlii is "excuse me" as we learned today. a is a particle to connect the words

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S URVI VAL PHRAS ES #10 - APOLOGI ES (I 'M S ORRY)

(yaa in Standard Arabic), followed by sidi (sir) or lalla (ma'am). If you step on someone's foot
and that person happens to be an old man or an old lady, you say smaHlii a sidi and smaHlii
a lalla. It happens that sometimes you forget the phrases you learn. If that happens when
someone bumps into you and apologizes to you in Arabic, you can just nod your head and
smile in return. They'll take it as "no problem."

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S URVI VAL PHRAS ES #10 - APOLOGI ES (I 'M S ORRY)