How to learn Saudi Arabic (Hijazi)

Saudi Arabia doesn't have one dialect. Hijazi is spoken in the west, in Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and Taif. Najdi is spoken in the centre, around Riyadh. The east speaks something close to Gulf Arabic. Which one you learn depends on where you're going, but for most learners Hijazi is the place to start.

Jeddah has welcomed pilgrims and traders from everywhere for centuries, and Hijazi grew into the Saudi dialect other Arabs find easiest to understand. It also shares a lot with Egyptian. Below is the order to learn it in, roughly how long each stage takes with an hour a day, and the page on this site that covers each one.

First, Hijazi or Najdi?

If your life will be in Jeddah, Mecca or Medina, or if you're visiting for Umrah or Hajj, learn Hijazi. It's what this site teaches. If you're moving to Riyadh or the Eastern Province, Gulf Arabic is the closer fit: Gulf vs Saudi Arabic explains why.

1. Learn to read the alphabet (weeks 1–2)

Hijazi is written in Arabic script in messages and on social media, and transliteration differs from one source to the next. The 28 letters, most of which change shape depending on where they sit in a word, take about two weeks. It's the only part of Arabic that is pure memorisation, and it pays for itself almost immediately.

The interactive alphabet drills the shapes and the sounds together.

2. Get the Hijazi sounds right (weeks 2–3)

A few changes from textbook Arabic make the biggest difference:

• The "th" sounds become t and d. thalaatha (three) is talaata, and haadha (this) is haada. Hijazis often spell them that way in casual messages too.
• ق is usually a hard g, as in gahwa, coffee. This is one of the clearest differences from Cairo, where it disappears into a glottal stop.
• ج stays j. Unlike Gulf Arabic, Hijazi doesn't turn it into a y.

3. Learn whole phrases first (weeks 3–8)

Greetings, ordering, asking prices, saying you don't understand. In real conversation these come out as single units, and learning them that way is faster than assembling them from grammar. Start with هَلا hala, hello, and كيفَك؟ kaifak?, how are you (kaifik? to a woman, kaifukum? to a group). The answer is usually il-7amdulillah, tamaam: praise God, fine.

Hijazis wrap a lot of their speech in blessings. A thank you often comes with ya3teek il-3aafya, God give you health. The Saudi Arabic phrasebook has the everyday phrases with audio and the forms for a man, a woman and a group.

4. Learn the words that carry every sentence (weeks 4–12)

A small set of words does a huge amount of work. These are the ones you'll hear first in Jeddah:

• أبغى abgha: I want
• إيش eesh: what
• فين feen: where
• دحين da7een: now
• مرّة marra: very
• كدا kida: like this

marra catches learners out: everywhere else it means "once", but in Hijazi it's the word for "very". 7ilu marra is "really nice", and you'll hear it in almost every conversation. Save the words you meet to your review deck and they come back just before you'd forget them.

5. Add the present, the future and the negative (months 2–4)

Three patterns cover most of what you'll want to say in a normal day:

• The present takes a b-. baroo7 is "I go", just like Egyptian. For something happening right now, put ga3id in front: ga3id aakul, I'm eating.
• The future takes 7a-. 7aroo7, I'll go. Again, the same as Egyptian.
• The negative is ma, or mu. ma baroo7, I don't go. Before adjectives and nouns it's mu.

If you already know some Egyptian, these three will feel familiar, and Hijazi will come quickly. The Saudi Arabic conjugation tables have every tense of 72 common verbs, affirmative and negative.

6. Follow a course for the structure (month 1 onwards)

Phrases and word lists get you talking. A course fills in the grammar between them in an order that builds on itself. The Saudi Arabic lessons go from A1 to B2, one short lesson a day, with speaking practice in each.

For listening outside the site, Saudi YouTube and TV comedy have grown fast, though much of it is in Najdi. Look for creators from Jeddah for Hijazi, put on something you'd watch anyway, with subtitles, and don't try to catch every word.

7. Start speaking before you feel ready (month 3 onwards)

The gap between people who understand Hijazi and people who speak it is almost entirely practice hours. Ways to get those hours in:

• The AI Tutor speaks Hijazi, answers out loud and corrects you as you go.
• The café scenario sits you down with a barista who opens with sabaa7 il-khair! eesh tibgha tishrab? and expects an order back.
• A language exchange partner, once you can hold a couple of minutes, will teach you the slang no course has.

How long does it take?

With about an hour a day, roughly:

• 2 weeks: reading the alphabet slowly
• 2–3 months: greetings, ordering, directions, introducing yourself
• 6 months: simple conversations about everyday topics
• 1–2 years: comfortable conversation, and following most of a TV series

The single biggest variable is how early you start speaking. How long it takes to learn Arabic breaks this down further.

Should I learn Modern Standard Arabic first?

Only if your main goal is reading, or the Quran. Nobody in a Jeddah café speaks Modern Standard Arabic, and learning it first means a second set of pronunciations, verb forms and everyday words before you can talk to anyone. Learn Hijazi to speak; add Fusha later for reading.

Is Hijazi close to Egyptian?

Closer than any other Gulf-region dialect. They share the b- present, the 7a- future and plenty of everyday words, and Jeddah has always had a large Egyptian community. The main differences are the ق, the question words and words like da7een and abgha. Saudi vs Egyptian Arabic goes through them.

Ready to start? Everything above lives on the Saudi Arabic page, with the structured lessons as the place to begin.