What Type of Arabic Should I Learn – Standard or a Dialect

How it works

Arabic is one written standard and many spoken kinds, and speakers from far-apart regions often cannot understand each other. Press the button for one of the three understood most widely. The full list holds 29, with where each is spoken.

Read the full guide

Standard Arabic or a dialect

Modern Standard Arabic is the Arabic of books, news, law and school, and it is generally nobody’s first language. At home people speak the Arabic of their region. Learn the standard to read and to follow the news, and a spoken kind to talk with people.

Choose by who you want to talk to

Nearby kinds are mostly understood by each other, so a kind learned for one country helps in the next. Egyptian Arabic travels furthest, carried by Egyptian film and music.

Want to read the Quran? Its language is Classical Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic is the direct descendant of that.

Questions and answers

What kind of Arabic should I learn?

The kind spoken by the people you want to talk to: Egyptian for Cairo, Levantine for Beirut, Amman or Damascus, Gulf Arabic for Kuwait or Qatar. For reading, news and formal speech, learn Modern Standard Arabic.

What Arabic should I learn to be understood everywhere?

Modern Standard Arabic is understood by everyone who is literate in Arabic. Among the spoken kinds, Wikipedia calls Egyptian and Levantine the two prestige varieties understood all over the Arab world.

What is the most widely spoken Arabic dialect?

Egyptian Arabic. Wikipedia’s article calls it the most widely spoken and by far the most widely studied variety of Arabic.

Is Moroccan Arabic hard for other Arabs to understand?

Often, yes. Wikipedia’s article on Maghrebi Arabic says Moroccan Darija, and Algerian Derja even more, cannot be easily understood by speakers from Egypt, Sudan, the Levant, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula.

All 29 kinds of Arabic

Understood most widely 3

Egyptian Arabic Egypt. Understood across most Arabic-speaking countries through Egyptian film and music.
Levantine Arabic Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and southern Turkey. Understood widely in the Arab world.
Modern Standard Arabic The written and formal Arabic of the whole Arab world: books, news, law and school.

Written and formal Arabic 1

Classical Arabic The Arabic of the Quran and of medieval poetry and prose. Modern Standard Arabic descends from it.

The Levant and Iraq 2

Mesopotamian Arabic Iraq, and parts of Syria, southeastern Turkey, Iran and Kuwait. Also called Iraqi Arabic.
North Mesopotamian Arabic Called Moslawi, of Mosul, and Mardelli, of Mardin. One of two main kinds of Mesopotamian Arabic.

Egypt, Sudan and Chad 5

Chadian Arabic Central and southern Chad, and around Lake Chad in Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.
Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic Bedouin Arabic of the Sinai, Egypt’s Eastern Desert, the Negev and southern Jordan.
Juba Arabic South Sudan, mainly Equatoria. A lingua franca that grew out of a pidgin based on Sudanese Arabic.
Saʽidi Arabic Upper Egypt: the land on both sides of the Nile from Aswan north to Lower Egypt.
Sudanese Arabic Sudan, and parts of Egypt, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The Arabian Peninsula 10

Bahrani Arabic Bahrain, Qatif in Saudi Arabia and two governorates of Oman. The Arabic of the Baharna.
Dhofari Arabic Around Salalah, in the Dhofar Governorate of Oman.
Gulf Arabic Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the Emirates, eastern Saudi Arabia, southern Iraq and northern Oman.
Hadhrami Arabic Hadhramaut in southeastern Yemen, and emigrant communities in East Africa and Southeast Asia.
Hejazi Arabic The Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia: the cities of Jeddah, Mecca and Medina.
Najdi Arabic The Najd region of Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh, and the Syrian Desert of Iraq, Jordan and Syria.
Omani Arabic The Al Hajar Mountains of Oman and the Emirates and nearby coasts. Also spoken on Zanzibar.
Sanʽani Arabic Northern Yemen, in the city of Sanaa.
Shihhi Arabic The Musandam Governorate of Oman and the Ras Al Khaimah emirate of the United Arab Emirates.
Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic Southern Yemen, in the cities of Taiz and Aden, and Djibouti.

North Africa west of Egypt 6

Algerian Arabic Algeria, where it is called Darja. Mostly understood by speakers of Tunisian and Moroccan Arabic.
Algerian Saharan Arabic The Algerian Sahara, and neighboring parts of Niger, Mauritania, Mali and Libya.
Hassaniya Arabic Mauritania and Western Sahara, and parts of Mali, Niger, Senegal, Morocco and Algeria.
Libyan Arabic Libya and its neighbors, with an eastern kind around Benghazi and a western kind around Tripoli.
Moroccan Arabic Morocco, where it is called Darija. The main spoken language of the country.
Tunisian Arabic Tunisia, where it is called Tunsi or Derja. Close to eastern Algerian and western Libyan Arabic.

Cyprus and Central Asia 2

Central Asian Arabic Arab communities of Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Four varieties, all nearly gone.
Cypriot Arabic The Maronite community of Cyprus. Wikipedia calls it moribund: few speakers are left.